WSA recently attended a wellbeing session with a mental health support service called Arthur Ellis. Read on and find out what this entailed and how the team found the experience…
An introduction
Mental Health and wellbeing are incredibly important to employees of every business and at WSA we continue to advocate awareness and encourage open conversations on this topic. That is why we recently took part in a session with Jon Manning, the founder of Arthur Ellis. During our company-wide remote session, Jon explained that he was inspired to start the movement after experiencing mental health issues throughout his entire life and feeling that no matter what age he was, he didn’t receive the support he needed. After experiences with different mental health services that offered him various solutions, he was passionate about starting his own support service for those who needed the same level of support he did.
After launching in 2017,Arthur Ellis has given support to people of all ages and spoken on the radio, Channel 5, BBC and much more, raising awareness of the services they provide.
What is wellbeing?
Wellbeing is how comfortable, happy and healthy you feel, but over much more than day to day, as commonly misconceived. As mental health is a state of wellbeing, our mental health begins to decline when the way we think affects our day-to-day activities.
The Arthur Ellis 5-a-day
Through extensive research, Arthur Ellis has developed 5 different areas to focus on when helping to protect your wellbeing.
Move, Focus, Discover, Communicate, Help
At WSA, we have considered the suggestions on how we can boost our employee wellbeing. We strongly focus on communicate and help by having our own Mental Health First Aiders (find out what they do and why they chose to do it here) within the agency for us to speak to if we needed assistance and support. Within the teams, we also have meetings with our managers and a weekly agency-wide meeting to help keep departmental connections strong.
Furthermore, we encourage the act of moving and keeping fit with a walking club which will return soon once COVID-19 restrictions have eased further. Working on focus and discover, CPD remains something that is a valuable asset to our workdays. WSA shared the benefits of CPD via session ran by Jerry Taylor, you can take a read about that here.
WSA views on the wellbeing session
Some of the staff members within the agency have shared their reflections on the session ran by Arthur Ellis below:
“If there are any positives we can take from the challenges of recent times, it is that awareness of mental health and wellbeing is more prominent than ever. It is essential that we continue to remove the stigma around mental health and that those struggling have clearly defined access to the support they need. Normalising the conversation and pre-emptively taking steps to boost self-wellbeing is an integral part of this and something we are keen to promote within WSA. Our recent company-wide session with Arthur Ellis was helpful towards this goal as this gave our team insight into how to support each other as well as some strategies designed to encourage positive behaviours and healthy lifestyle choices. Hearing the first-hand experience of the outcomes achievable when tackling poor mental health was inspiring and will hopefully encourage anyone who identifies similarities to address rather than ignore those feelings.” – Joe Cuffaro, Head of Marketing and PR
“Overall, I love the approach from Arthur Ellis to talking about wellbeing and mental health, giving an example of mental health that wasn’t looked after and giving real examples of experiences and tactics to improve it made the session much more raw and genuine. With the current times, it was impactful more than ever to have a wellbeing session. At WSA, we take pride in looking after the mental wellbeing of our colleagues and with the wellbeing session ran by Arthur Ellis, Mental Health first Aiders within the team and constant raising awareness of mental health, it has had a positive impact on the agency” – Molly McCarthy, Digital Marketing Assistant
“Discussing mental health and wellbeing can be a particularly difficult thing to do especially as the subject has quite often been seen as Taboo or something that should be swept under the carpet. The British attitude of a stiff upper lip has a lot to answer to at times. The truth is there are many reasons that people might find it difficult to open up about a mental health problem. Worries that people may think you’re ‘weird’ or leave you out. Not wanting to be treated any differently from your colleagues are all legitimate reasons to feel resistant to discuss your own personal issues. The recent session with Arthur Ellis I found insightful and just a little challenging at times. It impacted me right from the start with its heavy hitting opening but at the end you realise that no situation is insurmountable, seeking the right coping mechanisms for you and most importantly speaking up about your feelings are hugely important. Make time for your own wellbeing and concentrate on the positive influences and try to not let the good habits creep into bad. Remember talking is always better than silence” – Jerry Taylor, Managing Director
“Jon’s well-being talk was really informative and encouraging. He told us about the Arthur Ellis Five a Day and how we can implement simple tasks and activities into our everyday routine to improve our mental health. I’ve started going for a mid-morning walk around the block each day and have begun listening to some really interesting podcasts, which I’d never considered to be beneficial to my well-being. It’s not always easy to balance our mental health, but with a little bit of effort, I’m already feeling better for it!” – Kathryn Myers, Digital Designer
Takeaways
Overall, the session was really insightful and helped us gage a better understanding of what can benefit your wellbeing via the 5 a day method and also understanding what activities we do day to day that affect our wellbeing and how to keep track of it. We finished the session with a useful sheet, ready for us to keep at hand for our next Arthur Ellis session in June.
If you are interested in finding out more about Arthur Ellis and think you would benefit from a well-being session, click here.
