On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, which is celebrated on October 10, Cetina, in cooperation with the CTA komunikacije team, dedicated the entire month of October to taking care of the public mental health. Cetina communication is based on taking time for oneself, the importance of taking a break from the hectic everyday life and being in nature, and enjoying the little things. That is why the month dedicated to raising awareness on mental health ideally followed the core narrative of the brand.
In collaboration with the successful psychologist and founder of the PSYCRO platform, Jelena Ćubelić, through native text on the 24 sata portal, blogs on the official website of Cetina and posts on social networks, the focus was placed on the mental challenges of today from the perspective of prevention. We talked to Jelena and got her review of the whole project.
As a mental health expert with experience working in human resources departments, mental health consultant and head of human resources in the technology industry, what do you think about the World Mental Health Day cooperation?
The engagement of the Cetina brand and investment in the campaign with the aim of promoting topics related to mental health actually says a lot about the values of the brand itself. Namely, the texts in the media and on the blog have been read by thousands of people, and if only a minority of them were helped by the content to learn something new related to mental health, change their way of thinking and view of mental health, or simply made aware of the importance of these topics – we have done a huge job. The world changes in small steps, and such steps certainly lead us in the right direction. As an expert and ambassador of mental health among the young population on social networks, I am very careful about what I promote and what benefits readers have. I will definitely support such campaigns in the future, and I certainly encourage brands and organizations to include topics related to mental health and human well-being in their marketing activities.
As part of this collaboration, an article was published on the 24 sata portal in which you talked about how to control your own thoughts. Can you tell us a little more about the topic and explain why you consider it important?
For 24sata I wrote about the basics of cognitive-behavioural therapy, which is a model that says that the way we think (our thoughts) affect our emotions, our physiology and ultimately our behaviour, and depending on how we interpret certain situations, we feel that way. I consider this topic important because most people are not familiar with this process over which we have responsibility and influence, once aware of it. By changing our own thoughts and interpreting the situation in a different way, we influence how we feel, how we react and how much an event or situation will or will not affect us.
Speaking of the balance between business and private obligations, which you wrote about in the blog that can be found on the official website of Cetina, do you think that the employer can help employees in this context? If so, what are the activities that you, as a human resource professional, would emphasize as desirable?
The main role and responsibility for finding a balance between business and private obligations lies with ourselves. The balance is different for everyone. Someone has a greater capacity to cope with obligations and at the same time is very satisfied with their private life and nurtures relationships around them, while another person can experience burnout with a much smaller amount of obligations. That is why it is up to us to assess where our balance is and what our capacity is, and depending on that, we plan and try to arrange work, education and private obligations. It is important that the employer understands and actively listens to their employees, because only in this way will they be able to recognize when their employees are exhausted and when they need to reduce the pace or delegate part of the work to someone else. Employees who are exhausted cannot give their maximum and that is why it is very important to take care of the well-being of their employees. It is certainly highly desirable to hold psychoeducational workshops with employees on stress coping skills, time management and other important topics, so that employees acquire knowledge and skills that can help them better organize their lives, which will contribute to making them happier, more satisfied and more productive.
Prioritizing yourself is also a topic to which you dedicated a blog as part of this collaboration. Given your experience, why do you think is it so difficult for people to put themselves first and why should they do it at all?
I would say that the reason lies in our culture. Namely, we are taught from an early age that we must not be selfish or think of ourselves and that we must first meet everyone else’s. A confirmed truth, however, is that taking care of yourself and setting healthy boundaries while putting yourself first, is by no means selfishness. As I wrote in the article, by taking care of ourselves, we make ourselves stronger, recharge our batteries, and as a result, we are better for the people around us, our children, family, partner, employer and all the people we love.
As a psychologist, how do you see the communication of the Cetina brand, which emphasizes coexistence with nature, taking time for yourself, the beauty of simple everyday situations, spending time with loved ones and taking care of your physical and mental health?
I see it as values worth sharing and promoting, entirely in line with the product itself – natural spring water from the Nature Park. Communication accordingly inspires, motivates and encourages people to all these physically and mentally desirable activities, and as a consequence creates a very positive image of the entire brand.
Do you think it is good or maybe even necessary for well-known brands to draw public attention to topics related to mental health in this way?
Absolutely yes! This has become a global trend that is now making its grand entrance to Croatia, too. After the previous few years of uncertainty in which the world faced events such as pandemics, earthquakes, wars and inflation, which significantly affected people’s mental health all over the world in a negative way – many large brands have launched campaigns and are increasingly talking about topics related to mental health. The awareness of brands about these important topics indicates that they really do care about their public, which is noticed and appreciated by people, thus leading to customer loyalty and brand empowerment.
