A week to think about wellbeing
15 May 2018
From mental health awareness to coeliac disease, it’s a busy week for wellbeing – with lots of support on offer on campus and online
This is a very busy week for national health and wellbeing days. By sharing health information we hope to encourage being healthy, one of the Six Ways to Wellbeing. This will help you feel confident, alert and get the most out of life. It’s very easy to sit at your desk all day and not take a much needed break. There's plenty of places on campus to connect with friends for a coffee and a chat so that you feel re-energised.
We always welcome contributions to our wellbeing blog. These can be anonymised if preferred.
Here's a summary of some of the health days this week:
Mental Health Awareness Week is a UK event supported by the Mental Health Foundation. Their focus this year is tackling stress, which can lead to other mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and, in some instances, self-harm and suicide. The university has a confidential counselling service that you can call if you feel in distress and you can also self-refer to the Occupational Health Services.
Go Blue for ME is ME Association’s 2018 campaign for ME Awareness Week. Their aim is to get more people than ever to ‘Go Blue’ in whatever way they can, to raise awareness of ME during this special week. A more detailed article about this condition will be shared during the week on StaffNet.
For Men’s Health Week the focus is on men and diabetes. Men are more likely to get diabetes, suffer complications, more likely to face amputation as a result of diabetes and more likely to die from diabetes. Men are notoriously bad at getting themselves checked out at the doctors, so it’s about encouraging health-shy men to visit their GPs!
Epilepsy Actions will be raising awareness and sharing personal stories during this week. Out of 600,000 people living with epilepsy in the UK, 288,000 are still experiencing seizures. Do you know what to do if a friend or colleague has a seizure. Epilepsy Action has advice on what to do.
The popularity of the gluten-free diet is growing but there may be low awareness of Coeliac Disease, which is an autoimmune disease. There are 500,000 people in the UK currently living with undiagnosed coeliac disease without realising it. There are a range of symptoms including constant mouth ulcers, crippling fatigue, stomach pain, and regular bouts of diarrhoea, anaemia and weight loss. The Greenhouse Vegetarian Café and various Food on Campus outlets on campus, have a range of gluten free products.
National Vegetarian Week (NVW) is the annual awareness-raising campaign promoting inspirational vegetarian food and the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle. During the period of 14th May until 6th June, Food on Campus will be relocating the Greenhouse vegetarian café to Eats in University Place as a pop up stand, this will give you the opportunity to try the Greenhouse offering in a more central location. Why not give it a try!
If you would like to contribute to the wellbeing blog, or simply share feedback, email Gemma and Vanessa at: