Discover how UBC promotes wellbeing initiatives in teaching, learning, and workplace environments that support psychological health and safety. In this issue: | Workplace wellbeing resources & events | | Thrive Keynote: Building resilience in times of change November 20 | Thursday, 11 am-12 pm | Zoom Featuring opening remarks from UBC President Dr. Benoit-Antoine Bacon, we’re pleased to welcome you to the Thrive Keynote: Building Resilience in Times of Change, with Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier. In this free one-hour webinar, Dr. Pelletier (a UBC alumna and Sauder School of Management and Executive Education instructor) draws upon her unique blend of business insight and clinical expertise as a practicing workplace psychologist to challenge common assumptions and offer practical strategies to help individuals, teams, and organizations navigate change and uncertainty. | | | Improve your mental health literacy with these courses & events Thrive is a mental health literacy campaign designed to build awareness, understanding, and skills for supporting mental health in the workplace. This curated list of upcoming live events and self-paced courses features some of our most popular and recommended learning opportunities. Discover the Thrive catalogue | | | | Preparing for Workplace Crises: resources and courses After updating the Orange Folder and launching the UBC Mental Health Continuum, we wanted to put everything together in a curated list of courses, tools, and resources for faculty and staff. This catalogue is designed to assist you in proactive learning, skill-building, and taking action to help you prepare for a workplace crisis. Explore the courses & resources | | | The Working Mind: Mental Health Training for Employees November 18 | Tuesday, 9 am-3 pm | Zoom The Working Mind is an evidence-based training program designed to address and promote mental health and reduce stigma in a workplace setting. This full-day virtual workshop includes easily applied scenario-based lessons, videos of people with lived experience of mental illness, reference guides, and practical handouts. | Building healthy sleep habits December 2 | Tuesday, 11 am-12 pm | Zoom Sleep is a critical part of our wellbeing. Building healthy sleep habits helps fight illness, decrease the risk of disease, and reduce stress. When sleep improves, so does our mood, concentration, motivation, memory, decision-making, and interpersonal skills. Join Bridget Jensen, founder of Better Bedtime, as she discusses how you can start sleep-healthy habits, establish an effective bedtime routine, and address common problems and how to avoid them. | Upcoming events A snapshot of upcoming health and wellbeing events across UBC. | | Psychological Health and Safety in focus: Psychological and social support | | This article was written as part of an ongoing series to highlight the 13 factors of a Psychologically Healthy and Safe workplace: Psychological and social support. | Prioritizing psychological and social support at UBC Thrive is an opportunity to reflect on how UBC fosters psychological and social support—a key psychosocial factor identified by the Canadian National Standard for a Psychological Healthy and Safe Workplace. In this spotlight, we look at four strategies that individuals, leaders, and teams can use, including building mental health literacy, strengthening leadership support, reducing stigma, and providing effective support. | Wellbeing in action at UBC | | Why wellbeing matters at UBC Wellbeing is more than programming. While initiatives like Thrive, workshops, and mindfulness classes play an important role in supporting individuals and fostering organizational wellbeing, meaningful transformation happens through leadership, workload management, inclusive community-building, and system design that reduces harm and enables people to thrive. | Student Grief Guide At last year's Thrive Research Roundtable, UBCO's Helen Sharp shared details of the soon-to-be-released Student Grief Guide. The guide has recently been launched and is now available to support students navigating grief. Built upon the work of the Compassionate University Project at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Student Grief Guide was developed and adapted by the UBC Okanagan campus to serve UBC students. The guide includes campus-specific resources for UBC Vancouver and Okanagan students to recognize grief, offer support to others, and familiarize themselves with the resources available to students on either campus. The Student Grief Guide was funded by the UBC Wellbeing Strategic Initiative Fund in 2024. | Publish and perish: rethinking academic work culture According to a recent QS Magazine article, academia's "publish or perish" culture is now "publish AND perish," leading to widespread work stress, mental health problems, and burnout among researchers globally. Tackling this systemic issue requires rethinking academic work culture, challenging productivity metrics, addressing mental health stigma, and ensuring accessible support to foster a healthier environment. This article includes quotes from our Thrive Keynote speaker, Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier, where she discusses how academics can set boundaries, identify some of the warning signs, and avoid substance use issues some academics can experience. | Thanks for reading! We will be featuring sign-offs from our Healthy UBC editorial team, and consider it a chance to see the people behind the stories. This edition is brought to you by: | | Adam Knight | Communication & Engagement Specialist | Health, Wellbeing & Benefits There is a quote from psychiatrist, philosopher and neuroscientist, Iain McGilchrist, that has stuck with me a lot lately—particularly as we try to understand the implications of a world that is more and more mediated by algorithms and Artificial Intelligence: “The opposite of life isn’t death. Death is part of the process of life. The opposite of life is machine”. Technology is so intrinsic to all that we do—I am certainly not advocating we hide from technology—but this quote reminds me that being too reliant on machines has deep implications, particularly as we look to "nurture a strong and vibrant UBC community." After reading my colleague Miranda's sign-off about our relationship to grief in the last edition of Healthy UBC, I have been thinking about how we need person-to-person connections in challenging times. Technology can help by giving us remote access to friends and family, or counselling and other useful resources, and yet nothing is quite the same as connecting directly with other humans—in good times and bad. When we are connected, when we can share our emotions, console one another... In those moments, we take subtle steps away from becoming more machine-like. So, during Thrive month, I hope you find time to connect with those important to you. I won't share specific resources or events here—the newsletter above has plenty of that. Instead, I want to take this moment to encourage you to enjoy being human, to step back from the machine, and to connect with someone in person. It is truly the best way to thrive. | Accessibility request We’re committed to making our communications accessible to everyone. If you encounter any issues accessing this newsletter or have suggestions for improvement, please don’t hesitate to contact our team at hr.healthwellbeing@ubc.ca. | You are receiving the Healthy UBC Newsletter email because you’ve subscribed to this email from UBC Human Resources, Health, Wellbeing & Benefits. © Copyright The University of British Columbia Unsubscribe | | | | | |
_(4).jpg?1761150843237)
.png?1761339672406)
