By Anton Constantinou
Good mental health is about helping people lead a happy and fulfilling life, and plays an important role in workplaces. Where possible, we aim to create a working environment that’s open, friendly and conducive to wellbeing, and sometimes that means getting creative.
This month saw the arrival of Mental Health Awareness Week - a time dedicated to good mental health in the workplace. To celebrate the occasion, as part of our commitment to Mind - our charity partner - we put on a week-long programme of fun filled activities in our London and Lancaster offices.
To ease people in to the week, we kicked off with a special wellbeing breakfast of fruit, yoghurt, and croissants. Hunger and mood go hand-in-hand, so what better way to put a smile on people’s faces than with a healthy, nutritious meal. Staff had a choice of options, each priced at £1.50, with all proceeds going to Mind.
Building on the entertainment facilities already in our offices, we decided to create a series of tech-free zones, complete with board games and reading material. Our idea was to give people alternative rooms in which to switch off. While we didn’t go so far as to fill them with incense sticks and elevator music, we did ensure that they were well stocked with games like Jenga, Drafts and Connect 4.
We later followed through with a special Mind Your Head Olympics event, made up of lots of “brain games” for staff to take part in. Included in the tournament were limbo, heads up, balance that ball, head-to-head stare offs, a maze challenge and a mind-bending mental health quiz.
Storming into first place was Senior Account Support, Richard Moore, who showed brains, brawn and consistency at the top of leaderboard. Second place was a tie between Group Head of Partner Relationships, Alison Makosz and Senior Account Support, Freya Pound. And, in third place was Partner Development Specialist, Holley Goodban.
At various points in the week members of the social committee were invited to share various mental health related stats and facts, with a view to educating the company on this great cause that we work hard to support. At one point, we even whipped up a load of homemade smoothies, each of which carried a mental health theme.
All in all we raised a total of £140, which will help us on our way to achieving our £5,000 target for Mind. What we learnt from this week is that trying new things really does work when it comes to charitable activities, and that building mental health awareness can be done in lots of different ways.
Do your bit for mental health by making a donation for Mind.
