We are: Supportive – Curious – Welcoming – Encouraging – Straightforward. We are Garrett Learning.
Inside this month’s issue:
- What’s been happening: We’ve been having great conversations about the good stuff!
- What’s new: Complimentary monthly online support for all
- What’s coming up: Mental Health Awareness Week is 11th to 17th May 2026 – This year’s theme is Time for Action.
What’s been happening?
We’ve been having great conversations at a couple of conferences:
In February, we attended the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham to speak at Kinetic Live for those working within the Student accommodation and Higher Education sector. We spoke about ‘Building safer, stronger teams’. We talked about workplace wellbeing, shared best practices, and actions we could take to look after the team and the students.
In March, we were invited to Punch Pubs & Co’s headquarters in Burton-Upon-Trent for their annual wellbeing day, ‘Doing well by doing good’. We had some fabulous conversations with the publicans, licensees and suppliers. There was a common theme throughout the day, which was ‘serve yourself first’. At Garrett Learning, we echo the importance of this message as it’s essential to ensure we look after ourselves before looking after others.
On a personal note, it was a great couple of events that complement my experience and background. It’s all come full circle.
At the age of 14, I started work as a waitress in a local pub, headed to Bournemouth University to study Licensed Retail Management, then went on to work in pubs, nightclubs and hotels in the UK, New York State and Australia, and more recently, volunteering at the local community cafe in Kidderminster. I regularly bring the community together at my local social club, including running a weekly poker league, plus various one-off events such as a charity night with a quiz, bingo, Play Your Cards Right, a massive raffle, disco and karaoke. In January, hubby and I designed an evening based around the TV show TaskMasters. Next up… a Traitor’s night!
In 2012, I retrained as a trainer/assessor, which later led me to work within the Student Accommodation sector at Liberty Living. We collectively developed the wellbeing and mental health strategy with the wider team.
It’s been great to bring all that knowledge and experience together and share it with other passionate people within the sectors.
We’re always happy to speak at events to share best practice, industry knowledge and the importance of looking after ourselves and our teams. Please do reach out if you’re looking for someone to speak, run a micro session or join a panel. Please send an email to wendy@garrettlearning.co.uk with the details.
What’s new?
For the last 18 months, Garrett Learning has been running monthly wellbeing sessions online to Mental Health First Aiders to support and embed their learning, as they aren’t required to refresh their knowledge until three years later. To me, this felt like a long time and I wanted to bridge the gap with some support, learning and growth.
Until last month, there has been a charge for this, however I have decided to offer it as a complimentary service to MHFAiders, wellbeing ambassadors, people managers and the HR team. Each month, we meet for 50 minutes. We’re having some great chats that could inspire so many others. We’d love you to join us when you can.
This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week. It seems apt to share that our next Garrett Learning complimentary monthly support online check-in is all about Neurodiversity in the Workplace. We are joined by guest speaker Claire Elston (Chartered MCIPD), the founder of Elston HR Ltd.
Claire is a values-driven HR consultancy dedicated to empowering organisations through people-focused solutions. At Elston HR they combine expertise in HR, coaching, training and leadership development with a deep understanding of the human factors that enable organisations to thrive. Specialising in HR, Management and Customer Experience, Claire has worked with national and multinational brands such as TUI, Eurocamp, Canvas Holidays, Premier Inn, and Harrison Clark Rickerby Solicitors. Claire supports businesses from multiple perspectives. As a generalist in HR with a specialism in training and development, Claire is particularly passionate about management training. She has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and is proud to deliver CPD-accredited Neurodiversity training to clients.
Claire will share some insights from this course to educate and empower us to create a more inclusive and supportive workplace for neurodiverse individuals.
The session is open to all Mental Health First Aiders, Workplace Wellbeing Ambassadors, People Managers, those in HR and L&D – Come and be a part of a wonderful complementary session by Garrett Learning and friends.
Want the zoom link – drop me an email at wendy@garrettlearning.co.uk
Future sessions will move to the second Wednesday of the month at 15:00 – 15:50 GMT and you’ll be able to register for these via this link: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/L830ddIxT-SPtI1VrgtxlA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We aim to offer alternate monthly sessions. We’ll either be joined by a guest speaker or have a drop-in session to ask any questions about workplace wellbeing, support for Mental Health First Aiders and wellbeing ambassadors, talk about boundary setting and get curious to learn more and make a difference together. Please note, these sessions are not for medical advice, counseling, or a therapy service.
If you have any questions or queries, please do reach out to me: wendy@garrettlearning.co.uk or Whatsapp: +447859 878 599
Find out more at: https://www.garrettlearning.co.uk/services/workplace-well-being-champion/
We look forward to welcoming you along.
What’s coming up?
Before we know it, it will be Mental Health Awareness Week. 11th to 17th May 2026. This year’s theme is Time for Action.
With the focus of looking after yourself, someone else and all of us.
We’d like to share three things you could do to take ‘Time for Action’:
For yourself:
The airplane analogy of ‘put your own mask on first’ is repeated, as it’s so important to look after ourselves before we can safely look after others.
Can you take a moment to pause and think about how you look after yourself? It’s self-care and it looks different for everyone and what we need changes over time.
Is there anything currently missing for you at the moment that you can introduce back into your life/routine to aid your wellbeing?
It doesn’t have to be a big and extravagant action; it could be something small and significant. For example:
- A 10-minute walk
- Drinking your cuppa outside for a 5-minute and listen to the birds
- Eating lunch away from your normal place as a change of scenery, can be good for us
- Completing a jigsaw
- Moving our body in some way
- Watching something you’ve been meaning to watch
- Listen to a meditation (I recommend the free app: Insight Timer)
- Taking a moment to read before bed instead of scrolling on our phone (guilty of this!)
- or simply don’t do anything..
Now the F1 season has restarted (and how good is it so far!!). This makes for a rested Sunday for me, no plans other than cooking a roast and settling in to watch the race with hubby (I do prefer an afternoon start time though!)
For someone else:
Taking action for others could include our family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and the people we pass in the street.
I recently read in a book titled ‘Make it Happen’ to smile at people in the street and see how it feels. Most of the time you’ll receive a smile back (if you don’t, that’s also ok). If you try this, see how you feel when you receive a smile. That’s taking action right?
I absolutely love Action for Happiness, https://actionforhappiness.org/ . Each month, there is a calendar. We’re currently in Mindful March (from memory, the theme for May is ‘Meaningful May’).
The calendar encourages a daily action either for yourself or for others.
Feel free to share the calendar, download the app, join their online course or local group. You might inspire others to take Time for Action.
Garrett Learning recently took a group of people away on retreat – the Work and Wellbeing Retreat. This was where we stopped, took a moment to pause and reset. This was the 4th retreat I’d hosted and I was very impressed with one of the attendees leaving her laptop at home! The ultimate break with swimming, walking, great conversations, painting and a massage. I highly recommend breaking away from the norm. 
For all of us:
If we think about employee wellbeing, let’s think about how we can take action to support everyone in our workplace or community.
Firstly, raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing helps if you can be part of a like-minded group. Is there anyone you can team up with at work/community setting to talk about having wellbeing?
This certainly helped me when I wanted to raise awareness of the impacts of poor mental health and wellbeing at work in my last workplace. I gathered a small group of people together to meet bi-monthly. We were all passionate about employee wellbeing in our own way. We were from different departments and backgrounds. We also encouraged a member from the senior management team to join us.
The wellbeing team doesn’t need to have all the answers. Having a varied group helped to understand the needs of the employees and collectively a plan was created. The bonus of having someone senior in our wellbeing group helps us share our initiative with the board.
Some of the topics discussed/actioned included:
- Launching a wellbeing survey for the employees so they felt heard and highlighted the areas we were great in and the areas that required improvement.
- Generating a project scope of what we wanted to implement (and asking for the budget to do so!)
- Wellbeing initiatives were introduced to make people feel valued.
- Implementing the introduction of Mental Health First Aider training plus support sessions carried out by the MHFAider lead.
- Raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing awareness days.
- Sharing stories and lived experiences in newsletters (with permission).
- Sharing information and support sessions about the Employee Assistance Programme and workplace benefits and recognition.
- Skills gap analysis to upskill and develop our people.
- Provided additional training and support to progress team members internally.
- I developed and delivered a company-wide programme for Unconscious Bias, Diversity and Inclusion, plus I designed and delivered a people management training programme.
- We redesigned the monthly 1:1 employee meetings to feel less formal, more personable and more impactful for all parties.
Garrett Learning can support you and your organisation. Please reach out to discuss holistic wellbeing services, people management training and Mental Health First Aid training. We also provide community and support by joining us monthly for the Workplace Wellbeing Champion session or offering bespoke training. Please book in a call to discuss your thoughts and ideas: https://scheduler.zoom.us/garrettlearning/1-1-cuppa-and-chat. Alternatively, you can email us at wendy@garrettlearning.co.uk
Taking ‘Time for Action’ isn’t about implementing all of the changes, it’s about understanding the needs and requirements of yourself, others and the wider community and seeing what action could be taken to enhance our health and wellbeing.
Find out more about this year’s theme at the Mental Health Foundation: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week
Garrett Learning creates welcoming, memorable, and learner-focused learning experiences to reach individual and business goals. Book a discovery call with us to see how Garrett Learning (www.garrettlearning.co.uk ) can help:
- People Manager Coaching
- Leadership and development sessions
- MHFA England Programmes Open courses
- Lunch and learn bitesize workshops
- Become a Workplace Wellbeing Champion
- Bespoke training
Book a chat with Wendy here: https://scheduler.zoom.us/garrettlearning/1-1-cuppa-and-chat
We (Wendy and her growing team!) are here for you when you need us. We are here to hear you! We are kind in nature and open to hearing everyone’s point of view. Our training and overall learning experiences are built to ensure you feel comfortable and can be yourself.
If you want to discuss your future plans, I’d love to hear them! Get in touch!
m: 07859 878 599
c: https://scheduler.zoom.us/garrettlearning/1-1-cuppa-and-chat
l: www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-garrett-7522bb50/
f: www.facebook.com/GarrettLearning
i: www.instagram.com/garrettlearning
t: www.tiktok.com/@garrettlearning
