As an organisation, we started the Conversations on Mental Wellness last year, and will be continuing those conversations this year too.

I would like to invite staff to participate in Northern Health’s Conversations on Mental Wellness being held across all sites, commencing Monday, 9 September through to Friday, 13 September 2019.

Northern Health’s ongoing commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our staff is on display during all of next week, with lots of opportunities to have ‘Conversations’ and to provide staff the opportunity to attend and listen to a variety of speaker events, and participate in self-care sessions that focus on the importance of supporting mental health and wellbeing.

We kick off the week on Monday, 9 September at 2 pm, where afternoon teas are being held at all sites and you are invited to drop in for a cup of tea and have a chat with your colleagues.

Some program highlights include:

• Twilight Panel Discussion on Tuesday, 10 September 2019 between 5.30 pm – 7 pm at Lecture Theatre 1 Northern Hospital Epping, discussing ‘What does wellbeing look like? Panelists include Dr Harry Gibbs, a cardiologist who is passionate about mental wellness for clinicians and Cheryl Holmes, Chief Executive Officer for Spiritual Health Association.
• Guest speaker Dr Adam Castricum on Thursday, 12 September 2019 between 8 am – 9 am at Lecture Theatre 1 Northern Hospital Epping. Adam is the Head of the Medical Department at Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre and is passionate about improving Indigenous, regional, and remote health outcomes, doctors’ mental health and ensuring that specialist sport and exercise medical care is accessible to all members of the community.
• Guest speaker Mr John Payne from Beyond Blue on Thursday, 12 September 2019 between 2 pm – 3 pm at PCW Conference Room at Bundoora Centre, where he is sharing his lived experience with PTSD.

Other events and activities include Grand Round talks, yoga sessions, TREAT ‘rest and recovery sessions’, massages and seminars on nutrition (click here to see the timetable of events, speaker bios and more information).

We look forward to staff attending these events during the week across our campuses and ‘continuing the conversation’ on mental wellness.

Michelle Fenwick

Executive Director, People and Culture