Malawi Liverpool Wellcome (MLW) has adopted a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on mental health and wellness.

According to MLW ‘s Occupational Health Nurse Stephen Amos, the new SOP, which was incorporated on 1 October 2021, will facilitate a long-lasting change regarding employees’ health.

 “In the initial mental health and wellness programme, there was no development of a health plan, monitoring, and rewarding consistent participators. The new SOP will put into consideration all these aspects. If perhaps a person’s goal is to lose weight, the person will take every opportunity like exercising and dieting to achieve his plan and goals,” said Amos.

Another staff member Zione Pondani commended MLW for introducing this new health and wellness SOP. According to Pondani, this is the right time to introduce such a programme because of the high rates of suicide cases and other non-communicable diseases like diabetes which need to be discussed often and to be approached openly.

“This training has been an eye-opener for someone like me, who thought that wellness programmes were a waste of time. I am ready to join either sports or entertainment social groups as a way of taking care of my health,” said Pondani.

MLW has social groups including music, mental health, gymnastics, and sports which were established as one way of promoting well-being and health. These workplace wellness programmes not only benefit employees in being productive at work, but they also help people to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors which in turn brings positive impact in other aspects of their lives.