Wellbeing

Internal Services Within Cambridge University:

Staff Counselling Centre: Provides short-term counselling to staff working at the university.

Staff Counselling Centre

These are other services that Cambridge University offers to all staff members.

• University Accommodation Service: Helps current students, academics, staff and visiting scholars to find suitable accommodation 

  Accommodation Service - University of Cambridge

• Careers Service: Provides careers education, information and guidance to students and alumni of the University of Cambridge. 

  Stuart House, Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1XE Tel: 01223 338283 Email: enquiries@careers.cam.ac.uk 

• Childcare: Offers childcare nurseries and holiday play-schemes. 

  21 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QA 

• Dignity@Work: The aim of the Dignity@Work policy is to support and sustain a positive working environment for all staff, free from any form of unacceptable behaviour. Those who feel that they are experiencing difficult working relationships may wish to consider discussing the problem with a Dignity@Work contact. Email: dignitycontacts@admin.cam.ac.uk

• Business Disability Forum: The University has a membership to the Business Disability Forum, which provides pragmatic support by sharing expertise, giving advice, providing training and facilitating networking opportunities. Anyone with an @cam.ac.uk or @admin.cam.ac.uk email domain can sign up to the Member Hub of the BDF website thereby accessing a wide range of additional resources to support disability equality. To create an account: Visit the BDF website  Enter your name and work email address and create a password. 

• Employee Welfare Loan Scheme: Employee Welfare Loan Scheme | Human Resources (cam.ac.uk)

• Mediation service: The Mediation Service can help resolve disagreements between members of staff with support from impartial mediators. Email:mediation@admin.cam.ac.uk

  Mediation Service | Human Resources (cam.ac.uk)

• Occupational Health Service: Provides support focusing on the prevention of ill health and the promotion of health and wellbeing at work. They can assess and provide advice on workplace adaptations and modifications to ensure that the work environment is safe and that a person’s health is not adversely affected by their work activities 

  Occupational Health | (cam.ac.uk)

• University of Cambridge Sports Centre: Open to students, staff, alumni and members of the wider community. Tel: 01223 336580 Email: enquiries@sport.cam.ac.uk

  University of Cambridge Sport

• Postdoc Academy: Provides an academic, administrative and pastoral focus for the community and aims to enhance the physical and intellectual experience of postdocs. Tel: (0)1223 336661 

  Email: contact.pda@admin.cam.ac.uk   

  Postdoc Academy

• Newcomers and Visiting Scholars (NVS): NVS welcomes all those who are new to the University. Whether you are a postdoctoral researcher, academic staff or visiting scholar, here alone or with family. At Tuesday morning meetings members can meet each other, have coffee and listen to interesting talks. NVS also organises a wide range of group activities, trips and events. Tel: 01223 761594

  Newcomers and Visiting Scholars |

• Wellbeing Advocates: The Wellbeing Advocate Network ensures that a proactive approach to wellbeing is integrated and supported across the University. 

  Wellbeing Advocates

External Support in Cambridge for Mental Health and Wellbeing

These are some of the local charities and support options for mental health and wellbeing. For information on more support helplines and resources relating to specific issues please see our resources list here. Resources

• Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire Mind (CPSL Mind): Is a local mental health charity providing a range of services to support recovery from mental health problems: Good Life Service | CPSL Mind Tel: 0300 303 4363

• Cogwheel Counselling: Cogwheel Counselling is a Cambridge-based registered charity that provides counselling services in Cambridgeshire to individuals of all ages: Cogwheel Counselling – Affordable helpwhen life slips out of gear

• Evolve Counselling: A charitable service offering affordable counselling Evolve Counselling – Community Counselling Charity

• Lifecraft: Offer a wide range of free mental health services including an Information Hub, a counselling service, a suicide bereavement support service, and Lifeline, a telephone helpline that runs 365 days a year: Contact us - Lifecraft Tel: 01223 566 957

• NHS Talking Therapies: You can self-refer for NHS funded counselling NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Talking Therapies | CPFT NHS Trust

• Qwell: is an online counselling and wellbeing platform provided by CPSL Mind that provides confidential chat-based counselling from qualified counsellors, free of charge: Qwell – Online Support | CPSL Mind
• Young Minds: supports parents/carers of children and young people, under the age of 25, who might be experiencing mental health challenges. Young Minds  Free and confidential helpline: 0808 802 5544 (Monday -Friday, 9:30am – 4:00pm)

   

As part of taking forward the University’s Wellbeing strategy, two volunteer local Wellbeing Advocates have been nominated to provide wellbeing guidance and signposting to staff in our department/faculty and promote University wellbeing initiatives.
The role includes:

• providing guidance/signposting to employees in their Institution about wellbeing issues, including mental/physical health and dignity at work concerns
• promoting local wellbeing initiatives
• communicating University-wide wellbeing initiatives
• contributing to and participating in networks to facilitate greater awareness of wellbeing across the University.

Details of the department Wellbeing Advocates are as follows:

Arianna Pezzuolo hodsecretary@psychol.cam.ac.uk
Panagiota Kourfali hr-team@psychol.cam.ac.uk