About the Wellbeing Wheel
The DECAMA Wellbeing Wheel has 10 ‘elements’ and each can be scored 1-6 according to how you feel about the element.
TRY OUR BETA TEST WELLBEING WHEEL BELOW
To start, you ask yourself – how do I feel about my ‘physical health’? If you feel good about your physical health, you could score 5 or 6; if you think your physical health is poor, the score would be 1 or 2. If OK, then score 3 or 4.
Visualise your wellbeing – your scores produce a visual impression of your wellbeing. This is your personal MyDECAMA Wellbeing Wheel. You can then see which elements of your wellbeing are good, and which have scored lower.
The visual image of your unique Wellbeing Wheel gives you information. This form of information or ‘feedback’ can be a powerful way of helping you reflect on how you are at this point in time; you can ask yourself questions about what you can do to make things different or keep the same. You can see how different elements of wellbeing have an impact on other areas.
The DECAMA Wellbeing Wheel helps you become aware of your personal or subjective wellbeing; how you understand yourself and see the world around you. This is ‘YOU’ – the person you ‘take to work’, whether you work in an office, a factory, a hospital, on the buses or work from home. Even if you do not have paid employment, work as a volunteer or are a full-time carer, understanding yourself and the world around you, is very important for your overall wellbeing.
Identify what needs to change – as you go around the Wheel and give yourself a score for each sector of the Wellbeing Wheel, you may ask yourself more questions. These reflections help you to think about ways that life could be different, what changes you could make and even prompt you to taking specific actions. The self-questioning may also help you realise what you feel pleased about or thankful for in your life and what you can do to keep this going in the longer term.
By completing your Wheel at intervals (eg monthly), you can track your wellbeing over time; you can think about how your wellbeing has changed because of events in your life or as a result of changes you have made.
The DECAMA flow model was designed by Catherine Dobson of CD Psychology as a way of measuring, improving and monitoring wellbeing. The Wellbeing Wheel provides a baseline, a starting point for thinking about what and how you might like to change. Catherine considers that measurement of wellbeing is important – ‘if you can measure it, you can change it’ (Marshall Goldsmith).
What is ‘wellbeing’?
For many people, ‘wellbeing’ is often associated with doing yoga, improving diet or going for walks. This can be better described as ‘wellness’, with a focus in improving physical health and preventing poor health.
The DECAMA concept of ‘wellbeing’ is about how an individual understands and responds to events in their life, their relationships with others, and how they interact with the world around them.
Wellbeing is like an energy; it reflects the personal resources you have built up over time, how you balance your resources with the demands of everyday life. It is also about how you invest your resources in developing yourself, others and the world around you. Just as water powers ‘green energy’, wellbeing requires investment and management, otherwise it becomes neglected and wasted.
When you experience good wellbeing, you feel energised, and have resilience to manage the difficult times.
Furthermore, each person experiences life differently from anyone else, so your Wellbeing Wheel and how you have put it together is unique to you.
According to the international organisation, the Office for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), “individual wellbeing and long-term economic growth are mutually reinforcing” (OECD, 2018). In other words, people who have higher levels of personal wellbeing feel satisfied with life and contribute to their family, geographic and cultural communities. This finding applies across many countries at different stages of economic development.
For many people attention to ‘wellbeing’ and especially ‘poor mental wellbeing’ happens when something seems to have gone wrong. You may become stressed as personal resources are stretched or depleted. Just keeping going and not finding out what has happened or doing anything about it, can lead to more serious difficulties affecting many aspects of day-to-day life.
The Wellbeing Wheel has a section entitled Mental Health. This can act as a quick check on how you feel about your mental health.
Situations giving rise to poor mental wellbeing can be diverse, varying from disputes with neighbours, abusive work or family relationships, to being made redundant by an employer,
In the context of work and employment, people experiencing poor mental wellbeing are likely to be less satisfied in their work role, have greater levels of sickness absence, report difficulties in relationships with colleagues and managers and may describe the work environment as ‘stressful’ or ‘toxic’.
In contrast, employees experiencing good wellbeing are more likely to feel they have productive and meaningful jobs, have low absence rates due to sickness and feel appreciated by colleagues. Employees may describe their working environment as a ‘good or great place to work.’
In summary, the DECAMA Wellbeing Wheel provides a picture of how you feel about yourself, your relationships with others and your thoughts about managing your personal resources. You can see if the Wheel is ‘out of balance’ and where there is scope for making changes.