Wellbeing and Resilience
Wellbeing and Resilience
Emotional Wellbeing and Resilience provides a useful lens through which to understand how people feel and think about their lives. Resilience is not necessarily about making your situation better; it is about being strong enough to manage the negative things and ‘weather the storm’. Dealing effectively with challenges and crises in life is at the heart of resilience and wellbeing.
Take 5 steps to wellbeing
Take 5 steps to wellbeing is an evidence-based public health message aimed at improving wellbeing of the whole population. Based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing developed by the New Economics Foundation (NEF 2008), these simple and effective messages are grounded in solid evidence and draw on a wealth of psychological and economic literature from inter- disciplinary work. The Public Health Agency support this preventative approach regionally.
The (NEF) Research has concluded that Take 5 steps to wellbeing contribute to improving wellbeing in its fullest sense, both physically and emotionally, where people can feel good and function well. Evidence indicates it is individuals who regularly practise all ‘5 steps’ who have the highest level of wellbeing regardless of circumstances.
What are the 5 steps to wellbeing?
The five steps to wellbeing are:
Take 5 steps to wellbeing in schools.
As a school, you can use the Take 5 steps to wellbeing to help identify opportunities to promote wellbeing, not only with the pupils, but also with staff, parents, and the wider school community. Take 5 also complements the EA’s new Health and Well Being Strategy and its key themes of promoting, education and supporting Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies, Social Health, Giving Back and Financial Wellbeing. Take 5 steps to wellbeing is currently being rolled out post-primary schools across Belfast. Schools working towards their Take 5 School accreditation include Blessed Trinity College, Rathmore Grammer School, All Saints College, Malone Integrated College and Harberton North Special School. Blessed Trinity College were the first school in Belfast to recruit their Student Champions and complete the Take 5 steps to wellbeing ‘Student Champion’ training.
For more information or to request a Take 5 briefing for your school please contact
Clare Flynn
Advanced Health Improvement Practitioner (Mental Health)
Belfast Health & Social Care Trust
Tel: 073 8538 6959
Email: Clare.Flynn@belfasttrust.hscni.net
Jim Morgan
Senior Project Development Officer
Belfast Health Development Unit
Tel: 077 6608 4918
Email: Jim.Morgan@bhdu.org
Take 5 steps to wellbeing in Youth Organisations
The Launch of Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing framework for Youth Organisations took place on Friday 2nd February 2024 in Belfast City Hall.
The speakers and panel at the launch event included Siobhan O’Neill (Mental Health Champion), John Lynch (Youth Work Alliance), Stephen Quigley (Education Authority), Jim Morgan (Belfast Health Development Unit), Pauline Smart (Education Authority), Clare Flynn (Belfast Health and Social Care Trust) and Paddy Hughes (Education Authority).
Youth work organisations can use the Take 5 steps to wellbeing framework to help identify opportunities to promote wellbeing, not only with the young people, but also with staff and volunteers within the youth organisation.
The Take 5 steps to wellbeing approach also complements the EA’s Health and Well Being Strategy and its key themes of promoting education and supporting young people to develop healthy minds and healthy bodies within settings supporting young people.
The approach also supports the work of Youth Work Alliance as its focus is to ensure that local youth organisations provide high-quality services and promote the holistic development of children and young people to enable them to live full and active lives.
For more information on becoming a Take 5 Youth Organisation please contact
Jim Morgan
Senior Project Development Officer
Belfast Health Development Unit
Tel: 077 6608 4918
Email:jim.morgan@bhdu.org
Email:mlbt@bhdu.org
Becoming a Take 5 Youth Organisation
Youth organisations play a vital role in the Health and Wellbeing of young people, their staff and volunteers.
By registering to become a Take 5 steps to wellbeing youth organisation, you can show your commitment to promoting positive mental and emotional health and wellbeing for young people, staff, and volunteers.
Take 5 steps to wellbeing in Workplaces
Many adults spend much of their time at work and now workplaces can use the Take 5 steps to wellbeing framework to promote wellbeing among staff. In Belfast the Take 5 in Workplaces programme is delivered by Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Business in the Community and Belfast Health Development Unit.
The programme is based on best practice guidelines and NICE Mental Wellbeing at Work. Workplaces who sign up to take part in the programme will be supported to conduct an audit of the wellbeing initiatives they run to identify how these align with Take 5. This can help the organisation to see which areas they can develop further and make a Take 5 Action Plan to achieve this. Examples of some simple steps a workplace might include in their Action Plan are:
- Sharing Take 5 messages via posters, leaflets, emails and events
- Provision of Take 5 awareness sessions to staff
- Integrating health and wellbeing within team building and related activities for staff.
Becoming a Take 5 Workplace
Workplaces can play a vital role in the health and wellbeing of our population. By becoming a Take 5 workplace, you can show your commitment to promoting positive mental and emotional health wellbeing for your staff.
For information on how to become a Take 5 workplace please contact Clare Flynn at Belfast Health & Social Care Trust (Clare.Flynn@belfasttrust.hscni.net). You will be asked to complete an application process. If successful, representatives from your organisation will be invited to take part in a workshop to explore the Take 5 approach and how this could be adopted in your workplace.
You’ll be supported to complete an audit of your current activity to promote staff health and wellbeing, identifying how you can use Take 5 to enhance this. You’ll develop an Action Plan on promoting Take 5 in your workplace (as well as being) asked to gather evidence on how this has been delivered.
A visit will take place to your organisation and you’ll be awarded accreditation based on your Action Plan and evidence. Your Take 5 Accreditation will last 2 years and we advise you to renew it every 2 years (or annually) to ensure you are implementing a continual improvement approach.
