Celebrate National Psychology Week 2014

This year National Psychology Week (9-15 November 2014) will focus on helping Australians to manage stress and make sustainable changes to achieve a healthier lifestyle. One of the best ways for the message to reach the community is via APS member events. There’s still time to register an event or public display to celebrate National Psychology Week 2014. Events can be open to the public or for invited guests only. Event ideas include:

• Giving a speech or presentation on a psychology topic to a local group
• Organising a morning or afternoon tea at your workplace or at a community venue
• Hosting a parents’ night at a local school
• Giving a talk to students about a career in psychology
• Running a workshop for a targeted group of people (e.g., office workers, carers or volunteers)
• Distributing tip sheets and posters to your local GP clinics
• Setting up NPW displays in libraries, universities, local community centres, hospitals and offices.

Event packs are available to help spread the word and can be ordered when you register your event online. The packs include some popular resources as well as some new resources, including:

• A2-sized NPW posters
• A2 healthy lifestyle tips poster
• Stress balls
• Balloons
• Stress tip sheets
• How to make healthy lifestyle change tip sheets
• Bookmarks

Media campaign

Member events are part of a community campaign that will be complemented by a social media and media campaign. The media campaign will kick off on November 10 when the results of the APS 2014 Stress and Wellbeing in Australia will be released. The campaign will be targeting print, radio, TV and online outlets as well as new media such as bloggers, with an aim of not only promoting the findings but engaging the community. We aim to get people talking about stress management and strategies for making changes towards healthier lifestyles.

Social media

Members can get involved with the NPW social media campaign by following the APS social media channels including the LinkedIn company page (www.linkedin.com/company/australian-psychological-society), the NPW Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AustralianPsychologicalSociety/) and the APS_Media twitter feed. Follow us, like and share our posts to help take the message to the community. Use the #NPW2014 hashtag to tweet relevant content on stress, health and wellbeing.

A range of downloadable resources including infographics and tip sheets will be available on the website – sharing these on your social media, blogs and websites is another great way to support the campaign.

Even small things such as attaching the NPW email signature to your email can make a difference and help to spread the word amongst your colleagues, friends and contacts.

We encourage all members to join us to help make NPW 2014 the best ever.