Resilience Masterclass Christchurch

Some of the Hauora initiative attended the “Resilience Master class” course in Christchurch run by the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience earlier this term. 

There were many key ideas and gems that came out of the event, plenty that validated our current work and it was a great opportunity to network with other professionals who are passionate about the Hauora space. 

The one day course included opportunities to hear from resilience gurus, researchers and staff from corporate organisations such as Beca and Aurecon. It’s not often that educators attend courses that include professionals from a range of occupations and it was refreshing to hear that all places of work are making conscious efforts and changes to better enhance the wellbeing of their staff and clients. 

The main message of the day was of course resilience. Lucy Hone and Denise Quinlan did an excellent job recapping some of their key research and findings. 

We then heard from several professionals who were involved in wellbeing initiatives in their workplaces. They shared the experiences they had creating a culture that made employees feel valued, supported and motivated at work. One unique approach used by Aurecon was ‘mental health first aid’. Members of their workplace were trained in mental health first aid to better notice and respond to staff struggling with mental health at work. Those in the workplace knew who were trained so they could check in if they needed to. I thought that provided workspaces with both physical first aid training and mental health training seemed to be a big step forward for viewing mental health as important as physical. 

What all these corporations had in common was the importance of taking time in the working day to establish an agreed set of values, goals and actions that will support their employees. 

Each section of the day was filled with valuable insight that we intend to take forward into our communities. We would thoroughly recommend anyone, no matter your profession, to have a look through the New Zealand Institute of wellbeing and resilience’s website, where they offer ample training and resources for individuals, groups, education and corporate.  

We are looking forward to spreading some of this mahi back to the Hauora initiative to celebrate the work our schools are doing and to help support their pathway moving forward. If anyone is interested in hearing more about what we gained then please get in touch, we would love to connect with you.