Mental Health and Wellbeing
Five ways to Wellbeing
Research shows that building actions that have a positive impact in our day to day life can add up to 7-12 years onto your life, and make you feel good day-to-day.
It is recommended that individuals build in the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ into their daily lives to improve their wellbeing
What is Wellbeing?
Wellbeing is when you feel good and enjoy day-to-day life. Feelings of happiness, contentment and enjoyment are signs of someone with a positive experience of life.
We want to encourage individuals to adopt five themed areas, or ways, to wellbeing that have been shown to improve wellbeing
Five Ways to Wellbeing
- Connect with people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in a local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.
- Be active go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.
- Take notice be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.
- Keep learning new things. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.
- Give do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you
Find wellbeing support in your area:
Mid Sussex: Time to Talk
Time to Talk is a friendly and approachable service offering talking therapies to people who are struggling with the following issues: stress, worry and general anxiety, depression, panic attacks and agoraphobia, phobias, social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), health anxiety, post natal depression, low self-esteem or low confidence, relationship difficulties or bereavement and reactions to loss.
Telephone: 01444 251084
For more information, please visit: www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/services/servicedetails.htm.DirectoryID-16358
Useful Wellbeing websites:
- Sussex Recovery College
- NHS Live Well
- Five Ways to Wellbeing
- Mental Health Foundation
- Rethink Mental Illness
If you are overweight, aiming to get yourself down to a healthy weight can help your condition. Don’t be disheartened if you cannot exercise as much as you would like: it is said that diet accounts for about 75% of weight loss, and exercise contributes the remaining 25%. Adjusting your eating habits and trying to take on board relatively simple measures such as portion control, will make a great difference.
There are many sources of support to help you lose weight, for example:
This is a free service for residents within West Sussex who are looking to take control of their weight and create achievable goals towards leading a healthy lifestyle. We have accessible adult and child lifestyle services for families with children aged between 5-19 years old and programmes that will support overweight children and young people to reach and maintain a healthier weight.
For all inquiries, please call 0300 123 0892 or email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Health and Fitness
The Right Track Programme – Possability People
Is a local organisation working in partnership with healthcare professionals to help you reduce aches and pains and improve your general wellbeing. Being active, getting out and about, meeting friends, doing activities, joining groups, can help to reduce pain and improve general wellbeing. Living with pain can make it difficult to get started. Right Track can support people with that challenge. Right track links adults who experience these conditions, and their carers, with the vast range of support in the community and voluntary sector.
If you would like to know more about Right Track, please contact the Right Track team on: email@example.com or 01273 208934.
Exercise Referral is aimed at individuals who are not used to regular exercise, or who are recovering from, or dealing with, a health issue. After a referral by a health professional, a co-ordinator discusses the reason for referral and develops a programme to match their aims and abilities. The service is available at local leisure centres in Mid Sussex.
Telephone: 01444 477191
The Mid Sussex District Council Park Rangers provide a free programme of Healthy Walks across Mid Sussex. The walks are designed to help people get fit and there are a variety of different levels of walks from Level 1 (beginner) to Level 5 (advanced) so there is something for everyone. The programme allows people to progress through the levels as their fitness improves.
Telephone: 01444 477561
For more information, please visit: www.midsussex.gov.uk/healthywalks
For more information on activities in Sussex, please visit:
Local Stop Smoking Services
There’s a free local Stop Smoking Service near you. Studies show that you’re four times more likely to quit with help. Developed by experts and ex-smokers and delivered by professionals, your local Stop Smoking Service provides expert advice, support and encouragement to help you stop smoking for good.
It offers free one-to-one support along with stop smoking medicines, which are available for the cost of a prescription. When asked if they would recommend the service, 9 out of 10 smokers who’ve used a local Stop Smoking Service say they would.
Possability People is a user-led organisation that promotes independent living for all. They offer support for disabled people, older people, their carers, families and friends.
They offer a range of services to help you live independently. Including:
- Disability Advice and Advocacy Service: Free information and advice including help with benefits.
- Direct Payment Support Service: Services to help plan and manage your own care and support. It Includes a range of services which support people to live independently.
Telephone: 01273 894040
For all information on rheumatoid arthritis, what it is, how it’s managed and living with the condition.
Telephone: 0800 298 7650
Regularly drinking more than 14 units a week risks damaging your health.
Fourteen units is equivalent to six pints of average strength beer or 10 small glasses of low strength wine. New evidence around the health harms from regular drinking have emerged in recent years. There is now a better understanding of the link between drinking and some illnesses, including a range of cancers.
The previously held position that some level of alcohol was good for the heart has been revised. It is now thought that the evidence on a protective effect from moderate drinking is less strong than previously thought.
Low risk drinking advice
To reduce the risk of harming your health if you drink most weeks:
- men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week
- spread your drinking over three days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week
- Pregnant women or women trying to conceive should avoid alcohol altogether.
Find local support services in your area:
- West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (Tel:0300 303 8677)