Organisation
Northern District Community Health
Health Areas
Physical Activity, Healthy Eating, and Mental Health and Wellbeing
Tips and Activities
5 Ways to Wellbeing: Our organisation has for many years promoted the 5 Ways to Wellbeing – Be Active, Connect, Take Notice, Give, Keep Learning. Throughout the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic there has been an increased emphasis on these 5 Ways to Wellbeing. The strategy formed part of the Northern District Community Health (NDCH) Emergency Management COVID-19 response and was implemented to ensure that staff were looking after themselves and those around them – physically, mentally and socially.
Weekly Bulletin: Each week, our CEO has put together a weekly bulletin providing an update in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic with guidance on staff staying well and NDCH’s approach to supporting staff. An example from the bulletin series was the provision of leave guidance if staff became unwell or were required to care for others who contracted COVID-19. The bulletin had very supportive messaging and celebrated the efforts of all staff in adapting to a new working environment during the pandemic.
Trivia via Zoom: Since many staff have been working from home, every Wednesday and Friday, staff have the opportunity to participate in trivia via Zoom for 30 minutes. The first 10 minutes is a time for staff to catch up and socialise with one another, with the remaining 20 minutes dedicated to trivia. Many staff members from various teams have joined in each week, including our CEO. While it has been great to socialise and have a little bit of competition, we have all recognised that we have gained new knowledge from the weekly questions!
Headspace Push Up Challenge: Many staff participated in the Headspace Push Up Challenge. While raising awareness for mental health, staff were also able to use the challenge as a way to remain active while working from home. In addition, it also allowed those who were participating to stay connected and to motivate one another. This featured on our social media and received staff and community applause.
Staying Active Facebook Videos: Our Exercise Physiologist in conjunction with the Health Promotion Team have created a series of ‘Staying Active at Home’ videos. These videos have been posted on the organisations Facebook page and received a large amount of engagement. In addition, these videos have also been shared by other local organisations.
Active April: This year we promoted Active April through our organisation’s monthly newsletter. Our Health Promotion Team put together some tips for staying active at home. A section on ‘Why being active is important to you’ was included in the newsletter, which featured staff from across the organisation describing why it is important to them to be active.
Recipes: Providing more recipes than usual via our monthly NDCH newsletter and social media helped keep spirits up and keep staff connected. We have created cooking videos and social media tiles so that recipes can be easily saved. All recipes are also approved by our Dietitian and meet the guidelines of the Healthy Eating Catering Guide.
Working from Home tips: Working from home tips have been shared via email by numerous individuals from all teams across the organisation. Some of these tips have been included on the organisations Facebook page.