S TAF F WE LLB E ING
Negative psychological outcomes l Perceived stigma around mental health. l Lack of awareness of support. l Healthcare professionals do not prioritise their own mental health due to concerns around confidentiality.
l Belief that admitting mental health problems would impact their career.
l Staff reluctant to seek help for fear that colleagues or managers may think badly of them now or in the future.
l Psychological support, available in the workplace, insufficient and tended to be reactive rather than proactive.
The NHS and individual Trusts10 have
recognised the psychological impact the pandemic has had on their staff mental health and physical wellbeing support, causing burnout and fatigue.4
Figure 2: Apps such as ‘Every Mind Matters’ can offer support
on a culture of inclusion and belonging to grow the NHS workforce – setting out practical actions that NHS England, NHS Improvement and HEE will deliver.11 It includes specific commitments around:
They have
responded well by providing practical resources (fig 1), literature and links to mental health and counselling services.7-9 Research has identified the need for increased awareness of mental health issues and Coronavirus wellbeing across all age groups of the public as we emerge from the pandemic. In response to this, the NHS has provided a website link and app ‘Every Mind Matters’ (fig 2) to support and provide services to the general public across all nations, with links to Scotland, Public Health Wales and NI (
https://www.nhs.uk/every- mind-matters/).10
The NHS and Health Education England (HEE) had provided valuable resources and materials ahead of COVID-19.7 Hopefully, this long-term strategy will protect beyond the pandemic, maintaining the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of its workforce, including learners.7 The NHS People Plan (2020-2021)11 builds on its staff’s long-term strategy and creative responses to date. It is focused
l Looking after our people – with quality health and wellbeing support for everyone.
l Belonging in the NHS – with a particular focus on tackling the discrimination that some staff face.
l New ways of working and delivering care – making effective use of the full range of our people’s skills and experience.
l Growing for the future – how we recruit and keep our people, and welcome back colleagues who want to return.
Further initiatives such as ‘The Our NHS People’ incorporated a seven-day-a-week well-being support line and text service for all NHS staff, including an online peer-to- peer team and personal resilience support through the website and app.12 There are numerous initiatives that provide helpful examples of how Trusts across the UK have rallied around the NHS workforce, including: l University Hospitals Bristol provided a self-care guide during COVID to support wellbeing at work, advising employees to
limit checking of media and social media.
l Some Trusts created e-learning resources to upskill their workforce.
l Many Trusts set up staff wellbeing pages with mindfulness, aromatherapy, staff support lines, wobble rooms and more to help them through the pandemic.
l Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust offered employees support from trauma experts as COVID-19 cases declined, due to concerns of staff being more vulnerable to the risk of psychological trauma because of the pandemic PTSD.
l Greater Manchester Mental Healthcare Trust provided posters on self-care, looking after your mental well-being, managing stress, and a going home checklist (fig 3).
Individual actions by Trusts included ensuring ‘freedom to speak up’ guardians were adequately supported by colleagues – encouraging a supportive culture and environment where staff could raise concerns as they battled against COVID-19, variant strains and increased waiting lists.18, 22 The King’s Fund provided a quick reference guide (fig 4), drawing from previous research, best practice guidelines and clinical opinions for hospital staff who had experienced stress while working and dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak (https://
www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/stress- hospital-staff-covid-19). This guide was provided for healthcare professionals dealing with a range of feelings and anxieties during the early stages of the pandemic – proving a valuable tool to help foster resilience, reduce burnout and the risk of PTSD.18
It may take
some time for learners and staff to realise the impact of the crisis on their mental well-being.3
NHS England (2019) provided mental health and self-help guides – tools and activities for the public and healthcare professionals with five steps to improve mental health and well-being.19
Five tips to mental health and wellbeing: l Be physically active. l Connect with other people. l Learn new skills. l Pay attention to the present moment (mindfulness). l Give to others.
These five tips explored mindfulness, physical health and fitness, known to improve mental well-being and self-esteem (
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/ guides-tools-and-activities/five-steps-to- mental-wellbeing/).19
Figure 1: Help is available for staff impacted by the pandemic 26 l
WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM
Conclusion Trusts across the four nations of the UK, NI, Wales, and Scotland continue to support and provide innovative mental health and well-
SEPTEMBER 2021
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