UBC’s Workplace Health Promotions team has been very busy in 2019. Check out the photos and stories below for a look into our activities across UBC and beyond.
Throughout February and March, in partnership with UBC’s Pharmacists Clinic and pharmaceutical science students, we provided over 200 kidney health screenings to staff and faculty at the Vancouver campus and Diamond Health Care Centre.
Chronic kidney disease is irreversible. Our goal at this year’s Travelling Health Fair was to assess attendees’ risk factors and identify early symptoms of reduced kidney function. The assessments identified high blood pressure readings in 16% of attendees and some degree of reduced kidney function in 3% of participants. Attendees now understand why kidneys are important and how to minimize their risk of future kidney disease. Most importantly, they were referred to appropriate health professionals if they required additional support.
On March 7 and 8 we attended the annual Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses 2019 Summit along with our UBC colleagues in Student Health Promotion & Education. The theme of this year’s summit was Building Connections at All Levels: A Socio-Ecological Approach to Wellbeing on Campus. At the event, students, staff, faculty and senior administrators from across BC came together to promote mental health and wellbeing on our campuses.
In collaboration with Student Health Promotion colleagues, Miranda Massie delivered a presentation focused on UBC’s strategic approach to mental health literacy. Melissa Lafrance and Miranda also hosted a booth at the summit, showcasing UBC’s unique and innovative strategies and programs for promoting workplace wellbeing. Their goal was to inspire other institutions to adopt or adapt these strategies for their own campuses.
As part of the UBC HR catalogue of health programming, the Workplace Health Promotions team hosted and delivered a number of workshops, including Welcoming Change in Your Life. Provided by UBC’s EFAP provider Morneau Shepell, the workshop focused on helping participants to develop strategies for managing change more effectively.
Reminder: UBC departments and units have access to a variety of free personal and professional development workshops through Morneau Shepell. Please contact Melissa Lafrance for more information.
We participated in the annual UBC Walkabout with members of our HR team. If you’re looking for opportunities to be active with your colleagues on campus, sign up for Sports Day or check out our next issues of the Healthy UBC newsletter for information about the upcoming Pick Your Peak Stair Challenge.
Photo credits: Miranda Massie and Melissa Lafrance
Your trusty Health and Wellbeing team has been very busy this spring. Check out the photos and stories below for an insider’s view of what we’ve been up to.
In partnership with the UBC Pharmacists Clinic and Pharmacy students, we provided over 200 diabetes screenings to UBC staff and faculty at the Point Grey campus and VGH. As a result of the assessments, 13% of participants discovered that they were pre-diabetic or at risk for pre-diabetes. The screenings also prompted 44% of participants to seek follow-up care with another health professional.
Some of our fantastic pharmacy students providing assessments.
Awards Announcement: At the recent Canadian Pharmacists Conference 2017 in Quebec City, the collaborative work between UBC HR and the UBC Pharmacists Clinic was highlighted when the clinic team was awarded the prize of Best Pharmacy Practiced Research poster. The poster, titled “Perceptions of pharmacy students involved in preventative health and wellness events at the University of British Columbia,” was created in support of the Travelling Health Fair. The award is not only a tribute to the successful partnership and continuing work of UBC HR and the UBC Pharmacists Clinic, but also represents an opportunity to explore further collaborations in support health and wellbeing at UBC. View the other research poster here.
Over 500 UBC staff and faculty took part in this 7th annual end-of-term celebration. This year, we were part of the staff and volunteer teams; nothing beats cheering on your colleagues at the finish line! Check out this year’s results and awards as well as the photo gallery.
Cheering on teams at the finish line!
More than 450 staff and faculty tracked their Stair Challenge points in this year’s Pick Your Peak Stair Challenge. The total stairs climbed by all participants was equal to 728,030 metres! We collectively climbed Mount Everest 82 times! This year, we managed to climb “Mount Everest” 18 more times compared to our 2016 numbers. A huge thank you to all our corporate health and fitness discount partners for donating prizes, and a big congratulations to all participants. Check out the inspiring photos from our 2017 Challenge.
Some of our lovely HR teammates adding to their challenge point totals.
With other colleagues from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan, we presented on UBC Thrive at the annual CACUSS conference for Canadian student services professionals in Ottawa. We were also invited to represent UBC HR on a panel about Mental Health Curricula for the CACUSS Best Practice Network in Canadian Higher Education. A highlight of our visit: we bumped into the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he kicked off Pride Month at Parliament!
Our Thrive presentations team!
Waiting our turn to shake hands with the PM.
While in Ottawa, members of our team met with colleagues working in workplace health and wellbeing from across the country. This was the 5th annual face-to-face gathering, and this time, we presented on UBC’s workplace health promotion activities and programs.
Our community of practice group at Carleton University.
With our UBC HR colleagues, we attended the annual Staff Pension Fair held at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre. The fair was a great opportunity to learn more about the pension plan with hosted information tables highlighting key services and resources.
Here we are chatting with staff!
Our table included information about the Employee and Family Assistance Program, UBC’s Benefits Plan, and Health and Wellbeing offerings. We interacted with over 300 people and had a great time answering questions, providing information and meeting colleagues from across the campus.
We have been busy delivering health and wellbeing-related training, educational sessions, and workshops across campus. Here are some of the topics we’ve covered over the past few months:
Here is Miranda delivering a presentation on self care
To learn more about upcoming events and workshops at UBC Vancouver, visit http://www.hr.ubc.ca/wellbeing-benefits/ or sign up for the Healthy UBC Newsletter.
Photos: Miranda Massie | Note: Photos cannot be used without the express permission of the attributed photographer. Please contact hr.info@ubc.ca.
Our Healthy UBC team has been busy over the past few months. Check out some of our Out and About photos below!
What a successful day! With the help of staff, faculty and student volunteers, we were able to hand out close to 4,000 Suicide Awareness pens and resource cards in addition to hosting two QPR Suicide Prevention workshops. We truly are making progress in creating a caring campus by increasing awareness and decreasing the stigma around suicide.
We are well on our way in the nine-week Walkabout Challenge and are participating on one of four human resources teams enrolled this year. The Majesties in Motion (see our lovely team pic below) are averaging around 320,000 steps a week!
Dog Walk to Tower Beach
To snag some extra social steps, we participated in the Dog Walker’s Stroll, one of the Step It Up weekly guided walks. We met up with around 40 colleagues from across campus, as well as five of their furry friends, and headed for a gorgeous sunny walk to the beach and back!
Our Health, Wellbeing and Benefits team ventured to Nourish Café on 10th Avenue for a fun and food-filled afternoon. We learned how to make hummus, crackers, Mediterranean roasted chicken, cauliflower and kale, and a millet and roasted squash salad with tahini dressing. Delish!
We have just finished our annual health screenings! Thank you to the more than 200 people who came out to receive their free diabetes screening.
Missed the fair? The UBC Pharmacists Clinic will be offering the same Diabetes Awareness Assessments for two weeks in March. Between March 6 and March 17 you can receive the same FREE screening offered at the Travelling Health Fair. Call the UBC Pharmacists Clinic at 604-827-2584 to book your appointment.
See you around!
Melissa and Miranda
Do you have an upcoming event that you would like us to be a part of? Email Miranda.massie@ubc.ca.
Our Health and Wellbeing team has been keeping busy over the spring and summer. Check out some of our updates and photos below.
We had over 460 staff and faculty participate this year-our biggest group ever!
Melissa and Miranda on the Wreck Beach stairs
The total stairs climbed by all participants was equal to 567,117 metres (over 567km!). We collectively climbed Mount Everest 64 times! A huge thank you to all of our corporate health and fitness discount partners for prizes and a big congratulations to all participants. Click here to see challenge photos and video.
We are excited to announce that two of our UBC HR team members (at both our Vancouver and Okanagan campuses) are now trained as Mental Health First Aid facilitators by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. This means that Mental Health First Aid training will be more widely available for staff, faculty and students. Click here for more information about Mental Health First Aid.
Mental Health First Aid training booklet
In June, a group of 40 health promotion and disability management professionals from post-secondary institutions across Canada met UBC Okanagan for a community of practice conference. There was solid representation from UBC HR in the crowd and it was a great opportunity to share ideas, present on new ideas and to highlight important initiatives. It was also a great chance to check out the Okanagan campus!
UBC Okanagan Campus
Our Health and Wellbeing team, along with members from the Workplace Learning and Engagement unit, attended and presented at the summer meeting of the UBC Event Professionals Network to promote professional development opportunities on campus.
All participants were then treated to a sun-filled, educational tour of the botanical gardens.
UBC Botanical Gardens
If you are interested in being a part of the Events Professionals Network, please email helen.gabor@ubc.ca.
Have you noticed that mindfulness has been in the news lately? We are so excited that the CBC recently profiled the work that UBC Human Resources has been doing with the Sauder School of Business and Mindwell Canada.
Read more about the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace here, or listen to an interview with UBC representatives, and Mindwell about the research that has been done (around 30 min.).
Click here to watch a video about UBC’s participation in the 30-Day Online Mindfulness program pilot.
We will be offering Mindfulness programs again this fall so stay tuned for dates and registration details.
We have been busy delivering training and educational sessions and workshops across campus over the past few months, including:
And lots more!!
The fall is gearing up to be one of our busiest ever so we will be seeing you around!
Happy August,
-Melissa and Miranda
Do you have an upcoming health and wellbeing event that you would like us to be a part of? Email Miranda.massie@ubc.ca.
Our Healthy UBC team had a very eventful few months to kick off the start of the year. Check out some of our Out and About photos below!
Suicide Awareness Day 2016
What a successful day! With the help of staff, faculty, student volunteers, we were able to hand out over 3,000 Suicide Awareness pens and resource cards in addition to hosting two QPR Suicide Prevention workshops. We truly are making progress in creating a caring campus by increasing awareness and decreasing stigma around suicide.
Listen to this great Public Service Announcement from CiTR.
Travelling Health Fair 2016
If you thought you saw us out and about more often this past month, you are probably right! We hosted our annual staff and faculty Health Fair in six different locations, including Childcare Services and the Diamond Health Care Centre. Once again we partnered with the knowledgeable staff and clinicians from the UBC Pharmacists Clinic to provide free lung health screenings to over 250 people.
UBC Walkabout
Not only are we helping to promote the 10th Annual UBC Walkabout program but we are participating in it. Meet our team-the Skywalkers! We are just past the halfway mark, so keep up the hard work and the friendly competition.
UBC Wins Mental Health in the Workplace Award
We were so honoured to accept the 2016 CM Hincks national award for outstanding workplace mental health programming from the Canadian Mental Health Association. It would not be possible without the amazing support from colleagues like you. Read more here.
New Staff Orientation
We helped welcome 55 new staff to UBC at the most recent orientation in February, and teamed up with our benefits colleagues to make we started them off right!
Outreach
We hosted information sessions over Reading Week for the 10th Annual Sauder Health and Safety Day and the 2016 UBC Advising Conference.
See you around!
-Melissa and Miranda
Do you have an upcoming event that you would like us to be a part of? Email Miranda.massie@ubc.ca.
June and July were busy months for all of us here at Healthy UBC!
We held our second annual 4 week Learn to Meditate Program with Wendy Quan; we began our very first 3 week Healthy UBC Summer Career Series with Pooja Khandelwal; we welcomed over 80 attendees at our Know Before you Go: Travel Benefits at UBC presentation with Stephanie Mah!
By far, however our biggest achievement was something we have been working towards for quite some time – a Healthy UBC Community of Practice for UBCs Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and Diamond Health Care Centre (DHCC) sites.
With a large portion of UBC staff and faculty working out of these satellite locations, and a historical gap in ongoing localized programming, we held a town hall type ‘Health Discussion’ on June 17 from 11.30-1pm to listen and to offer a forum for thoughts, ideas and suggestions for how we can work to ensure that our programs reach our off-site colleagues. It was fantastic!
The engagement, support and proactive atmosphere was eye opening, and the flow of ideas was exciting. This initial meeting has led to the development of an online forum through Basecamp, a leading web-based project management and collaboration tool, called DHCC & VGH Staff and Faculty Health Happenings. As it stands we currently have 36 members engaging on a daily basis – and we have scheduled the following workshops as a result:
Let’s keep the Momentum Going!
Are you located in the Diamond Health Care Centre, VGH or the surrounding areas? Want to get involved in DHCC & VGH Staff and Faculty Health Happenings? Email colin.hearne@ubc.ca for more information.
The Healthy UBC Team has had a fantastically busy few months! Check out some of our out-and-about photos below – you may even spot yourself!
Breaking news! UBC has been invited to celebrate Thrive on both the national and international stage this month. Thrive committee members will be presenting at the 2015 Annual CAUBO conference in Saint John and at the 2015 International Conference of Health Promoting Universities in Kelowna. Thrive will be presented as an innovative and collaborative community based model of positive mental health promotion.
Conference organizers wanted a committee group photo – so here’s what they got.
Have you spotted any of the new additions to Main Mall on UBC’s Vancouver campus that are helping to make us all a bit more relaxed? The installation of three bentwood swings, each one a unique design, are one of the many ways that Campus and Community Planning (C+CP) is helping to create a fun and vibrant public space for the campus community to enjoy. Check out some ‘swing selfies’ that you sent us!
A big thank you to all who were able to participate in this year’s Staff and Faculty Sports Day! It was a massively enjoyable day with over 400 participant sand 50 departments getting involved! We can’t wait until next year! Check out our photos here.
A big shout out to three ‘warriors’ working alongside us at Healthy UBC – Benefits Associate Florence Lum, Ergonomics Advisor Abigail Overduin; and Retirement & Survivor Benefits Associate Janet Poupart raised over $1,200 for the BC Easter Seals Camps by participating in Woman2Warror on May 24. W2W is a 5km obstacle course of trails, track, and grass aimed to push your strength, agility, balance, and sense of adventure to the limit! Check out their photos here.
A big shout out to all the peddlers who participated in the Spring 2015 Bike to Work Week .A special shout out to Healthy UBC’s Janet Poupart who biked to work for the very first time – when asked about the famously difficult ‘hill on 8th’ she replied “It was a breeze!” Check out her photo with peloton partner Miranda Massie here.
The Pick Your Peak Star Challenge 2015 kicked off on May 25 with a bang! If you are one of the 500 who have signed up, congratulations: you are now on your way to a healthier you!! With lots of prizes up for grabs we asked all participants for their stair selfies during week 1. All entries won free passes to Hot Box Yoga in Wesbrook Village for themselves or their team. Check out some of our favourites here.
On Jan. 8, UBC Robson Square hosted its annual Health Day and we were there!
A big thank you goes to all of UBC’s Corporate Health, Fitness & Family Discount partners (who came with lots of freebies) as well as campus representatives. Stephanie from UBC Benefits, Susanna from UBC MOST and Abigail from UBC Ergonomics were there to represent Human Resources. Other campus partners included BodyWorks Fitness Centre, Kara from UBC Sustainability; Bonnie from the Breast Cancer Prevention & Risk Assessment Clinic; and last but not least the fantastic volunteers from UBC Nursing Studies!
Check out some more photos from the day here.
Interested in hosting your own Health Day? Contact Miranda Massie (miranda.massie@ubc.ca), Health Promotions Coordinator for more information.