Wellbeing at Work are commissioned by Plymouth City Council to deliver services to businesses in Plymouth or to those businesses with over 50% of their employees having a Plymouth postcode.

Chat with a Champion – Charlotte Gill

July 11th, 2018 | Case Study

Location of workplace: Community Crisis Response Team Mount Gould

Name of Wellbeing Champion/s: Charlotte Gill

Overview: (what did you introduce to the department/what was the activity?)

CCRT Step challenge April-May 2018

Over the last couple of months we have chatted with several well -being champions and celebrated all the good things going on in your departments, from encouraging exercises at the desk to recipe sharing and cycle to work schemes.

Today it’s Charlotte’s turn.

On the 14th June Head of Health Improvement, Jan Potter, myself, Alison Crane, Health Improvement Practitioner, Nita Dodd, Advanced Health Improvement Practitioner, were invited to an awards event at the CCRT. One of our Wellbeing Champions wanted to celebrate with her team the success of their Step challenge. This is her story…..

The aim of the Step challenge was to encourage the whole team to be as active as possible during their working hours. The team was split into six individual teams comprising a mixture of staff from different disciplines some of which were office based on an average hours basis to make it as even as possible. Each team was named – (‘Chafing The Dream’ was my particular favourite) and a team captain nominated to motivate the team.

Steps were measured either by use of pedometers kindly provided by Andrew Thomson of Plymotion, some set up mobile phone apps with assistance from Mat Roch CCRT Administration Assistant and some used Fit-bits or similar to capture their step totals.

At the end of each week the steps were totalled and displayed on a board for each team to see how well they were doing compared to the other teams. Where annual leave, sick leave etc. was taken, an average of that person’s previous steps was calculated and used.
Totals up to Week three were displayed allowing for the tension to build before revealing the winners at a presentation ceremony on 14th June. Jan Potter had the delight in giving certificates to all teams and awarding a trophy and a fruit basket to the winners and a wooden spoon and fruit basket to the team with the least steps.

As well as the team certificates, certificates were also presented to the four members of staff who achieved the highest individual step totals, the results are listed below.

Individual awards

FIRST PLACE
Elaine Lang
65.7 miles/131,391 steps

SECOND PLACE
Gary Driscoll
60.8 miles/121,696 steps

THIRD PLACE
Jade Wilson
50.1 miles/100,297 steps

FOURTH PLACE
Carolyne Grainger
49.2 miles/98,472steps

Team awards

WINNING TEAM
Slippery Elm
243 miles/488,495 steps

SECOND PLACE
Justin Time
195.7 miles/391,434 steps

THIRD PLACE
Chafing The Dream
195.6 miles/391,191 steps

FOURTH PLACE
CCRT Striders
188.9 miles/377,786 steps

FIFTH PLACE
Blister Sisters
182.5 miles/364,989 steps

SIXTH PLACE
Step Troopers
171.7 miles/343,300 steps

Over the 4 week challenge the total distance that CCRT covered during their working hours was a massive:

2,357,195 steps which is 1,179 miles!!

That equates to walking to Casablanca (as the crow flies)!!!

The whole team embraced the challenge finding ways to cram more steps into their day. Some have continued keeping up the extra steps; like Gary who tries to park further away from his destination when visiting patients so that he can gain some more steps. He stated that it had served to really make the team think about how inactive we can sometimes be when working in an office or when making home visits.

‘Trim Tuesday’ is our one day a week healthy eating day. Rather than unhealthy snacks, team members volunteer to bring in healthy snacks for the team. Maria Kneller CCRT Social Worker has even won a prize for her imaginative healthy snacks from The Voice!!

Seven members of CCRT also undertook the ‘Swim 22 Challenge’ raising funds for Diabetes UK. The challenge was to swim 22 miles (the distance across the English Channel) in your local pool within 12 weeks. They actually covered a whopping 101 miles coming 6th nationally!

Well done to you all!

What are your future plans Charlotte?

Keeping with the step challenge; it would be interesting to challenge an in-patient team to compare the steps taken on the wards vs the community…..any challengers???

Has Charlotte’s story made you want to do something similar?

Why not “adopt a day” in your teams and let us know what day you have adopted and let us know what you are doing to help promote mental health & well-being in your workplace.

We have put some suggestions to help you know what to do on your adopted day but you can decide as a team what you would all prefer to do with your ‘day’

Will it be?
‘Move it’ Monday-going for a walk at lunchtimes, parking further away, step challenge

‘Time out’ Tuesday – perhaps attend one of our Yoga classes?

‘Well-being’ Wednesday-look after your mental health by starting a book club, learn something new as a team, start a team/department sport activity/quiz/crossword challenge

Thoughtful Thursday- think of others and do something nice for someone, carry out a random acts of kindness

Fruity Friday-bring in alternative healthy fruit snacks

Email us with your ‘adopt a day’ choice at: [email protected]

Would you like to become a Wellbeing Champion? Go onto the One You Plymouth website and follow the training link here