April is Stress Awareness Month in the UK. Established in 1992, the purpose of the initiative is to increase awareness of the causes of stress and how to help deal with the pressures of modern-day life.
Stress can affect anyone from various parts of life, at work and in personal relationships, and it is important to know how to look after your well-being and reduce the impact that stress has on your health.
Keeping pets is a popular means of relieving stress for many reasons, including companionship and to help ease isolation. So, to mark Stress Awareness Month and to raise funds for our charity partners for 2022, our Time to Change team and our Charity team joined forces and organised a ‘Pawterhouse’ Pet Competition.
The competition invited pet lovers at Porterhouse to send photos or videos of their furry friends or house plants to the charity team. The competition was divided into a number of different categories and participants could enter as many as they wanted to, making a donation for each category that they chose to enter. All proceeds are going towards our Charities partners for 2022: Reading Refugee Support Group and the Rainbows Children’s Hospice.
Voting took place over Zoom on Friday 26th April, where the Porterhouse family cast their vote on their number 1 Pawterhouse Pet or house plant.
The Time to Change team also gave a short presentation on the importance of stress management, including some tips from the Stress Management Society on how to manage your own stress levels.
Big thanks to the teams for organising the competition, and for our enthusiastic pet lovers for taking part and donating to these excellent and worthwhile causes.
At Porterhouse Medical, we take pride in working together as a family, fuelled not only by hard work but also by humour and happiness. We therefore have a number of initiatives in place to look after the mental well-being of our teams and help combat stress – and competitions such as this are a great example. 😊