13th May 2024

Sometimes, you’ve got to stop and smell the roses, as one of our Marine Mammal Observers (MMO) did here in the middle of the Irish Sea last Friday night (along with half the UK, it seems).

This is Mental Health Awareness Week and it’s an issue we’ve adopted a proactive stance on at Ocean Ecology.

Taking time out from our busy working days can be helpful. Sometimes, like our MMO, we can pause to appreciate the positive aspects of our work. Other times it can be to relax, to exercise or to give our minds a break by focusing on something different.

At Ocean Ecology, we’ve set up a Wellness Hub where our staff can find a variety of useful resources. This follows guidance from ISO 45003 which focuses on psychological health and safety at work and provides guidelines for managing psychosocial risks.

Other resources come from Perkbox, an employee benefit we use, which offers a wealth of wellbeing ideas from mindfulness techniques to exercise routines you can follow at home or in work.

We use a monthly wellbeing calendar from Action for Happiness to introduce new wellbeing ideas into the workplace.

Mental health awareness workshops have also taken place which invite staff to think about their own mental wellbeing, what they can do to maintain it and how they can spot wellbeing in others (both at work and at home). And it’s got to be personalised – mental wellbeing means something different to everyone.

Picture courtesy of Alex Turvill – thanks Alex.