Community Service Workers attend Wellbeing Workshop

A second successful Wellbeing workshop was held at Humanity Place in Brisbane last week for Australian Red Cross Community Service Workers.

The 5 Realm Wellbeing Model I have developed for identifying and implementing Wellbeing strategies for Community Service workers and the organisations they work in was once again tested out by another group of interested and very keen Red Cross staff. By the end of the morning everyone had developed their own Wellbeing Action Plan.

The workshop included exploration and discussion on what Wellbeing looks like, how this manifests in the workplace and what barriers present. Very specific issues were identified for those working in community services roles. Working with individuals and families with very complex needs requires workers to have a consistent level of wellbeing to sustain this type of complex work with clients.  This is one of the reasons I have developed the Wellbeing model, as I believe this to be a practical and effective tool for community service workers to build the resilience and increased wellbeing needed for the important jobs they do.

The workshop participants explored each of the 5 Realms of the model, which are based on holistic concepts and also the research done by NEF, who were commissioned by the UK Government to identify a set of evidenced- based actions to improve wellbeing  a few years ago.

I included some simple self-help techniques and exercises throughout the workshop that people found very useful (the super food snacks were popular!). Everyone provided really helpful feedback so I can keep improving the model. Thanks to all who came along and also to Red Cross in Queensland for supporting the workshop.

What participants had to say about the Wellbeing Workshop…

“Thank you Anna for delivering such a great and useful workshop. It is a healthy reminder of self-care in the workplace and in our personal lives. I highly recommend this workshop for all workplaces” Claire Dunglison, Caseworker

 “It was great to identify the 5 realms of wellbeing. They are very realistic and doable. It is great that the framework identifies the different systems in a person that influence wellbeing in general, but also in the workplace” Alex Ruiz

“All aspects of the workshop were very useful and connected me with me. I thank you Anna for bringing this self-awareness in me, in a kind way” Manjusha Gupta, Caseworker

“Lots of ah ha moments! Thank you so much” Jen

“The practical techniques to switch on the brain were very useful” Alhajie Kanu, Caseworker

 “Very useful in assessing my personal and organisational work practices and developing ideas for improvement. Thanks Anna!”  Christine, Caseworker