Wellbeing - our PAVO staff day

Earlier this month the Health & Wellbeing team at PAVO organised a Staff Wellbeing day for colleagues in the organisation. In Britain, most of us don’t tend to cultivate our minds in the same way we give to our bodies. We agreed it was important to give space to colleagues to consider their wellbeing and how they might look after it.

There are various definitions of “wellbeing,” from that promoted by the World Health Organisation to the Buddhist definition of Tibetan monk Matthieu Ricard:

"Wellbeing is not just a pleasurable sensation, it is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment. 

 A state that actually pervades and underlies all emotional states 

and all the joys and sorrows that can come one’s way."

The day, which took place at an amazing venue - the Mid Wales Arts Centre in Caersws - was totally dedicated to experiencing activities that might impact on people’s wellbeing. No presentations. No policies. No papers. Instead people could choose from the range of activities on offer, or they could just enjoy being in an inspiring place. 

Freda Lacey, Senior Officer Health & Wellbeing, introduced the day

So I’m just going to give you a little bit of context around “wellbeing” and what that means. I think you all had the email about the Five Ways to Wellbeing – this has been promoted for many years across Wales and beyond. If I was to ask you to shout out those five ways to wellbeing to wake you up a little bit:

1. Exercise (Be Active).
2. Keep Learning.
3. Connect.
4. Be Creative & Give.
5. Taking Notice.

Mindfulness could be another, but I can see someone counting! That’s more than five! There are probably many others. In fact, in doing some of the research for today you can just get lost on the web in the amount of information about wellbeing. There are the Twelve Pillars. The Four Constituents. But it was really interesting to delve into that.

So those five key themes are what underpin lots of information around wellbeing.

It’s been a real team effort today – that sense of coming together around a theme and / or something that really means something to the team. I think it’s what unites us. In terms of PAVO, as well, it unites us in terms of our work. We hear about the wellbeing of people and organisations. There isn’t one organisation that isn’t about wellbeing on some level.

Even from providing freshly made smoothies this morning it was all about – how can we set people off in the right way in terms of really feeling that sense of wellbeing – even about what you’re taking into your body. Even the food today has been really mindfully considered in terms of local ingredients, where it’s come from, how it’s been put together. The venue has also been carefully considered in terms of what that brings for us, and hopefully it allows us to be creative and indulgent, just to be in this beautiful space.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about the day. We have had some colleagues feel a little bit uncomfortable about today. We can all put our hands up and say we are uncomfortable about some things when we head into areas we haven’t explored before or experienced before. And one of the things about today was to move away from the theory of wellbeing, ie: the words, to being more able to experience an activity and / or activities and what that looks like.

Again, we all have ways of enabling or working with our wellbeing. Today was just to give you a flavour of what could be and what different activities could augment or give you a sense of wellbeing. And most of these activities have an evidence base behind them. So they are known to lead to wellbeing. Walking, for example, or, indeed, meditation. 

And something I explored earlier this summer with Academi Wales was the concept of moving into your ‘negative capability’. If you look up the words ‘negative capability’ it’s actually been around for quite a long time, it was the poet Keats who came up with it. He talked about exploring the edges of where your comfort levels are or what you think are the things you should be good at. And what he was talking about was moving into that negative capability, about understanding perhaps those areas where you might explore which might give you a sense of capability or, indeed, wellbeing that you might not think would give you that.

And so part of today was also about exploring that, about offering new opportunities such as Laughter Yoga. How many people here today have experienced Laughter Yoga before? Okay, a couple. Even I had a particular viewpoint of Laughter Yoga which turned out not to be the case! Because I said, “we’re not going to do that are we?” And then the team said, “No, no, it’s not like that at all!” 

So I think it’s just about really exploring that edge of where your comfort level is, to risk maybe today, in terms of doing things you wouldn’t ordinarily do. And it’s also really about looking after yourself. So if there’s something you’re doing, or you’re indulging in something, and you really feel uncomfortable, and you don’t want to do it… Let’s say in meditation I’m asking you to close your eyes or to be silent and you don’t want to do it – you don’t have to do it. This is not about forcing you to do something that you really don’t want to do.

And if you’re in an activity where you think – argh, I just cannot get into this, this is not what I want to be doing – don’t do it. Just leave or sit and be observant. Be mindful if you’re sitting on the outside what that might feel like to the group, but it’s not about forcing you to do something you don’t want to. It’s really about your wellbeing and your responsibility, your ability to respond to that yourself. 

I was speaking to S earlier, something that came up about that sense of moving into something you’re uncomfortable with. When we were talking about the day S said – “Oh, I’d like to do ALL of those things, apart from meditation. It’s not really for me.” So I laughed and I said, “oh, that’s interesting because I’m actually leading the meditation.” And she said to me, “Well, if you can be quiet for that long…!” 

And I think it’s really important to add that S said that she doesn’t feel that it’s the right thing to do this morning because she’s had a family upset and she’s really looking after herself in that way because she feels that being in that environment – maybe being quiet, closing your eyes or whatever might come up – is not what is comfortable for her today and I really honour that – that you’ve looked after yourself in that way. And that you’re vulnerable and saying that I’m not in that good space today. Again it’s really about saying if that’s the place you’re in then that’s OK.

OK, so the aim for the team today is that you have fun! And that you explore different things that you’ve maybe not indulged in before. That you in essence flourish. That there’s a sense of wellbeing when you walk out this afternoon. So we’re hopeful that that is going to be the case. 

Feedback following the activities:

• I really enjoyed it.
• I loved doing the Dabble with Art. It was a new thing to try.
• The singing, that was fab. Really good. I didn’t expect that to be so professional! We just sounded good from the start!
• It’s discovering those hidden talents of colleagues. We’ve just come out of a jamming session and again just aware of colleagues’ talent.
• I think the whole day, the venue itself is really interesting and thought-provoking – just a pleasant place to wander round and kind of absorb things. And first time Tai-Chier – loved it. Fab.
• I think that jamming session was fantastic. I didn’t realise we had so many musicians in PAVO. Loved it.
• I’ve had a really nice day spending time with my colleagues in a different context – not working.
• It’s actually been nice seeing colleagues that you don’t normally see, and speaking to people you don’t normally speak to on a regular basis.
• There was one session that was definitely out of my comfort zone – that was Dabble with Art – and I deliberately went for it. And Sue was brilliant, and even I came out of that session having both enjoyed it and benefited from it.
• Seeing people with smiles on their faces – quite often we’re all quite serious at work. I know we all smile from time to time! But people have been generous with their smiling. 

Going forward

Freda rounded off the day by suggesting how colleagues could link with community organisations to pursue activities they may have enjoyed:

We’ve experienced quite a lot of different things today and the opportunity is there to use our Community Connectors to connect ourselves with our local communities for those of us who would like to go forward and maybe take opportunities to do classes / activities, whether it’s pottery or Tai Chi, meditation, or anything really.

If you have any thoughts about wellbeing, and how to encourage it to flourish, let us know in the comments’ box below.

Powys Patients' Council - a new approach

John Lilley (Patients' Council Volunteer), Owen Griffkin (Participation Officer) 
& Rhydian Parry (Patient's Council Volunteer)

by Owen Griffkin - Mental Health Participation Officer

There is a quote that used to rattle around in my mind when going through difficult times that goes something like:

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."   Albert Camus

I was reminded of this quote attending the latest Powys Patients’ Council meeting at Bronllys Hospital’s Felindre Ward recently, where the weather flipped between a Powys winter and an Indian summer throughout the afternoon. It’s obviously a well-written quote about resilience and recovery, and when a person is staying on an acute mental health ward the ‘invincible summer’ can seem like a long way in the distance. 

This is why it is hugely beneficial for the Patients’ Council to be staffed by volunteers who have experience themselves of staying on Felindre. The patients often express surprise when told that John or Rhyd, our amazing volunteers, were once patients themselves. 

People are more likely to open up and share their experiences on the ward, and to see other people who are further along in their recovery can give them hope for their own future journey. John had several personal discussions with people about his own experience on the ward, and this can be as much an important part of our visits as raising housekeeping issues.

A new approach

We experimented with a new format for the meeting this month, and also a new venue, as the recovery room was temporarily out of action. This meant we sat in the main common space which led to more group discussions. The tray of cupcakes helped as well! 

The recovery room being out of action was one issue raised, and this is hopefully in hand and back in use by now. We had requests around WiFi connection and access to devices so we will be looking at how this develops.The health board has a strong firewall, as you would expect from a large organisation that is reliant on Information Technology, and this can cause restrictions to content that people on the ward can access. Maybe as mobile WiFi becomes more advanced we can look at an independent network.

Another issue was a request for bird feeders out in the front. We had added some with the help of the League of Friends' committee at Bronllys so we were surprised to hear they had gone. We were told this was due to concerns from previous patients about vermin, so we are researching a solution to this age-old problem.

There were also concerns about the set times for smoking (currently 15 minutes every hour) and the response was that this is due to health and safety and staffing issues. We will have to monitor if this will change once the new indoor smoking ban comes into being and how smoking breaks will work then.

There were two other maintenance issues raised, one of which was being fixed as we left, which is a quick turnaround. The Occupational Therapy kitchen issues, which had led to it being out of use for a few months, have now been fixed.

We will be back for the next Patients’ Council meeting at the end of October, when there is likely to be a new Occupational Therapist in position on a permanent basis. We hope this role will mean that there is a quality programme of activities on the ward and will help to support this in any way that we can.

Find out more

I post regular updates about the Patients' Council meetings on our mental health website. If you would like to find out more, or volunteer for Powys Patients' Council, then you can contact me by emailing owen.griffkin@pavo.org.uk or ringing 01597 822191.