At an award ceremony this afternoon, Ceartas was awarded the Healthy Working Lives Silver Award by postman and Commonwealth boxing gold medallist Charlie Flynn. Sharon and Patricia were delighted to meet Charlie, and were very entertained by his speech at the ceremony.

Achieving HWL Silver has been a team effort, with everyone at Ceartas coming up with innovative ideas and input which assisted in our achievement. Healthy Working Lives is now ingrained in the culture of the organisation. It’s important to us as we all face significant challenges throughout our roles which can cause high stress levels, from the Advocacy Workers going to Mental Health Tribunals to Patricia dealing with accountants and making sure we are paid on time!

The HWL programme has made us occasionally stop and think of ourselves, to take some time out for things like team lunches, walks together and even a back massage in the office. If your organisation is interested in Healthy Working Lives, you can find out more about it here: Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives.

A special thanks to Sharon who is the lead for HWL within Ceartas and is a key driver in the work of Healthy Working Lives. It won’t be long now before we’re going for Gold. We’re off to celebrate with a tangerine and cup of green tea!