Teams who support each other and talk to each other are stronger. This improves the wellbeing of individual team members, both at work and at home. On this page you will find resources to support you and your team. Get in touch if you have more ideas to add!
- Create a sense of belonging: What projects will you work on together? What is your team’s mission? What helps give you a sense of purpose?
- Maintain regular rhythms: At home it is important you aim to wake up, eat and go to sleep at the same time you normally would. What rhythms can you maintain with your team at work? Can you commit to regular break times? Do you have a morning briefing? Try out the Going Home Checklist
- Encourage each other to exercise once a day: Get moving! Preferably in green space, and always while social distancing.
Managing Stress MOT
It has been a really difficult year. With our busy roles and caring for others it can be hard to realise or take time to notice what we need for ourselves. It can also be easier to think 'I'm ok’ because we have lots to do already. As health and social care staff, it is very important that we look after our own mental health and wellbeing.
Unfortunately, if we don't do this, we can get exhausted, stressed and worn out. A bit like a car which hasn't had a regular MOT.
We have designed a 'Managing Stress MOT' to help you notice key areas of your life that you need to focus on in order to stay well. We are asking you to regularly check in with yourself using the steps below. This can be done on your own, with your colleagues and within teams. Remember that everyone’s Managing Stress MOT is likely to look different and to change over time.
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If you are looking to use this tool as a group exercise, download this presentation and go through it together with your team. Click here to read instructions on how to support staff to complete the MOT
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Click here to download the MOT pack.
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Click here to download the MOT poster
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Watch the video below of the stress management wheel being completed.
Learn how to support someone in your team by using the Wellbeing Conversation Approach
We know that all health and social care staff work extremely hard, and often under very difficult conditions. Our staff are highly valued but often feel exhausted and under-appreciated. We also know that teams who support each other and talk to each other are stronger and this improves the wellbeing of individual team members, both at work and at home. The Resolve Training helps you to:
- Learn how to recognise that a member of your team might have a problem
- Learn how to engage with your team member
- Learn how to listen actively to your team member
- Learn how to ask “open ended questions”
- Learn how to talk about risk
- Learn how to talk to your team member to support their recovery and referral to talking therapy services.
The slide-deck for this training is freely available here
Using the manual your team can be supported to reflect on the team’s culture, strengths and stressors and produce a bespoke team support plan which indicates how they will embed three evidence-based staff support elements: staying connected, looking after themselves and each other, and signposting and active monitoring.
The Team Support & Wellbeing Plan manual introduces these three evidence-based areas and describes specific strategies (e.g. buddying) which teams can use under each area.
To support staff wellbeing, Dr Rachel Perkins OBE and IPS Grow have developed this Wellness Action Plan (WAP), a tool which helps all employees manage their mental and physical health and wellbeing at work. This will enable us to implement a comprehensive approach to helping staff to manage their health and wellbeing. This will include how to promote staff wellbeing and tackle the causes of work-related mental and physical health problems as well as supporting staff that are experiencing problems.
Who is the WAP for? The WAP is designed for anyone in employment or a voluntary role, to support
and promote their mental and physical health and wellbeing at work satisfaction.
You might be:
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currently well and using the WAP as a proactive tool to map out what needs to be in place for you to remain mentally and physically well at work
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currently well and using the WAP to support your general wellbeing at work
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currently experiencing a mental health problem and want to find out how a WAP can help you
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currently experiencing a physical health problem and want to find out how a WAP can help you
Resources to download:
Dr. Rachel Perkins together with IPS Grow have designed toolkits to help you and your team survive and thrive at work.
Click here to download the toolkit to help you everyday, even days when things are getting to you at work, when you feel "off", and when everything is getting too much for you.
Have you been off sick for a long period? Use this guide to help ease your transition back into work.
The toolkit is a fantastic resource to support the wellbeing of health and care staff.
It includes information and tools to support team-led sessions around personal values, burnout and compassion fatigue, mindfulness, sleep, stress and more. Download the pdf document here.
Natural Help for the NHS and Care home workers
Free relaxing Nature Sounds album for all NHS and Care Home workers from Symbiosis. There is currently an open invitation for NHS employees to contact the company Symbiosis Music, via their website, to obtain a free download code.
What is moral injury?
Moral injury is a term that is used to describe the psychological distress that arises from being made to do or witness things that go against your moral code. This could be due to feeling or being under-prepared or ill-equipped to deal with a situation, often of a systemic nature, or inexperience during unprecedented situations.
This term has often been used to describe the experiences and subsequent trauma faced by some health and social care staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
How can I spot the signs of moral injury?
Moral injury can present as feelings of distress, shame, anger, guilt, as well as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the same way as PTSD, the event can be re-experienced over and over, which can lead to avoidance, emotional numbing and social withdrawal. Moral injury has been associated with increased risk of substance abuse and burnout.
How can I support someone with moral injury?
Team support and allowing colleagues to discuss their feelings and experiences have been shown to be most effective in helping people to overcome moral injury. Specific things that are known to have helped include:
- buddying people up on shifts so that they have a specific person they can talk to and get support from;
- supervisors to be 'psychologically savvy' and undertake training on how to have wellbeing conversations. This can include training in how to become an 'active listener'. Check out our 'Resources for Leaders' page to help you get started.
- peer support: having a supportive team that discusses wellbeing and provides reflective practice sessions can help create a sense of togetherness and community. It also allows early identification of staff members at particular risk and subsequent signposting for further support;
- utilising TRiM practitioners as well as other staff support offers in your organisation;
- making sure that staff are well-equipped, either with the up-to-date training and tools or physical supplies can help colleagues to feel more confident that they did everything they could in a situation and help them come to the realisation that a negative outcome was not their personal responsibility.
Where can I find out more about moral injury?
Dr Esther Murray discusses what moral injury is and how you can help yourself and others in this YouTube video.
Professor Neil Greenberg has carried out a lot of research in the area of trauma and moral injury of staff who have worked through the pandemic. See some of his work here and here.
Schwartz Rounds are group reflective practice forums giving staff from all disciplines, clinical and non-clinical, an opportunity to reflect on the emotional and social aspects of working in healthcare.
To find out more about Schwartz Rounds follow the link here.
Supporting NHS colleagues to handle difficult situations with compassion:
A new e-learning module is now available for Health and Wellbeing Champions, Health and Wellbeing Allies, Health and Wellbeing Officers, or Health and Wellbeing Advocates working in any NHS organisation.
The module takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and covers the following areas:
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Introduction
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What is a Health and Wellbeing Champion?
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Who can be a Health and Wellbeing Champion?
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What will be expected of me as a Health and Wellbeing Champion?
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What might I be asked to do as a Health and Wellbeing Champion?
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How to communicate the role of Health and Wellbeing Champions in your organisation
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As a Health and Wellbeing Champion, how can I access support if I need it?
See here for more information and to access the module.
Are you feeling stressed at work? Is your team under a lot of pressure?
Stress affects 1 in 5 of the working population, no matter your job title.
Find out how to tackle stress in the workplace, including tips to try and experiment with!
Click here to view the slides.
This new coaching service can support you to take practical steps over your career direction and to proactively advance it. Whether you're thinking about what you want from your current role or if you want to explore new opportunities within primary care, investing some time with a coach can be a helpful thing to do.
Your coach will provide individually tailored support and will not have an agenda, they will listen and help you to think through what is right for you.
What might you discuss?
- Thinking through career decisions, options and choices
- Talking about current career dilemmas
- Exploring future career pathways
- Making strategic plans for the future
- Preparing for interviews and opportunities
- Discussing a potential change in career focus
- Developing more meaning or purpose in current roles.
All coaching is free and confidential and is available to all staff working in the delivery of primary care services. Sessions are available Monday to Saturday. Please share this offer and our other coaching support with colleagues. You can access the coaching sessions here.
All health and social care staff have the right to work in a safe and respectful enviroment which is free of abuse, harrasement, bullying and other inappropriate behaviour.
To find out more about Work Place Bullying follow here.