In September, the team once again got behind Mental Health Awareness Week. The theme this year was “Community is what we create together”.
Each day had a special focus, and it was great utilising our relationship with OCP (An Employee Assistance Programme) to provide the team with daily soundbites on topics relating to wellbeing and the importance of community.
Over the course of the week, we promoted a range of activities that brought our team together (our own community) as well as thinking about the wider community.
Craig Fortune from Breaking Busy presented to the team, connecting topics of performance, productivity, and wellbeing. It was fascinating to hear Craig’s story, along with some tangible tips on how to approach the workday. Craig’s research indicates on average we check our emails every six minutes!
Taking time to get to know our team further was a highlight of the week. The team had fun sharing photos of how they support their wellbeing; many family members, travels, sports, and physical activities were a feature. There was much banter over our version of Guess Who. Did you know someone in our Christchurch office was head treble in the school choir in 1987? Or that one of the Ashburton team nearly decided to be an optician over becoming an accountant?
A mid-week coffee shout for the team supported two local cafes (Coffee Culture at The Crossing and Fine Lion Ashburton) and both cafes were kind enough to donate 50 cents per coffee to Mental Health Foundation.
The week ended with the team connecting over a shared morning tea, with donations taken for Farmstrong, a nationwide wellbeing programme for the rural community. Their aim is to help growers to live well so they can farm well. We were thrilled to donate $220 to this worthwhile charity.
While MHAW may have ended, we will continue to focus on wellbeing and implementing learnings from this week.
