June 5, 2020Today, Northern Health celebrates CrazySocks4Docs Day, encouraging all staff to wear their most colourful socks and start the conversation around mental health.
Dr John Ferguson, Chief Medical Officer, explained the catalyst behind the event.
“Dr Geoff Toogood, founder of the movement, was self-managing depression and feeling he could not seek help because that was not the “done thing” for doctors. One day, he put on two totally different socks and a senior colleague questioned his sanity,” said John.
“That gave cause for pause and the advent of this day to recognise and destigmatise mental health in general, and in doctors specifically. Extrapolating this, it is recognition of diversity in many aspects of our lives and a bit of lightheartedness to raise awareness and promote support.”
This year, our doctors received a generous donation from a local small business, Soxy Beast, who have generously donated 1,000 crazy socks for our Northern Health doctors!
Dr Edwina Holbeach, Director of Physician training explained they were originally looking at sourcing a sock supplier to provide as gifts to our medical staff to say thank you and to coincide with CrazySocks4Docs Day.
“We decided to approach Soxy Beast as they are a local company – we explained what type of socks we needed, asked for a quote, they replied saying they would like to very generously donate them. We are glad we found this Australian owned company, as it has a very strong social ethics and they are linked with local artists and Melbourne charities,” she said.
Giuliano Pietrolungo from Soxy Beast, said, “We’ve always believed that businesses should exist for a purpose greater than ‘just to make money’, it is in the very essence of our business model. The CrazySocks4Docs Day is a great initiative that we immediately warmed to and wanted to be involved.”
“The mental health of our medical practitioners is vitally important, not only for their own wellbeing, but for the many patients they treat too. Helping to raise awareness for this cause was an easy decision to make and also, we love sharing our unique and colourful socks with people,” Giuliano said.
Alison O’Sullivan, Workplace Wellbeing Coordinator, said Northern Health is focused on supporting the mental health of our staff and promoting self-care.
“We are in the caring profession and we care a lot for other people, but we need to care for ourselves as well. Our wellbeing program offers programs like Employee Assistance program (Converge), and we are running programs like yoga, TREAT mindfulness sessions, stress management sessions and massages for all staff,” she added.
Featured image (left to right): Back row – Michelle Rovetto, Dr Alistair Tinson, Dr Edwina Holbeach, Dr John Ferguson, Giuliano and Raffaele Pietrolungo from Soxy Beast; Front row – Dr Mandeep Singh Kalsi, Dr Rhonda Taleb and Dr Tessa Low.
