Staff Health and Wellbeing Resources
Weigh To Go
Weigh To Go is NHS Lanarkshire’s weight management programme, with instructor led exercise classes and discussion groups on healthy eating and lifestyle.
If you’re interested in participating in Weigh To Go you can book online below. Or there may be many other ways you can build physical activity and exercise into your daily routine. Why not ask colleagues in your team to join you?
Support for dealing with grief and loss
Staff are often very close to bereavement through their role within healthcare, as well as experiencing personal loss of their own.
Several sources of support are available, including NHS Lanarkshire’s Spiritual Care Team. Spiritual Care is about nurturing the spirit which is an important ingredient in building resilience. Each of the acute sites offer sanctuaries and wellbeing areas where staff are always welcome to drop in and spend time whether for peace and quiet, prayer, reflection and contemplation, reading or rest.
Staff can also visit The Good Grief Trust, which offers End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone. Visit here https://www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/
Sudden can provide staff with support books to help adults and children experiencing grief. Order for free here https://sudden.org/
Where to start with self-care
To be able to manage your own health and wellbeing The Talking Rooms have provided a Self-Care Check-In & Needs Review to help highlight where to start.
By self-reflecting on 20 areas of your life and assessing the impact of these, you can begin to make a plan for your self-care in ways that aim to improve your health, wellbeing, work, relationships and personal growth.
Complete the Check-In here
Financial Wellbeing
Your financial wellbeing can feel tricky to manage regardless of how good you are with money. There are many sources of help and advice available, you are not alone.
The NHS Credit Union is a person-centred co-operative owned and controlled by members that provides a range of savings accounts and loans. To join the NHS Credit Union you must be employed by the NHS in Scotland directly, as a contractor or through a partner care or third sector organisation.
Find out more by visiting NHS Credit UnionÂ
Home Energy Scotland is an advice centre that helps people to create warmer homes, reduce energy bills and tackle fuel poverty. The service offers advice on understanding your energy consumption and funding that may be available to make your home more energy efficient.
Find out more by visiting Home Energy Scotland or watching their You Tube channel.
Writing for Wellbeing
It can be difficult to find the time or motivation to write but there are some things you can do to include writing in your daily life such as starting a journal or blog, writing letters and emails to friends and family or writing reviews for books, films or foods that you love.
To make things easier think about where to write. A dedicated space that is comfortable and safe will encourage the process. Also think about the practicalities such as having writing tools in easy to reach places. Use post-its to start with as they are smaller, or the notes app on your phone when you’re on the go.
A routine can help you stick with the habit of writing. Choose a time that works for you – morning, lunch break or night time – and try to dedicate that time for yourself. Whether you write then or not, having dedicated time to be with your thoughts and feelings is good for your wellbeing and to ‘check in’ with how you are really feeling.
Activities and resources to help you get started:
50 Word Fiction Scottish Book Trust
Scottish Association of Writers
Scottish Book Trust Writing Groups
Keep Active
Any amount of physical activity – no matter how small – is good for you. There are many ways in which to be physically active, both indoors and outdoors. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it’s something you enjoy and keeps you moving.
We are all physically active – even when we don’t know it. Anytime we move we are being active, even standing, and moving is good for us. The benefits for our physical and mental wellbeing are well proven – and the good news is that every move counts.
Fit more Movement Into Your Day
Find easy and helpful tips to incorporate more movement into your day and different ways to sit less.
Weigh to Go
Weigh to Go is NHS Lanarkshire’s free 15-week weight management group, led by a qualified instructor and consists of a 45 minutes low impact exercise class, followed by a 45 minute healthy eating and lifestyle interactive chat.
Now with a recently introduced Weigh to Go Maintenance programme, offering over 30 weeks of effective weight management support. It is open to anyone wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle. The programmes run in partnership with South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture and North Lanarkshire Council.
Healthy Valleys, Lanarkshire Community Food and Health Partnership and Getting Better Together Shotts are now holding Weigh to Go within the community, giving residents even more classes and venues to pick from.
NHS Fitness Studio
Take your pick from 24 instructor-led videos across our aerobics exercise, strength and resistance, and pilates and yoga categories. Access here
Wheels for Heroes – Free Bike Hire
NHS Lanarkshire has teamed up with Getting Better Together Shotts and Sustrans to offer bike loans of e-bikes and Brompton folding bikes to NHSL staff! The scheme is free and you can hire your chosen bike for three months, enabling you to enjoy the benefits of cycling, and experience the fun of an e-bike or Brompton bike, through free and convenient bicycle hire.
Get Walking Lanarkshire
Get Walking Lanarkshire is a partnership project between North and South Lanarkshire councils, NHS Lanarkshire and Paths for All and offers a programme of free health walks across North and South Lanarkshire, from Cumbernauld to Biggar and from East Kilbride to Newarthill (and many places in between). Making good use of the lovely parks and green spaces the area has on offer, its aim is to encourage more people to walk more often and improve their health and wellbeing by being active in the outdoors.
Find out more at Get Walking Lanarkshire
Yoga
Join NHSL’s weekly yoga session on Tuesday evening 6pm-6:45pm and feel the benefits of relaxation, breathing, meditation, stretching and strengthening as well as supporting your daily mental and physical health.
Join the live yoga link on Tuesday 6pm-6:45pm Click here to join the meeting.
Pre-recorded Yoga sessions are available. Or email David.Kennedy@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk for the link.
Physical Activity ReferralsÂ
In partnership with North and South Lanarkshire Leisure, ‘Active Health Prescriptions’ (AH) and ‘Physical Activity Prescriptions’ (PAP) are partnership referral pathways, which enables GPs, practice nurses, physiotherapists and wider allied health professionals to refer patients who would benefit both physically and psychologically from being more physically active.
Both NHS Lanarkshire staff as well as patients can access these physical activity opportunities! Find out more.
