Positive Health and Environment Week
4 August 2011
Professor Terry Threadgold, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Staff and Diversity with football tournament winners ‘Psycho Athletico’
“Ensuring that the health and well being of staff is supported is extremely important if we are to ensure that we have a happy, healthy and productive workforce. PHEW is something which staff have found enjoyable and valuable, enhancing their experience of working for the University.” says Professor Terry Threadgold, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Staff & Diversity
More than 1200 bookings were made by staff for the events and activities on offer as part of Positive Health and Environment Week (PHEW).
Running over two weeks in June and July, PHEW was organised as part of the Positive Working Environment initiative and aimed to provide members of staff with the opportunity to try new activities, or to learn more about a range of topics in relation to health, wellbeing and the environment.
On offer during the event were a variety of health checks, such as cholesterol testing; prostate screening; diabetes testing; allergy testing; food intolerance tests; mole checks, and healthy heart checks.
Activities involving sport and exercise were also available, including the third annual PHEW football tournament which took place on 30th June. Nine teams competed in the evening sunshine for the coveted PHEW 2011 football trophy, fuelled by the Fair Trade snacks and drinks provided courtesy of University catering. In a competitive final, ‘Psycho Athletico’ from the School of Psychology beat ‘Real Madras’, a Finance/Information Services and School of Medicine collaboration, to the trophy.
The PHEW 2011 football trophy
The last day of PHEW 2011 involved a Drop in Day where staff were able to obtain advice and information from representatives from Human Resources; the Health Centre; Staff Counselling, and the Centre for Lifelong Learning. In addition to the information stands, the Viriamu Jones Gallery in the University’s Main Building played host to 13 beauty houses from department store John Lewis who treated staff to massages and makeovers.
Members of staff were also able to find out more about a number of charitable organisations, including the National Osteoporosis Society, Give as You Earn, and Foodbank. A total of 45.1kg of food was donated by University staff to the Cardiff Foodbank project, which aims to help local families in need.
Professor Threadgold added: “As the University continues to work towards obtaining the Corporate Health Standard – the quality mark of workplace health promotion in Wales, PHEW 2011 was a great opportunity to highlight our commitment to ensuring a happy and healthy workforce and I’m delighted it was such a great success.”
If you have any feedback about PHEW 2011 or have ideas for the future you can submit your comments via an online survey at: https://www.surveys.cardiff.ac.uk/phew2011feedback . Comments can also be sent via email to phew@cf.ac.uk or by calling Louise Hartrey on extension79231.
