Friday 6 December 2013 - Compliments of the season It‘s been great seeing All Right‘s latest wellbeing messages hit Canterbury this week. Between now and January you‘ll see compliments on billboards, the sides of buses, in newspaper adverts, and on posters around Canterbury. You may have already seen them pop up on your computer screen!
Mary Gordon
All Right? is a Healthy Christchurch project being led by CDHB and the Mental Health Foundation, and the current messages focus on the fact that a kind word can mean the most.
While All Right‟s material looks colourful and light hearted, the rationale for the campaign, and its messages, are built on robust local and international research. All Right? was established after the Prime Minister‘s chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman wrote a briefing paper on the likely psychosocial effects of the earthquakes. The paper stated that the emotional effects of disaster can be as severe as the physical effects, and there was value in providing psychosocial support to the majority of the population so their own psychological resilience and coping mechanisms can come to the fore. All Right? aims to assist people to improve their mental health and wellbeing, and prevent more acute problems from developing. To do this All Right? focus on promoting the five ways to wellbeing, which in international research has found can all lift our wellbeing. These are connect, be active, take notice, keep learning, and give (which the current mini-campaign is focused on). Christmas can be a very stressful time and it‘s sneaking up on us very quickly. Don‘t forget to take five minutes every now and then to relax, breathe and have some time for you. And remember it‘s the little things you do that can make the biggest difference to those around you.
Mary Gordon, Acting Chief Executive Officer CDHB