HSE launches new season of ‘Talking Health and Wellbeing’ Podcast

The HSE ‘Talking Health and Wellbeing’ Podcast has today (Wednesday, 30th August 2023) launched a new season.

The first episode will focus on positive mental health, with upcoming episodes discussing a range of topics including alcohol and pregnancy, cancer prevention, dementia, healthy eating, obesity and financial wellbeing, to mention but a few. HSE CEO Bernard Gloster will also feature in an upcoming episode this season. 

Season 2 of the HSE ‘Talking Health and Wellbeing’ Podcast builds on the successful 20 episode first series produced earlier this year, which saw health and wellbeing experts and service users discussing topics such as quitting smoking, self-management, youth health, men’s health, sexual health and cancer screening.

Fergal Fox, Head of Stakeholder Engagement and Communications, HSE Health & Wellbeing and one of the podcast hosts said: 

“We’ve had such a positive reaction to the podcast series that we are delighted to be setting out again. It allows people an easy way to listen and learn about things from health and wellbeing experts to benefit themselves and the people they may be working with or care for.

We also provide signposting to resources and supports which know will be helpful to our audience. 

We’re building on the success of last season and we encourage people to take some time to tune in and find a topic of interest to them.”

The first episode of the new season focuses on positive mental health with a discussion on the HSE’s Minding Your Wellbeing programme which is available through a series of 5 videos along with other mental health supports on www.yourmentalhealth.ie.

Host Fergal Fox discusses the programme and many of the terms and concepts used in the field of positive psychology with HSE Health Promotion and Improvement Officers, Olive Fanning and Anne Marie Murphy.

Areas for discussion include self-care, resilience, positive relationships and how we need to manage our thoughts. Both Anne and Olive have significant experience of delivering this evidenced based programme face-to-face to HSE staff and they offer their insights giving listeners lots to reflect on in terms of how they mind their own mental wellbeing.

The Minding Your Wellbeing Programme support booklet is also available via www.healthpromotion.ie. 

The podcast goes out on a weekly basis and is available on all the main podcast platforms. Following the first season, a listener survey was carried out with key findings including:

• Over 90% of respondents said they were likely or very likely to recommend the HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing Podcast to a friend or colleague
• Over 75% of respondents gave the podcast either a 4 star or 5-star rating

Listen to the podcast on your favourite podcast channel or on HSE Health and Wellbeing YouTube channel, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

HSE Health and Wellbeing aims to improve health and wellbeing and reduce chronic disease by targeting topics such as obesity, alcohol misuse and smoking, sexual health and positive mental health.

They do this with a wide range of partners and support health in a range of settings such as schools, workplaces and in communities.