manojnanda's blog

Recently, I got the opportunity to talk on a radio station called Southall Radio on a  regular slot called ‘care to share’  . Having had a close friend take part in an interview a week before - I took the opportunity to give our project and the MHFE some airtime.  I chose the topic of 5 ways to wellbeing and it was given in English.

RACC setup a wellbeing project volunteer role description and recruited its first volunteers in January, this was successful for its first term which led us to a second round of recruitment for term 2 which took place in April with volunteers looking to start over the Summer and help out at open days. We now have a total of 7 volunteers taking part in the following activities

1. Providing clerical and project support to the administrator and project manager of the project team.

With this terms emphasis on workforce wellbeing RACC has developed a partnership with the Richmond Chamber of Commerce to co-create a workshop in work-life balance.

Engaging with employers on the subject of work/life balance has proved complex, in discussion with the chamber CEO we felt it most appropriate to offer a workshop for chamber members on work/life balance as a way to raise awareness amongst the local workforce of the reseach project we are undertaking.

RACC already provides opportunities for staff in its own existing benefits and these are promoted to staff through an internal employee benefits leaflet. One of the innovative aspects of this is allowing all staff to take part in one leisure course a year, having taken both drawing from scratch and life drawing in subsequent terms I can personally say it was very beneficial to have that 2 hours of space, focus and concentration in otherwise what is  a busy week.

After 2 months of planning we are proud to announce the official screening of our 'Stepping Stones to wellbeing' Film project which is based on actual stories of learners on our wellbeing project at RACC.

Our phase 1 has shown very good results overall, with learners passing beyond the required threshold for wellness in anxiety, depression and general wellbeing. The film shows some of the ingredients in the formula that helped to make the difference.

RACC is organising an event on Monday 22nd Feb for NHS professionals and Adult Education called 'Working Together' . 

FACT: Recent Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed the budgets for mental health trusts fell by 2% from 2013/14 to 2014/15.