Thursday 7 February 2019 marks the sixth year of Time to Change’s ‘Time to Talk Day’.

The awareness campaign aims to end mental health discrimination and this year’s theme is all about ‘bringing together the right ingredients, to have a conversation about mental health. If you listened to my recent podcast with Katie Macaulay, you’ll know mental health is a topic I’m keen to highlight.

Further reading via the All Things IC blog: Why we need to talk about mental health in Comms.

Today I have a guest post for you by Pen Le Kelly, Internal Communications Officer at Manchester Metropolitan University, here in the UK.

I spotted some of her preparations on Twitter and invite her to share the work they’re doing.

Lovely colourful campaign material for ready to go for Thursday’s @TimetoChange #TimeToTalkDay events for colleagues @ManMetUni. #internalcomms #EmployeeCommunications #wellbeing #mentalhealth pic.twitter.com/mjRsg7VZkk

— Pen Le K ✏ (@pennylemare) February 4, 2019

I’ll hand you over…

Time to Talk Day 2019 at Manchester Metropolitan University

At Manchester Metropolitan University, the Internal Communications team work closely with the HR team to encourage different areas of the organisation to take part in Time to Talk Day and promote events taking place across the campus for colleagues, as well as giving them the tools to support our students.

Two weeks prior to the day, a call to action was sent out via our weekly e-newsletter and on the intranet, highlighting Time to Talk Day and asking colleagues to think about what they could do in their area of the organisation to help promote the day. Here are some of the events we have planned for the day:

• Time to talk over lunch – an open area where colleagues are invited to bring their lunch. We provided cake, biscuits and the opportunity to just have a chat
• Lunchtime drop-in sessions at different locations around the campus organised by various Faculties
• The Facilities Team and Welling Committee have launched a series of wellbeing events for their teams that will be taking place throughout the week
• Manchester Metropolitan Sport have organised a wellbeing walk on the day as well as their ongoing events such as yoga and jogging sessions
• A ‘Zone Out Hub’ where both colleagues and students can take some time away from work and studies to relax on beanbags, read a book, have a game of FIFA or try their hand at origami
• Intranet banner take-over – on the day, the main stories on the intranet will be focused around health and wellbeing, helping to signpost colleagues to support, a special ‘5 minutes with…’ featuring Revd Dr Adam Scott from St Peter’s House and promoting our wellbeing portal LifeWorks.

 

National campaigns like Time to Talk Day are important to organisations as it can help to remind colleagues about wellbeing initiatives that are already happening or kick-start new initiatives.

At Manchester Metropolitan University it helps to bring our people wellbeing strategy to life and can enable colleagues to make that connection.

Post author: Pen Le Kelly.

Thank you very much Pen, there’s so many useful pieces of advice in here, I hope the day goes well. Do come back and let us know how you get on. You can find Pen on Twitter @pennylemare.

Further resources if you’d like to take part in Time To Talk Day

Think you’ve left it too late for this year? There are lots of resources on the Time to Talk website that can do a lot of the hard work for you.

Video:

There’s a wide range of materials available via Time to Talk…

The materials include…

Best of luck, do make Time to Talk. If you’d like to share your story about how you’ve supported mental health and wellbeing in your organisation, I’d love to hear from you. Do check out my guest articles guidelines and contact me.

Further reading about mental health on the All Things IC blog:

• Why we need to talk about mental health in Comms.
• How to communicate World Mental Health Day 2018
• Strangers on a train – living with social anxiety, by Michael Cambell
• Why a University is offering mental health first aid
• How to understand and improve diversity – includes new PRCA guidelines
• How to stay mentally healthy if you work in comms
• What you need to know about mental wellbeing
• The challenges facing NHS communicators.

Thank you for stopping by,

Rachel

First published on the All Things IC blog 5 February 2019.