Community Pharmacies encourage people to ‘take 5 steps to wellbeing’ this winter

Living Well community pharmacies are backing a call for people to look after their mental health this December and January.

Across the two months, the pharmacies involved are encouraging people to ‘take 5 steps to wellbeing’ and show the same level of care for their mental health as they do for their physical health.

The ‘Take 5’ approach encourages building healthy habits into your everyday life to help bolster your emotional and mental wellbeing.

Fiona Teague, Regional Lead for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing at the Public Health Agency (PHA), said: “Looking after your mental health should be every bit as important as your physical health.

“The Take 5 Steps are a great way to make sure you’re checking in with yourself and taking time for that little bit of self-care that can help you to feel better.

“They cover a range of aspects crucial to your emotional wellbeing and are good for helping people to find balance, build resilience and boost mental health and wellbeing.”

The Take 5 Steps are:

• Connect
• Keep learning
• Be active
• Take notice
• Give

To find out more about the Take 5 Steps, please visit www.pha.site/Take5Steps

Niall Falls, community pharmacist from Falls Pharmacy in Cookstown, said: “We’re delighted to be involved with this campaign which can really help people with their mental wellbeing.

“Starting that conversation about someone’s mental health is so important and our role at the heart of communities allows us to make those connections.

“We also have other more specialist resources that we can signpost to, for those that are feeling low or feel they might benefit from further help.”

Living Well is a community-based pharmacy service offered in over 500 pharmacies across Northern Ireland. It is delivered in partnership by the PHA, Community Pharmacy NI, and the Department of Health, and provides key public health messages and advice through these pharmacies.