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Royal Caribbean Cruises is one travel company leading the way when it comes to supporting employees during Mental Health Awareness Week, as well as for the remaining 51 weeks of the year
We shouldn’t need a reminder to be kind to ourselves and to others, but every now and again it doesn’t do any harm to stop what we’re doing and think about how we can make our lives, and those of others, better with kindness. This is the main message of Mental Health Awareness Week 2020, which is taking place from 18-24 May.
One travel company that’s taking the annual awareness campaign in its stride is Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL). The cruise company’s Wellbeing and Ability Employee Resource Group – made up of 20 RCCL-employed volunteers in varying stages of their careers – is this week distributing a comprehensive collection of resources designed to improve and maintain mental health.
Evelyn Byway, senior guest and trade services executive and co–lead of the Wellbeing and Ability Employee Resource Group for 2020, explains why enhancing support for Mental Health Awareness Week differs this year:
“We’re all at home [because of the coronavirus crisis]. If we were in the office it would be easier to have a big event on one day, but because we’re at home it’s harder. By sending out different messages and activities each day, I should be able to reach more people.”
The group is emailing a newsletter every day during Mental Health Awareness Week, which contains a 5-10 minute meditation, essential oil of the day, kindness-themed message to boost happiness, and a main feature. This main feature is either a video or a webinar, with Monday’s focusing on enhancing personal resilience and why kindness matters; tips from a decluttering expert on Tuesday (and an explanation as to why this is important for mental health); Wednesday welcoming Reuben’s Retreat founder Nicola Graham to give an inspirational speech about her journey; a guide to using essential oils to support conditions such as depression and anxiety on Thursday; and an interactive acupressure class on Friday to help combat stress and tiredness, among other issues.
This marks the first time RCCL has distributed mental health support resources consistently over the course of a whole week.
“We’re connecting with each other even though we’re at home – even if people aren’t consciously thinking about [their mental health needs], they know there is support there for them if required,” says Byway.
All the resources from the week are being stored on RCCL’s internal intranet system, while trade partners have access to the RCL Cares wellbeing hub. This hub is designed to help the travel trade through ever-changing situations such as the coronavirus crisis and features mindfulness tips, yoga classes and links to mental health charities.
Looking to the future, Byway says she has more ideas for promoting mental health within the RCCL community, including themed days focusing on the likes of stress, sleep and gratitude. She also has plans to source someone to share a personal story about how they live with or have overcome mental health problems.
Byway explains that supporting mental health isn’t just important for the individual, it’s important for businesses too: “One in four of us will suffer from mental ill health at some point, causing absence from work, so creating an accepting, supportive and inclusive workplace environment is essential.”
Find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week.
Which resources did you find the most useful?
I loved the web seminar on enhancing personal resilience and why kindness matters, and I also found the decluttering video very informative.
How did these resources help you?
The seminar really made you think about how you react to certain situations and it made me reflect on how I communicate with people in the office. The declutter video had some great tips on where to start with decluttering your spaces at home – mess and clutter really stress me out, so this was a great help.
Do you think the resources will help other RCCL employees too?
Yes. I think a lot of people still think of mental health as a taboo subject but actually, when you reflect on the messages and information being offered by RCCL, these resources really can benefit everyone by helping them to evaluate their mental health and understand how they can improve it.
