Discover the five ways to wellbeing during Mental Health Awareness Week
Mental Health Awareness Week will be held from Monday 18th to Sunday 24th September 2023.
This year’s theme is Five Ways, Five Days. The Mental Health Foundation is asking New Zealanders to use the five ways to wellbeing to improve their wellbeing through out the week. These simple actions are backed by evidence and can be easily incorporated into anyone’s life, at any time.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson says "Life has been a rollercoaster lately, with stress and overwhelm hitting us from all angles. We've faced uncertainty, unfamiliarity, and hardships that have left us with mixed emotions.
"Wellbeing isn’t just for people who have not experienced mental illness – it’s for everyone."
So put the Five Ways to Wellbeing into practice this Mental Health Awareness Week:
- Take notice/Me aro tonu.
Take notice of the things around you, remember the simple things that give you joy – me aro tonu ki ngā mea māmā noa i ngākau harikoa ai koe.
- Give/Tukua.
Give your time, your words, your presence; tukua te wā ki a koe, ō kupu, ko koe tonu.
- Be Active/Me kori tonu.
Be active, do what you can – whāia te mea ka taea e koe, enjoy what you do – kia pārekareka tāu i whai ai, move your mood – kia pai ake ō piropiro.
- Connect/Me whakawhanaunga.
Connect, talk and listen – me kōrero, me whakarongo, be there – me whakawātea i a koe, feel connected – me rongo i te whanaungatanga.
- Keep Learning/Me ako tonu.
Keep learning and embrace new experiences, awhitia te wheako hou, see opportunities – kimihia ngā ara hou, surprise yourself – me ohorere koe i a koe anō.
Get more information about Mental Health Awareness Week, including how to order resources.
Welcome to Waka Toa Ora
Waka Toa Ora is a Canterbury DHB-led inter-sectoral collaborative partnership in the Canterbury region. The partnership is based on the WHO Healthy Cities model, and was previously known as Healthy Christchurch.
The key theme of initiative is that all sectors and groups have a role to play in creating a healthy Canterbury, whatever their specific focus (recreation, employment, youth, environmental enhancement, transport, housing or another aspect of health or wellbeing).
This inter-sectoral initiative fosters collaboration between organisations who have signed the Waka Toa Ora Charter.
Read the Waka Toa Ora Charter - updated July 2019.
The new name Waka Toa Ora communicates that we are all in a waka together. We are rowing in the same direction and navigating the many dimensions of wellbeing (physical, social, spiritual, and mental and emotional — hau ora, wai ora, mauri ora, toi ora). We are stronger navigating the regional landscape together.
There are currently over 200 charter signatories to the Waka Toa Ora Charter, including government agencies, businesses, voluntary sector groups, networks and residents’ associations. The organisations involved reflect a diverse focus and cover many aspects of health and wellbeing.
