GHP Global Excellence Awards 2022 17 GHP Q2 2022 Winning 2022’s Award for Excellence in Innovation, Mind Ninja is altering our perception of mental health in the workplace. Here we speak to Mahrukh Khwaja about this groundbreaking company as it develops ways to conquer mental health issues in the healthcare industry and – by its incredible butterfly effect – beyond. Healthcare Start-up Tackling the Mental Health Crisis ind Ninja is a well-being start-up providing resilience and mental health training to dental professionals so they can thrive in any environment. Mind Ninja’s vision is to help individuals and organisations foster workplaces and personal lives that make them feel happier and healthier. The aim is to not only reduce burnout and poor mental health outcomes, but also to increase positive wellbeing markers such as engagement at work, happiness, and resilience. These facets are incredibly important when we think about preventing mental illness and empowering clinicians with tools early on to flourish. We do this by sharing evidence-based mind tools from Positive Psychology, mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), directly to dental professionals through coaching, in addition to working closely with dental organisations, both in public and private sectors, such as NHS Oxford Health, King’s College London, Acteon, British Dental Association and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, to deliver webinars, online workshops, and programmes. The long-term goal is to make preventive evidenced based training widely accessible and extend services to healthcare professionals. I founded Mind Ninja in 2019, as a result of experiencing burnout and depression, working as a dentist in busy NHS practices. I was surprised to find only services available to me at crisis point and no preventative solutions. This led me on a deep dive into the literature on evidenced based strategies that could help not only prevent poor metal health but also help us feel happier, engaged at work, connected with others and living a life of meaning. Research amongst medical professionals spotlight mindfulness, CBT and psychological interventions. This spurred me to gain an accreditations in mindfulness teaching, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and a Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology. Mind Ninja is the only organisation today exclusively focused on improving the resilience and well-being of dental professionals in the UK. In addition, I am dually qualified as a dentist and Positive Psychologist, understanding both clinical stressors as well as psychological tools. My own mental health journey adds to my experiential understanding of the problems, and passion for solutions. All services draw from evidenced based psychological interventions: mindfulness, Positive Psychology and CBT. This innovative combination is novel in the dental profession. Unlike traditional stress management courses, our services do not solely concentrate on reducing symptoms of stress and negative wellbeing markers - we want to increase positive well-being markers so you are prepared to face any stress head on and be resilient. Mind Ninja was the first in the industry to offer dental professionals a comprehensive 4-week well-being programme for dental professionals covering topics such as resilience training, positive leadership, growth mindset, behaviour change, and the science of thriving. In 2020, I wrote the Level 7 well-being online programme for Acteon and in 2021, led 2 cohorts of a 4 week Positive Psychology Intervention. In 2021, I launched the ‘Mind Flossing’ toolkit, a deck of well-being cards to help dental professionals practise mindfulness, selfcompassion, gratitude, growth mindset and use their strengths, with patients and at home. The vision was to create a self-intervention toolkit that could help increase positive emotions, thoughts and actions. Since its launch 6 months ago, 452 dental professionals have benefited from practising the well-being tools with 4 amazing organisations (Acteon, NSK, Practice Plan and Confidential) supporting the profession through purchasing the toolkits. Feedback from the toolkit has illustrated its efficacy: with all survey respondents stating improvement in mental well-being since use of the toolkit. My deep passion is to keep innovating in this space – pushing the boundaries from single one off webinars to engaging programmes that help dental professionals explore tools and integrate habits that stick. I am looking forward to the release of my book ‘Resilience And Well-being For Dental Professionals’ by WileyBlackwell in Summer 2022. I hope this book will provide the first comprehensive framework for dental organisations to develop resilience and well-being programmes. Company: Mind Ninja Contact: Mahrukh Khwaja Website: https://www.mind-ninja.co.uk/ M Mar22123
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