Wyboston Lakes Resort’s head of people and development
Sophia Montagna has become the first certified EventWell Mental Health
Champion.
The charitable social enterprise EventWell created The Champions by EventWell programme to train event industry professionals to become Mental Health Champions within their organisation.
Through her new certification, Montagna will be able to
raise awareness of mental health among the team, encourage positive mental
health within the organisation, challenge mental health stigma, and provide
peer support to her colleagues.
Montagna enrolled on the course after Wyboston Lakes Resort signed
the EventWell Manifesto, which calls for the mental health of all event
industry professionals is supported and protected.
Montagna said: “I had already trained as a Mental Health
First Aider and, as a business, it has long been a priority. I enrolled on the
course and completed each module on a month-by-month basis. I developed a
Mental Health Action Plan, which I will now begin implementing across the
resort.
“Just behind paramedics and firefighters, the events industry
was voted the fifth most stressful. It’s reported that 1 in 3 event
professionals will suffer or have suffered from poor mental health during their
career. More than 80% in Right Angle Events’ recent research reported they find
working in the sector stressful.”
EventWell chief executive, Helen Moon, said: "We are
delighted to have officially welcomed Sophia as our first official and fully
trained EventWell Mental Health Champion. Mental health champions support
primary mental health intervention and prevention in the workplace, and by
proactively supporting the mental wellbeing of teams and people help to prevent
unnecessary mental decline and ill health. We are delighted to be working with
Wyboston Lakes Resort and looking forward to fully supporting Sophia in her
role."
The Champions by EventWell programme includes the ‘six
mental health at work core standards’ set out in the Stevenson/Farmer Thriving
at Work Review 2017 commissioned by the UK Government. The standards were
developed as part of the Mental Health at Work Commitment by Mind and adapted
by EventWell for the events industry with the addition of a seventh standard.
This standard covers onsite mental health and provides a quality framework to
place mental wellbeing at the heart of an organisation’s culture and a movement
that drives organisational policy, procedure, and strategy.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
