How did the idea come up and why did
you decide to focus your efforts in this
field?
Even though we have been conducting
group health campaigns since I joined FCC,
these were always based on demands by
workers as well as by the Prevention De-
partment. For example: a case of meningi-
tis is detected in a school. What should the
cleaning staff who work at the school do
in that case? We started to collaborate in
2012 with the Department of Health of the
Junta de Andalucía. It all started when one
of the technicians visited us and presented
this health program which thought was of
interest and decided to adopt the program.
Since then, we have participated in several
initiatives.
Of the different health promotion cam-
paigns that your department has laun-
ched, could you tell us which were
the most and best accepted by the
company’s personnel?
The degree of acceptance varies significantly
depending on the contract staff. I cannot ex-
plain the reason, but it is clear that the in-
volvement and collaboration of department
managers is essential. Once the campaigns
are underway, we have not seen a significant
level of dropouts; quite the contrary, others
have joined the campaigns afterwards. The
most difficult part is the beginning.
What campaign would you highlight?
One of the most fun initiatives and with
the highest level of participation was the
“Healthy Tapas” contest. We proposed to
the workers who had participated in the
theoretical-practical workshops on healthy
diets to prepare what they thought were
healthy recipes. I was very pleasantly surpri-
sed by the variety, the presentation, and the
quality of the dishes that they prepared.
Tell us about the “One million steps” ini-
tiative?
We posed a challenge: would you all be able
to walk a combined number of one million
steps in total during a one-month period?
The Department of Health provided the pe-
dometers for counting the steps and we just
got going. We were able to achieve nearly
two million steps in 20 days.
What was it that finally attracted the par-
ticipation of so many women and that
contributed to meeting this target?
We had a lot of fun the first day that we went
walking. Later, it was a question of spreading
the word and the female workers encoura-
ged each other to participate, taking their
families along. The initiative went beyond the
family circle and many new friendships were
formed among the colleagues who had not
met before because they worked at different
workplaces.
The Mindfulness concept is a new idea
which is spreading worldwide and was
even on the cover page of TIME Maga-
zine with the title The Mindful Revolution.
Have you carried out any activity in this
respect? Could you tell us how it worked
and what activities were carried out?
This practice is based on Oriental medicine
and on Buddhism and that is why I was a
bit sceptical at first. I learned about it at the
Andalusian School of Public Health and we
were fortunate to be able to attend a theo-
retical-practical session headed by one of
their collaborators, a psychologist specia-
lising in Mindfulness. The word means “full
attention” and it consists of concentrating
our five senses in each of our daily activities,
regardless how insignificant it might seem. In
the session that we attended, we were given
a raisin. We had to touch it with our fingers
for almost an entire minute. Then we sme-
lled it and put it in our mouths, noticing its
wrinkled surface, without thinking what we
had to do next or if we were uncomfortable,
or if we felt the heat. It was impressive!! We
all came out very relaxed and this was just
after one session. Some of the workers who
participated later joined a Mindfulness centre
where they lived.
Based on your experience as a physician
why is it important that we make progress
in promoting the health and wellbeing of
workers?
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