The Westbury Hotel nestled near Dublin’s Grafton Street was the latest host venue for DeCare Dental’s Wellness that Works breakfast seminar on Thursday, September 26th. With an early start and busy morning ahead, the Grafton Suite was quick to fill with an extensive range of Wellness experts including business and HR managers, wellness advocates and employee leaders.
DeCare Dental’s CEO, Maureen Walsh, welcomed the room and introduced the morning’s guest speakers and proceedings with a brief background on DeCare. Maureen has led DeCare Dental Insurance Ireland from start-up stages over 20 years ago to become Ireland’s only specialist dental insurer and oral health company. Maureen discussed how DeCare’s oral health expertise became a dominant stepping stone to developing Wellness programs in the workplace hub and with the power of video, demonstrate how positivity and happiness can be spread with something so very simple as a smile.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Advocates
David Casey, DeCare Dental’s Wellness and Health Promotions Manager, followed next taking the room on a wellness journey and showing us that workplaces have the power to shape people’s lives. The benefits of having a healthy workforce and the workplace as an optimum location to promote health and wellbeing were explored in depth and the most poignant message from this discussion was “The wealth of business depends on the health of workers” (Dr Maria Neira, WHO). David spoke about the importance of breaking that mental health stigma and to really be aware of the language surrounding it. David has over 9 years clinical experience in healthcare and has worked over the past 6 years designing, building and implementing wellness and education programs for over 500 companies across Ireland and the UK.
Next to take to the podium was the CEO of the Marie Keating Foundation, Liz Yeates. Liz spoke about workplace cancer prevention programs and the struggles of returning to work after cancer. The Marie Keating foundation was set up 21 years ago, in 1998. The foundation concentrates on under privileged groups and run very important cancer awareness campaigns. Liz spoke about their valuable services and campaigns. We learned that the “I gave a s**t” awareness campaign increased bowel cancer screening by over 7% in the areas it was rolled out in. Liz finished her talk by explaining to room the importance of screenings and how we all can reduce our risks.
Helen Quinn, HR and Employment Law adviser from the Small Firms Association, treated the room to a relaxing meditation session after the informative morning talks. Helen is very passionate about bringing meditation into the workplace and bringing more awareness into our day to day working lives.
Dermot Goode, a leading expert on Healthcare Benefits in Ireland, took us on a journey of the emerging trends in employee wellness and how wellness is not just a quick fix. It takes commitment over time to achieve the very best results.
Orla Conneely, director of High Achievers, spoke to room about mindset, and the importance of keeping our mind healthy. Orla believes that in order to create a different tomorrow, we must look at our thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that are driving our actions if we are looking to create different results. It is known that our mind has 60,000 thoughts a day, with 95% continuously repetitive and that strong experiences and emotions are stored in our sub conscious mind. An inspiring quote to send the session – ‘Be the best version of yourself’.
Dr Fiona Geaney, Founder and Chief Executive officer of Food Choice Ltd was the final seminar speaker of the morning. Dr Fiona explained to the room how using an evidence based approach improves nutritional health in the workplace. In the everyday working life, we make over 200 decisions a day on what we eat and it is well known that a poor diet is one of the biggest health risks in Ireland today. Food Choice empowers employees through knowledge and nutrition education and creates supportive healthy eating environments that facilitate healthy food choices. Food Choice is dedicated to producing research that will continue to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of employees in client companies and that of their friends and family. Speaking about the importance of nutritional health in the workplace, Dr Fiona told the room that changing the environment, changes behaviours. Cutting as little as 130 calories out, can give someone a weight loss of between 10-12 pounds over 1 year. Employers have a big responsibility, get involved as it will encourage employees to make the change.
Panel Discussion
The refreshing and educational morning, the last for DeCare in 2019, ended with a comprehensive panel discussion hosted by Maureen Walsh, DeCare CEO and comprised of Dermot Goode (Total Health Cover), Geraldine Lavin (Network Manager – SFA Skillnet) and Adrian Yeates (Managing Director – Lizado Services).
Wellbeing events are continuing to grow…
With the success of events in around the country, DeCare’s Wellness that Works events will be back in the New Year! DeCare Dental are experts in employee wellness programmes. When it comes to employee health and wellbeing, we understand just how important a healthy, happy workforce can be. This is why we developed a course that builds the principles and knowledge of health and wellbeing and gives these tools to Wellness/HR teams that inspire and encourage others in their workforce. DeCare’s Health and Wellbeing Training Program, includes everything you need for your managers, team leaders and wellness champions to set up and manage a workplace wellness program. The training is designed to equip organisations with the tools to run successful wellbeing programmes. Statistics show us that keeping our employees healthy can improve quality of life and can impact your bottom line with reduced healthcare costs, improving productivity and boosting morale.
If this is something you would be interested in attending, email wellness@decaredental.eu to be the first to hear of new events across the country. For information on wellness programs offered by DeCare, visit www.decare.ie/corporate and for upcoming events see www.wellnessthatworks.ie
