Designing for mental wellbeing

The Community and Social Innovation (CSI) is committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our staff.  Mental wellbeing is our ability to cope with the normal stressors of life, work well and contribute to our communities. Our mental health is on a continuum.  Some days we are thriving, other days we are going okay, or struggling and sometimes we are unwell.

How our work is organised and managed can impact on our mental wellbeing. Well-designed work supports positive mental health.  To identify those aspects of our work at CSI that have the potential to harm our mental wellbeing as well those aspects of our work that protect it, Dr Hillary Bennett will be facilitating a series of Mental Wellbeing By Design workshops with all staff.

The purpose of the Mental Wellbeing By Design workshops are:

• To identify and eliminate, or minimise, work-related risk factors that can cause mental harm.

• To identify work-related factors that protect wellbeing and integrate them into the design of ‘good work’ to enhance mental wellbeing at The Southern Initiative.

Dr Hillary Bennett will facilitate the Mental Wellbeing By Design workshops.  Hillary is a registered Psychologist and a Director of Leading Safety, a consultancy specialising in the leadership of safety and wellbeing, the assessment and development of mentally healthy workplaces. She developed the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum’s Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing at Work as well the Protecting Wellbeing Guide which provides a process for organisations to identify factors that are harming or protecting wellbeing in any workplace. In 2019 she was awarded the New Zealand SafeGuard Lifelong Contribution to Health and Safety Award.