Minister Nomafrench Mbombo opens Groote Schuur Wellness Centre for staff | Western Cape Government

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Minister Nomafrench Mbombo opens Groote Schuur Wellness Centre for staff

1 November 2022

Minister for Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, Dr. Nomafrench Mbombo opened a wellness centre at Groote Schuur Hospital for their 4 500 employees employed at the hospital. 

The vision of the Wellness Centre is to have a hospital that prioritises the wellbeing of staff and to foster healthy, safe, collaborative and responsive environment where staff feels included and have a sense of belonging. It focusses on the holistic state of wellbeing, which is physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, spiritually, occupationally and environmentally well. 

“The pandemic had a negative impact, both, socially and psychologically on the general population, more so, on the Department’s healthcare workers. The heavy burden it placed on the staff during this period and the amount of fear it instilled of contracting the virus, transmitting the infection to family members and loss of fellow colleagues, raised a lot of anxiety which will take a while to recover from,” says Minister Mbombo.  
 

Groote Schuur Hospital has reviewed the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of healthcare workers and placing their wellbeing at the centre and as a priority. 
 

The services offered by the Wellness Centre are:

  • Individual and group counselling or therapy
  • Critical skills leadership training of managers and leaders
  • Awareness-raising activities and events
  • Mental health peer support training and facilitated groups
  • Stress, trauma and wellbeing training and workshops
  • Wellness centre facility (gym, counselling rooms, rooms for meditation, yoga, creative arts and training for workshops)
  • Research, monitoring and evaluation.


“Our staff and their wellbeing are of utmost importance. Without them the health system cannot stand. I welcome this initiative by Groote Schuur Hospital, in identifying and prioritizing the need to have an on-site wellness centre for all its staff,” commented the Minister Mbombo.

The centre will be managed by a mental health Occupational Therapist, Misha Naik, who initiated the GSH Health and Wellness department in the pandemic. “I am proud to say that I work for an organisation that has truly committed to prioritising the wellbeing of its employees, which in turn will ensure that service delivery and patient care is of a high standard. We are committed to ensuring that staff are informed of the holistic wellbeing services on offer, improved accessibility by creating an online booking system and have made provision for staff to access onsite services, once operational requirements have been met,” commented Misha.