SWC wellness week

At South West College, we do our best to continuously support the health and wellbeing of our staff and students. As we come to the end of an unusual, and at times difficult term, we would like to encourage everyone to take part in our ‘Wellness Week’, which will run from Monday 29th June to Friday 3rd July.

There will be a variety of sessions throughout the week with a focus on positive physical and mental health, including two mindfullness sessions delivered by Aware NI. As the Depression Charity for Northern Ireland, AWARE aims to support people with Depression and Bipolar Disorder. AWARE has twenty-seven support groups, which take place in towns and cities across Northern Ireland, and also delivers education and well-being programmes into schools, communities and colleges across the country.

In recent weeks, Aware have had a particular focus on Men's Health Week, 'Tackle Your Feelings' (a campaign alongside Rugby Players Ireland) and have also continued to work on providing their usual services under lock-down regulations. Mindfullness sessions have been a key part of this, and AWARE say that Mindfulness can reduce stress and anxiety, and even help with depression and sleep problems.

We all feel down or fed-up at times but these feelings don’t usually last, and are a normal response to problems or difficulties in our lives. However, when they don’t go away, or are more than we can cope with and our ability to carry out our work and have satisfying personal relationships is affected, it may be depression. Depression is a common but treatable illness affecting an estimated 350 million people worldwide.

Aware are a leading service when it comes to supporting people with depression and helping with mental health issues. Now, they have teamed up with South West College to be part of wellness week. The sessions they're delivering could serve as beneficial introduction to anyone interested in exploring how they can receive support.

Student Engagement Officer, Nicki Gregg, says: AwareNI have kindly agreed to facilitate 2 free mindfulness sessions through zoom for staff and students during our Wellbeing Week. Mindfulness is a great way to unwind and calm the mind. For further information on what mindfulness is, check out there website. These sessions are likely to be very popular so please bear in mind that spaces are limited. To book a space, please email wellness@swc.ac.uk and remember, this session is open to staff as well as students."