There are four protective factors that we can use to think about shift worker mental health: sleeping, eating, exercise, and socialise. We covered sleeping and eating last episode, and this episode covers the next two: exercising and socialising.

With a shift worker's concept of time often slightly skewed compared to your average nine-to-five worker, it can be hard to keep up with your sleep and your social life. We take a look at some of the forces that can cause a shift worker's good sleeping habits to go out the window, and some of the difficulties in maintaining a social life when it seems like you're on a completely different schedule to everyone else. You'll hear from our experts about some tips that employers and shift workers can use to get good sleep and maintain an active social life outside of work.

Experts featured in this episode:

• Helen McAdam, retired Social Worker and Working Well in Wellington program instigator (socialise)
• Associate Professor Nicky Ridgers, Deakin University (exercise)
• Linda Hunt, Working Well in Wellington Project Manager
• Julie, Graduate Nurse at Central Gippsland Health
• Scott Rebecca, Manager: Health Services and Wellbeing at Saputo Dairy Australia

About Make the Shift:
Make the Shift is a podcast produced as part of the Working Well in Wellington Toolkit, a toolkit designed to help shift workers and their employers develop and implement ways to ensure their mental health. For more information about the project, and to download the toolkit, visit maketheshift.org.au.

To find out more about the development of the Working Well in Wellington project, take a listen to the bonus episode of this podcast: Behind Working Well in Wellington. You can also listen to the full interviews with our experts in your podcast feed.

This podcast, and the toolkit, was produced by Wellington Primary Care Partnership, and funded by WorkSafe's WorkWell Mental Health Improvement Fund.

This podcast was recorded and produced in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gunaikurnai and Bunurong peoples.
Audio production by Jet Streamer (jetstreamer.com.au). 
Voiced by Chris Plumridge.

For more episodes, search for "Make the Shift" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts.