Conference Design

This conference has been designed upon the 5 Steps to mental wellbeing

The NHS website outlines the 5 steps to mental wellbeing and this can be used to influence the design of the ACP conference design.

1. Connect with other people

Good relationships are important for your mental wellbeing. They can:

  • Help you build a sense of belonging and self-worth
  • Give you an opportunity to share positive experiences
  • Provide emotional support and allow you to support others

ACTION:

  • Provide ample networking opportunities
  • Allow mentors to meet mentees during lunch break or evening social events
  • Stay onsite for welcome reception and Saturday reception to facilitate networking
  • Encourage everyone to introduce themselves to someone they do not know already
  • Launch UKSMO and ensure attendees feel part of the organisation
  • Opportunity to share good practice with others, including collaboration on projects

2. Be physically active

Being active is not only great for your physical health and fitness. Evidence shows it can improve your mental wellbeing by:

  • Raising your self-esteem
  • Helping you to set goals or challenges and achieve them
  • Causing chemical changes in your brain which can help to positively change your mood

ACTION:

  • Consider early morning walk, run, yoga events on the days of the conference
  • Encourage attendees to move between sessions
  • Consider a walking bus to move attendees to an outside location for an evening event (weather dependent)

3. Learn new skills

Research shows that learning new skills can improve your mental wellbeing by:

  • Boosting self-confidence and raising self-esteem
  • Helping you to build a sense of purpose
  • Helping you to connect with others

ACTION:

  • Provide workshops that upskill participants
  • Mindfulness training
  • How to deal with burnout
  • Educational supervision skills
  • Developing the skills to be a mentor
  • Writing SBA questions for the SCE Medical Oncology
  • Negotiation skills to apply to job planning

4. Give to others

Research suggests that acts of giving and kindness can help improve your mental wellbeing by:

  • Creating positive feelings and a sense of reward
  • Giving you a feeling of purpose and self-worth
  • Helping you connect with other people

ACTION:

  • Provide a public engagement programme of lectures on the Sunday afternoon, opportunity to impact the future generation of students and trainees
  • Ask individual consultants to record/deliver a 5 minute talk on their career path
  • Ask individuals to record/deliver a talk about what interesting activities they have outside of work
  • Opportunity to share good practice or innovation in the workplace through oral and poster presentations at the conference

5. Pay attention to the present moment (mindfulness)

Paying more attention to the present moment can improve your mental wellbeing. This includes your thoughts and feelings, your body and the world around you. Some people call this awareness “mindfulness” which can help you enjoy life more and understand yourself better. It can positively change the way you feel about life and how you approach challenges.

ACTION:

  • Run mindfulness sessions on the Sunday morning
  • Developing mediation techniques that cultivate mindfulness
  • Implementing mindfulness on two wheels (exercising too)
  • Developing a new approach and new challenges
  • Recognising mental toughness, resilience and vulnerability
  • Take regular breaks: ensure there are fixed breaks for refreshments and that after the Sunday first session on mindfulness, that the break is longer. Ensure that no session is longer than 2 hours
  • Demonstrate breathing exercises that encourage mindfulness
  • Actively listen: listen carefully to others in networking opportunities and during presentations, encourage all presenters to make their presentations interactive
  • Practice gratitude: Encourage all participants to provide immediate feedback following a presentation (Vevox via phone app etc.)