Health and Wellbeing at Durham University

In the past few years, health and wellbeing, especially mental health, has become more prevalent. The pandemic was a real turning point. Everything shifted in 2020 and we started to work a lot more on creating resources to support staff. We created resources aligned to the NHS 5 Steps to Wellbeing principles: Connect with other people; Be physically active; Learn new skills’ Give to others; Pay attention to the present moment. It kept us really busy and it was so valuable for our colleagues.  

Now, we are able to build on what we already have. We have a staff-accessed sharepoint for the Health and Wellbeing Hub. It has had more than 32,000 visits since its launch, which shows that staff are comfortable with accessing support. Our Occupational Health Service is fantastic, but we needed to do more in terms of organisation development for health and wellbeing, so we can meet everyone’s needs on a personal level.