Healthy Sleep, Healthy Life! Workshop for Caregivers

Sleep quality is an important part of healthy living. About 50 caregivers and family members learnt more about quality sleep and health at a workshop organised by SPD’s Caregiver Wellness [...]

Sleep quality is an important part of healthy living. About 50 caregivers and family members learnt more about quality sleep and health at a workshop organised by SPD’s Caregiver Wellness Club.

Research shows that our sleep has a great bearing on our overall health and quality of life. Yet, people often pay less attention to sleep as compared to other aspects such as diet and exercise and poor sleep quality is often overlooked.

In the latest workshop organised by SPD’s Caregiver Wellness Club (CWC), close to 50 caregivers and family members attended the “Healthy Sleep, Health Life!” session on 15 December 2018. They were given tips on how to assess their quality of sleep, identify common sleep problems, simple methods to improve sleep, as well as stress relief meditation techniques. Some of the caregivers even won prizes in a lucky draw.

SPD social worker Benjamin Han conducting the “Healthy Sleep, Healthy Life!” workshop

Many caregivers found the workshop to be useful and enjoyed the brief respite from their caregiving duties. They also appreciated the opportunity to interact with other caregivers in a relaxed and comfortable setting. Mdm Lee Ai Khim, a primary caregiver to her husband who had a stroke, was glad to be able to attend the event. “I enjoyed this event as I like to go out and meet people. It’s not easy to go out often as I have to care for my husband. I also learnt how to sleep better so that I will have more energy. I’m grateful to SPD for inviting me today, it was very fun,” said Mdm Lee.

“We recognise that self-care is a vital part of the caregiving journey, hence CWC aims to promote healthy living and enhance stress management skills of our caregivers through such workshops”, said Benjamin Han, SPD’s social worker who organised the event.

“We encourage the participants to improve their own health and wellbeing so that they can continue giving the best care to their loved ones. We will continue to hold such workshops as our way of supporting caregivers.”

SPD’s CWC is a wellness and support programme extended to caregivers of our clients so that they can pick up self-care skills, gain respite from caregiving duties, and engage in socio-recreational interaction. Quarterly workshops on topics such as stress management and healthy living, among others, are conducted to enhance the wellbeing of caregivers.