MENTAL HEALTH A Helping Hand
The mental health of care workers continues to suffer in the wake of the pandemic. Here, Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive Officer at The Care Workers’ Charity, outlines some of the help they have made available.
Mental Health has come into much closer focus over the last few years due to the pandemic and now current world issues; in some way, this could be seen as a positive outcome in an awareness sense. Mental health can be invisible, unlike a cast on a broken leg or a bandage, and people are sometimes reluctant to acknowledge to themselves or others that they need some support to address their mental health concerns.
Care workers’ mental health was already on decline at the start of the pandemic, and we saw many instances where they felt they needed support and tools to help them cope, not only with being care workers but also in their personal lives. The stress of the breakdown of relationships, losing colleagues or family members to Covid-19, lack of childcare and juggling finances to avoid rent arrears or eviction hugely impacted on those working in the sector over the last couple of years.
The mental health of care workers continues to suffer as they deal with low pay, burnout and exhaustion combined with the stress of working long hours and covering for ill colleagues or vacancies. In response to the considerable number of applicants citing mental wellbeing issues in their applications, and with funding received, we launched the mental wellbeing and health fund in February 2021. Different to our other grants, this is not a financial amount awarded as a grant to applicants, it gives access to therapies which are paid for by the Care Workers Charity (CWC).
Access to GP services to discuss mental health was also impacted by the pandemic, meaning care workers working shiſts found it difficult to arrange a time to either talk to their GP face to face, on the phone or online. Referrals for mental health support increased to a record 4.3 million in 2021 with waiting times for therapy at all time high. In fact, many of our applicants for mental health and wellbeing support told us they were on a waiting list for therapy via their GP or had been offered a maximum of six sessions. Care workers can self-refer for access to therapy with an accredited therapist who specialises in the areas where the worker has identified they need
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support, such as stress, PTSD, depression, bereavement, or any other related area. Once their application has been validated to ensure their eligibility, they are contacted by their therapist for an initial session followed by up to nine additional sessions During therapy other mental health related issues may be identified and the care worker may need additional sessions or to be referred to another therapist.
“In response to the considerable number of applicants citing
mental wellbeing issues in their applications, and with funding
received, we launched the mental wellbeing and health fund.”
We also launched the Mental Health First Aider Training programme which offers care workers and other staff the opportunity to train as a mental health first aider and receive an accredited Level 3 Ofqual qualification.
The QA Level 3 Award in Mental Health First Aid in the Workplace (RQF) has been specifically designed for those
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