Congratulations to all staff involved in Healthy Working Lives (HWL).
The ceremony last month featured the organisation's Mental Health & Learning Disability (MHLD) Service, Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership and Aberdeenshire Community Health Partnership among North East organisations large and small.
HWL's chief executive Malcolm Wright presented this year’s awards and gave MHLD their Gold Award, with Silver Awards going to Aberdeen City HSCP and Aberdeenshire CHP.
Associate nurse director Jenny Gibb gave a talk about the Mental Health & Learning Disability Service’s ‘Journey to Gold’ to the audience of award recipients at the event in Aberdeen.
She said that an essential part of the success was for all 1,200 staff to think about HWL in everything they did. Among the activities she highlighted was smoking cessation: “Our SAS support specialist for staff has proven to be fantastic – at one stage during our Bronze campaign we had a 95% success rate.”
Slides in the presentation included the new space dedicated to staff where they can have a quiet moment or relax in their break, and ways of developing the staff-only space are being considered. “Being active has also played a large role in attaining Gold, with walking meetings, football and golf, meanwhile our Keep Well health checks in March attracted a remarkable attendance. We’re now looking at adding Fit Steps and Qi Kung to help us keep fit.”
The presentation was completed by directorate nurse manager Shona Sinkins reading her own poem about their journey to Gold, which was warmly applauded.
Fiona Murray, public health co-ordinator who leads the Aberdeenshire CHP activity, said: “Staff have made positive changes staff to their lifestyle including losing weight and being more active. Our current pedometer challenge is proving very popular with 47 teams across health and social care taking part. This is the first time we have opened our activities to social care colleagues and we are really proud of the response.'
Sandy Reid, chair of the Aberdeen City HSCP HWL group, said: “Among our many initiatives, the Lunch and Learns, including back pain, sedentary behaviour and stress management, as well as activities such as concerts, art and relaxation, have been well attended and attracted positive feedback. We are now working towards Gold!”