THANKS to donations to the Barts Charity emergency COVID-19 appeal, staff at five hospitals – Whipps Cross, The Royal London, St Bartholomew’s, Newham, and Mile End – will benefit from a new package of wellbeing support.
“The impact of COVID has placed unparalleled pressures on NHS staff,” says Rachel Simkiss, Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Barts Health NHS Trust. “Our colleagues have done an amazing job saving lives and aiding patients’ recovery but they have seen a lot of things and they are feeling exhausted. During the peak, many worked long, intense shifts, living away from their families and separated from their usual ways of coping due to lockdown.”
Hospital staff are at risk of stress, anxiety and other mental health problems brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, which could be intensified by the second wave anticipated this winter.
Barts Charity is giving £1million for mental health support, with clinical psychologists being deployed to offer mental health first aid, counselling and wellbeing sessions to the 24,000 people working across the hospitals.
The new mental health programme will not be solely crisis-oriented, but will also focus on developing staff wellbeing and resilience to prevent mental ill-health from surfacing in the first place.