Mental and emotional wellbeing

If you are going through a difficult time in your life and need someone to talk through things with, the Chaplaincy team are here to listen to you, to pray with you or for you, and provide spiritual guidance or mentoring.

The team are based at Neuadd Rathbone, College Road, Bangor, LL57 2DF and can be contacted on 01248 382024 or by email. You may also like to visit their website

Meet the Chaplaincy Team and learn about what the support they can provide

Bangor University Security Team
The Security Team has responsibility for the security of students, staff, and visitors, as well as the University estate. All security staff are qualified first aiders and can offer advice and support on general issues or arrange for help. Security is based in Main Arts and provide cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the event of an emergency on the campus please dial 333 from any internal phone or 01248 382795 from a mobile. Security should be informed immediately if any of the 999 emergency services have been contacted.

If you have immediate concerns regarding a student's mental wellbeing and or safety please refer to the emergency mental health flow chart which guides you through the steps to find the appropriate and timely support.

C.A.L.L Mental Health Helpline for Wales
Community Advice and Listening Line offers emotional support and confidential advice on a range of mental health related matters as well as a comprehensive list of support services in your local area and information on how to access them. Anyone concerned about their own mental health or that of a relative or friend can access the service.
Helpline: *0800 132 737 or text ‘help’ to 81066 *Free to call from a landline, charges from mobile phones will vary considerably

Email: callhelpline.org.uk

CALM
Anyone can hit crisis point. The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is leading a movement against suicide and run a free and confidential helpline and webchat for anyone who needs to talk about life’s problems or find information and support. CALM also support those bereaved by suicide, through the Support After Suicide Partnership (SASP).
Helpline: 0800 58 58 58 - open 5pm to midnight, 365 days a year

Mind Cymru
Provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing or supporting someone with a mental health problem. Mind’s Infoline offers information on types of mental health problems, where to get help, medication, treatments, and advocacy.
Infoline: 0300 123 3393  - open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, except for bank holidays.
Email: info@mind.org.uk.
Local Minds provide mental health services in local communities across England and Wales. There are four Mind charities across North Wales. Find your local Mind

NHS 111 Wales
The 111 service brings together NHS Direct Wales and GP out-of-hours services to provide health information, advice, and access to urgent, but nonlife-threatening, out-of-hours primary care.
Helpline: 111 or 0845 4647

Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre North Wales
Provide specialist support and therapy to anyone in North Wales who has experienced sexual abuse or violence
Helpline: 0808 80 10 800
Email: info@rasawales.org.uk

Samaritans
Offers a safe place for you to talk any time you like, in your own way, about whatever’s getting to you.
Helpline: 116 123 (English); 0808 164 0123 (Welsh).
Email: jo@samaritans.org
The English services is 24/7 and the Welsh service is open daily 7pm to 11pm.

Local centres that support wellbeing

Canolfan Abbey Road supports better mental health to people over 18 in Gwynedd, Conwy, and Anglesey. The centre offers activities such as reading groups, creative writing, art, craft, gardening as well as projects with animals depending on availability.  You can access counselling, complimentary therapies, support for dependency and  a variety of therapeutic approaches. 

North Wales Women Centre, located in Denbighshire, provides a wide variety of courses, events, social activities, and volunteering. The centre provides a safe, non-judgemental, and professional environment, which is female only between the hours of 9am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. If you want to learn more about the centre or find out what’s on offer, please call us on 01745 339331 or say hello on Facebook and Twitter

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) provides information and signposts to range of local community-based services to support mental health and wellbeing. These include GP practices, I CAN Community Hub, Primary Care Mental Health Service, Active Monitoring, and therapies. To learn about the complete range of services and support available please visit the BCUHB mental health website

BCUHB’s Self Care Office runs a range of free health and wellbeing courses for adults living in communities across North Wales to help improve wellbeing and effectively manage long-term health conditions. Courses include, Five Ways to Wellbeing, Connecting with People, Foodwise for Life, Healthy Hearts and many more.

The aim of Occupational Health is to promote and preserve mental and physical wellbeing in the workplace through fostering a culture of support and respect.

All University staff can receive advice and consultation to support a positive relationship between their work and health and manage risks in the workplace that are likely to give rise to work-related ill health. Please visit Occupational Health for information on the range of services and referral routes.

This role is an opportunity to become the staff wellbeing champion (SWBC) in your school or department. We are looking for people with enthusiasm and commitment to support staff wellbeing. You'll make a valuable contribution to the University and its staff by enhancing wellbeing and job satisfaction. For small schools/departments, one SWBC will be appointed, and for medium and large schools/departments, up to two SWBCs will be appointed.

Note that there have been recent communications about staff coaches (wellbeing), which are staff who are trained to offer 1-to-1 coaching to staff. This is unconnected to the SWBC role.

Key roles:

Specific tasks:

• Complete the training prerequisites (see below) to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed for the role

• Give staff clear information about and signposting to the University’s support services to enable staff to make informed choices about their personal wellbeing

• Encourage colleagues to access opportunities from relevant health and wellbeing resources

• Act as a role model to inspire colleagues to proactively look after their own health and wellbeing
• To develop and share ideas and initiatives with the SWBC network, and colleagues within your school/department in order to encourage a culture of supporting staff wellbeing on a daily basis

• Attend and contribute to wellbeing champion network meetings (a meeting approximately every 6 weeks)

Frequency of contact

• As often as needed/appropriate, on a “light touch” basis and will vary through the year (e.g. when there are specific campaigns or initiatives there may be a need for more intensive event promotion). This will be between 3 and 6 hours per month as a guide.

General approach

• To help deliver activities that support the University’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy (key university events and campaigns)
• Being available as someone whom staff in your school/department can approach if they have concerns about their wellbeing
• Practice supportive active listening to colleagues who may wish to talk about their wellbeing
• To offer a holistic approach to wellbeing, not confined to the workplace, but linked to the University’s health and wellbeing thematic strategies (mental health, physical health etc)

Note

• The role of wellbeing champion is centred upon staff wellbeing, and the remit does not include work around student wellbeing (although there may be overlap or useful shared practice).
• You are not expected or encouraged to offer counselling or advice to colleagues – instead, offering a listening ear and signposting to available resources are key parts of this role.

Pre-requisites of the role

• To apply, you must have completed related University mandatory training. Links to these trainings can be found here: https://my.bangor.ac.uk/humanresources/staffdevelopment/online-learning-opportunities.php.en
• Unconscious bias training
• Equality and Diversity online training
• Responding to Disclosures of Sexual Violence online training
• Prevent online training

What do you gain as a staff wellbeing champion?

• Training in health and wellbeing
• An introduction/ orientation skills session to the role of SWBC
• i-act 3.5 hour manager training (if applicants have not already participated in this training)
• Wellbeing champion training workshop/s
• Collaboration and networking
• You will be part of a network of fellow wellbeing champions with an aim to support your own wellbeing within the role, while sharing innovations and best practice across the university.
• Support
• Regular Staff Wellbeing Champion Network Meetings providing support, opportunities to network, and sharing of new information/good practice
• CPD sessions for wellbeing champions as arranged by the University.

Person specification

To be a staff wellbeing champion you need to be able to demonstrate the following:

• Have a keen interest in health and wellbeing and making a positive difference to peoples’ lives
• demonstrable clear and effective communication and listening skills. Be able to actively listen and show empathy towards fellow staff members who may need support with their health and wellbeing
• ability to represent school/department by collecting feedback and presenting ideas to the SWBC network meetings
• a track record in networking, ability to motivate, and being supportive towards others

In addition, the following skills and qualities would be particularly welcome:

• applications from underrepresented groups are encouraged to ensure a greater diversity of staff undertaking health and wellbeing roles across the university. As health and wellbeing roles tend to be made up mainly of women, we would particularly encourage applications from male, transgender, or non-binary members of staff. We are also looking for a good balance of bilingual applicants.
• previous training/skills in any aspect of supporting wellbeing (e.g. physical, emotional, social)

Staff Wellbeing Champion (SWBC) Opportunity:

INFORMATION EMAIL/SHEET FOR STAFF

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce we are now recruiting up to 30 staff wellbeing champions across the University (our aim is to have at least one wellbeing champion per school/department, and up to two for large schools/departments). If health and wellbeing is your passion and you would like to find out more and apply for this voluntary role, please read on….

What is a staff wellbeing champion?

Staff wellbeing champions will help to promote and support health and wellbeing to staff within their School or Departments through signposting, providing knowledge of available support, organising and promoting occasional wellbeing activities and encouraging healthy lifestyles and positive mental health. They will also be available for simple, supportive conversations with colleagues who wish to talk about their wellbeing.   (note: this is not an advice, coaching or counselling role, but a supportive and signposting one). Training and development for the role will be provided, and there will be regular meetings for all wellbeing champions to share initiatives and for mutual support– please see below for details.

Staff wellbeing champions will help to foster positive and supportive environments across the university community. They will facilitate and document local wellbeing activity, working collaboratively with other staff wellbeing champions. they will also be expected to influence managers in their areas by communicating any health and wellbeing issues that may arise. 

How might I benefit from being a wellbeing champion?

As well as developing new knowledge and skills, you will be part of a growing network of colleagues from diverse backgrounds across the University Community with a passion for improving health and wellbeing whom you will meet on a regular basis and will also be a support network for you in this role. You will also be able to feedback to help shape the University’s health and wellbeing agenda. Also, these roles are becoming increasingly important across the UK university sector and may well help you in your own development and career progression.

What training and development do staff wellbeing champions receive?

Staff wellbeing champions are fully supported in their role. Initially they will attend an induction session to orientate them to the role, develop the skills to initiate wellbeing conversations with colleagues as well as skills in organising and managing events. Two externally run courses will also be available: i-act training and a wellbeing champion training. Staff wellbeing champions will also need to complete unconscious bias training, equality and diversity training, prevent training, and responding to disclosures of sexual violence training (these are all online courses which are already available for all staff, to access these courses, click here.) They will also participate in regular meetings in order to network, receive support and share information and best practice in health and wellbeing. Additionally, they will have priority places in occasional health and wellbeing training and development opportunities offered by the University.

Why has Bangor University developed the role of staff well-being champion?

Health and Wellbeing is one of four “transformational themes” underpinning the vision set out for the University in its Strategy 2030. The importance of supporting staff’s health and wellbeing was highlighted in the 2020 Staff Survey and the Covid-19 pandemic has added further urgency to this theme. Health and wellbeing are fundamental to enable staff to realise their potential, to flourish, to cope with the normal stresses of life, to work productively, and to contribute to the wider community.

To develop this work further, a University-wide Health and Wellbeing Strategy was developed and widely consulted upon in 2021. Under the strategic theme “Creating Positive Environments”, a commitment was made to “Create and embed a network of wellbeing champions to promote wellbeing across the Colleges and Professionals Services at Bangor University”. 

What other developments are there in Health and Wellbeing for staff at Bangor University?

A great deal of development work has taken place to ensure the University adopts a needs-led, evidence-based approach to promoting staff health and wellbeing. Already over 100 staff, including the Executive Team, have undergone evidenced-based training in managing and promoting positive mental health and wellbeing. In addition, a number of staff are trained coaches and offer up to three one-to-one wellbeing sessions for staff, and we have commissioned 10 mental health and wellbeing instructor training courses so we will have a group of “in-house” mental health and wellbeing trainers who can deliver i-act wellbeing courses for staff– the opportunity to become an i-act instructor will be open to staff wellbeing champions (using a  selection process due to limited places). All of these initiatives build upon a wide range of support services (including counselling), online resources, and development opportunities related to health and wellbeing that staff can access.

What is the difference between a staff wellbeing champion and staff coaches (wellbeing)?

• You may have seen some communications about wellbeing coaches in the staff bulletin recently, so this role is not confused with the wellbeing champion role, the key differences between these two roles are highlighted below:
• Staff Wellbeing Champions work across a whole school or department to have brief supportive wellbeing conversations and signpost staff to other health and wellbeing services/facilities – including to wellbeing coaches. They may also be involved in facilitating wellbeing activities within their school or department, and in supporting management by feeding back ideas and priorities from colleagues, around wellbeing areas.
• Staff coaches (wellbeing) support staff on a one to one basis to explore in some detail their health and wellbeing and to plan actions with them to support this; Coaches will meet up to three times with coachees to support them towards their personal wellbeing goals.

Will this role be included as part of the WAM allocation?

This is currently being explored in terms of how this role best fits into the WAM model, and it will be expected that it will be counted as part of the WAM in the near future. For non-academic staff, it is expected that this role will fit in to usual hours, with adjustments made to ensure you can undertake the role effectively.

I’d like to apply to become a staff wellbeing champion. What do I do now?

If you would like to be considered for the role, please gain your line manager’s approval for this, then email your name, current professional role, and department to Anna Quinn, Health and Wellbeing Project Manager (a.quinn@bangor.ac.uk) together with a brief statement of no more than 400 words explaining why you’re interested in the role, and how you believe that you will be an effective Staff Wellbeing Champion.  To help develop your statement, please do refer to the role description below. The closing date for this round of applications is 27/05/2022.  We are very keen to seek applications from across the University. Where several members of staff apply from the same department, priority will be given to applicants who can demonstrate a history of consistent interest in H&WB development, including pastoral roles, and participationg in H&WB related training.

This is an excellent opportunity to become involved in a key area of staff support and development and be part of an exciting new initiative at Bangor University.  If you have any questions after reading this information, please do not hesitate to contact Anna Quinn on a.quinn@bangor.ac.uk