Psychology Week |14 November 2019
‘Put on your oxygen mask first’
National Psychology Week is a national annual event organised by psychology personnel across the country with the aim of increasing awareness on matters pertaining to psychology, advocate for mental health, holistic development, and positive relationships within the Seychelles’ population, while promoting the psychology profession. It is held every year from November 9 to 16.
This year, the theme is ‘Put on your oxygen mask first’ and various activities have been planned to allow individuals to focus on caring for themselves, a popular phenomenon coined as self-care. This will revolve around different aspects such as maintaining positive mental and physical health, dealing with stress and burnout, while also talking about suicide prevention.
During the week, presentations will be delivered to people in the caring profession, such as social workers, health professionals and personnel involved in disaster management. These jobs require one to provide services to others and often professionals in these fields tend to neglect their own health, both physical and mental, however the theme will run throughout the year, where others agencies and organisation can also benefit from the activities.
Self-care for professionals is about providing adequate attention to your own physical and psychological wellbeing so that you can support the people you work with more effectively. Although it's a simple concept in theory, it's something that is often overlooked.
The concept of self-care is similar to the safety procedures on an aircraft: that you have to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others, which means you cannot help others if you are not well.
Self-care includes exercising, maintaining a balanced diet, maintaining a good work-life balance, maintaining relationship with colleagues, family and friends, self-reflection, time management, budgeting, positive thinking, pursuing new interests, meditation/relaxation, activities that can be actively and consistently applied, to improve our quality of life.
Good self-care is key to improved mental and physical health, reduced anxiety, and increased self-awareness.
The main activity organised is a series of presentation in various workplaces which will elaborate on the importance of self-care and offer strategies to manage stress and prevent burnout, and in turn increase work productivity and life satisfaction. This may continue after this week with interested parties, and students and teachers are also target groups for this. Similar topics will also be featured on radio and television programmes throughout the week.
The Seychelles’ Psychological Society’s AGM, as a first initiative to support the work of the psychology personnel, will also take place during the week.
Christophe Zialor/Emma Cadeau