Your wellbeing is our priority and we want to support you to feel safe and well at work and at home. We are fostering a culture of compassion, inclusion and belonging. A culture in which wellbeing is everybody’s business and where we support each other.
There may be times when personal circumstances, work pressures or health concerns impact on your wellbeing.
On this page you can find tools and resources on ways you can look after yourselves and others. You can get help to become more resilient and better at coping with things like stress and anxiety.
Please do ask for help as soon as it is needed – you can speak to your line manager in your 121 or wellbeing assessment review. They can help you decide what support you need and how to access it.
Information is from trusted sources and recognises that not one size fits all – you can access the help and support that is right for you and at a time that is right.
We are all adjusting to living and working in unprecedented times and there will be occasions when everyone, however knowledgeable and experienced they may be, will feel overwhelmed, anxious and out of their depth.
Times are tough and we are only human after all.
Acknowledging this and how we are feeling, using our own tried and tested methods for coping with stress and worries continue to be the biggest protective factors for our own mental health and wellbeing.
However we are all guilty of putting our own needs last especially when we spend most of our day caring for our service users, colleagues and loved ones.
If we are going to continue to rise up to the challenges over the next few months, then we need to pace ourselves and look after both our physical and mental wellbeing.
Whilst we all have our own preferred ways of coping with stress and managing our wellbeing the Trust’s Health and Wellbeing Group have put together this fantastic document which includes top tips, and ideas to help in your everyday life.
Health Assured, our Employee Assistance Programme, is available to help you cope with life’s challenges, whenever and wherever they’re thrown at us. It can offer help and support with a range of work, family and personal issues. To access this service you can self-refer or your manager can refer you.
There are different ways to access assistance:
Online referral: Health Assured have just introduced a NEW online management referral process. You can access the form herewhich also includes Guidance Notes and FAQs.
Call the helpline: 24-hour confidential telephone counselling service on 0800 030 5182. You can speak to a qualified and experienced counsellor who will offer support in a professional, friendly and non-judgemental manner. As well as helping our staff, Health Assured will support your partner and children who live with you who are aged between 16 and 24 and are in full-time education.
The app offers access to holistic health and wellbeing support at the tap of a finger anywhere and anytime:
Support videos and webinars
Mood tracker
Four-week programmes
Home life support and advice
Work life assistance
Physical and emotional health
Mini health checks
Life Support
Medical information
A Live chat function is also included on the new app
This programme is just for LYPFT staff. If you are a service user or member of the public, please go to our health and wellbeing pages for support to help you through this challenging time.
The Occupational Health Team have a Covid-19 helpline for you to call if you are feeling unwell and want to discuss your symptoms. They can also help with advice on smoking cessation and weight management.
You can call 01924 316036 from 8 am – 4pm, Monday to Friday.
These phone lines are just for LYPFT staff. If you are a service user or member of the public, please go to our health and wellbeing pages for support to help you through this challenging time.
Whether you’re working from home or with unfamiliar pressures in the workplace, in the current situation it can be challenging to maintain physical health. However, this is vital to make sure you can continue to offer your best to service users, family and friends.
Controlling the things you can control is important in dealing with challenging situations and that is why we’ve put together this package to support you to remain physically active, which is key for both physical and mental wellbeing.
Musculoskeletal (MSK) issues and fast track physio appointments The managers briefing pack for MSK issues summarises the current best evidence about managing musculoskeletal (MSK) pain – this guide is suitable for managers whose staff are working from their usual place of work.
The briefing packs below, for staff and managers, are designed to help support you during the Covid-19 restrictions where you may be working from home much more than usual, for a sustained amount of time.
Here are some resources from Trust Physio, Joe Loftus, which may be useful:
Download Joe’s presentation slides for your team meeting or watch the latest webinar with Joe on how to avoid aches and pains and MSK issues while working from home:
We’re continuing to offer fast-track Physiotherapy appointments by video link (self-referral or management referral). Email joseph.loftus@nhs.net or the Occupational Health and Wellbeing department on 01924 316031.
Other resources
It’s useful to take advantage of other forms of advice too. If you’re experiencing aches or pains it can be hard to know where to look.
Two excellent starting points for self help on a variety of musculoskeletal issues are:
In addition to the health and wellbeing resources available to all colleagues, you can access resources to develop your management and leadership skills and support your team more effectively in these challenging times and beyond.
Here you can find shortcuts to leadership and team management resources which will support you to:
Adopt caring, compassionate approaches
Understand the individual circumstances of those you manage
Build effective and supportive teams
Focus on the wellbeing of your staff, such as following the triage of support and build a safe culture
Your wellbeing as a leader or a manager
Leaders’ Pack
In light of the culture collaborative work over the past year and also against the back drop of the current pandemic, with the heightened pressures it has brought, we have pulled together a pack called ‘Leading in unprecedented times’.
It is a collection of resources, containing tools, tips and best practice approaches to leading and managing effectively. There is a strong focus on adopting caring approaches, for yourself as a manager/leader and digging deep to understand the individual circumstances of those you manage. It also includes simple guidance to building effective teams and focussing on the wellbeing of your staff, such as following the triage of support (psychological first aid) and building a safe culture in your team.
This document goes some way to lay out the approach we expect from our leaders and managers and we hope proves a useful toolkit to help them in these challenging times and beyond. Our intention is to embed this further with virtual learning opportunities.
Various resources around building teams quickly, psychological safety, teamwork in critical situations and team working remotely.
Emotional wellbeing Read Jennifer Colosimo’s white paper about reducing fear and anxiety in teams – Jennifer is the author of Great Work Great Career.
Mindtools support pack
To help you during this time, Mindtools have created a FREE support pack of relevant resources aimed at maintaining yours and your team’s physical and emotional well-being.
Free coaching for leaders and managers NHS England and NHS Improvement Health and Wellbeing have partnered with selected coaching companies and other leading-edge organisations to provide free, confidential, 1-2-1 coaching or mentoring support sessions for all NHS and social care leaders.
We’ve run a series of leadership webinar sessions to help our leaders come together, re-connect, and hear thoughts from some leading experts and also to have the opportunity for small group reflection and discussion.
Psychological first aid and peer support webinar This webinar will equip team managers and leaders with the skills to support staff in the here and now at times of acute and chronic stress. Psychological First Aid is an evidenced based intervention adopted by the World Health Organisation, and promoted by NHSE and the Trust as a ‘first line intervention’. The psychological support framework offered within the Trust and across services is supported by the psychological professions.
Rev Dr Michael MkPadi, from the Chaplaincy Team, is keen to ensure that staff know that they are here and able to provide a service at this time.
In the current climate all support will be provided via a compassionate telephone consultation in replacement of the usual one-to-one meeting, or via virtual consultations where possible.
Any member of staff can access confidential support from the chaplaincy by emailing chaplaincy.lypft@nhs.net.
The NHS partners with the Money Advice Service, an organisation which works to improve people’s financial wellbeing across the UK, to provide all NHS employees with free and independent financial support.
There are a variety of offers that you are able to engage with personally or signpost colleagues to who may need this support:
If you need support now, you can contact the Money Advice Service for free, confidential and impartial money advice by telephone on 0800 448 0826, via WhatsApp to +44 7701 342 744 and via web chat.
Our workforce is diverse, as are the communities we serve. However this alone does not make us an inclusive organisation. We know BAME colleagues are not equally represented at more senior levels of our Trust and that racism both direct and indirect and bullying and harassment continues to take place here.
We must do more to tackle racism and inequality and create a culture where this can be called out.
What can you do now?
Reach out and make the time to have a conversation with our BAME colleagues to understand their challenges and concerns.
Worried about having difficult conversations? On YouTube you will find a series of short videos that might help:
Want to learn more about equality, diversity and inclusivity?
Contact our Library and Knowledge Centre at lypft@net.net or call 0113 85 55652/43) as they have expanded their selection of fiction and non-fiction books on diversity, inclusivity, understanding prejudices that can shape our lives as well as exploring the health inequalities of diverse groups such as:
Why I am no longer talking to white people about race’ by Reni Eddo-Lodge
‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’ by David Olusuga
‘Natives. Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’ by Akala
‘White Privilege – The Myth of a Post-Racial Society’ by Kalwant Bhopal
‘White Fragility – Why it is so hard for White People to Talk About Racism’ by Robin DiAngelo.
Queenie – Candice Carty-Williams
Small Great Things – Jodi Picoult
Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman
The Colour of Madness: exploring mental health in the UK
Citizen: An American Lyric – Claudia Rankine.
Hood Feminism: notes from the women white feminists forgot – Mikki Kendall
The Good Immigrant – Edited by Nikesh Shukla.
How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi.
Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging – Afua Hirsch
Biased: Uncovering The Hidden Prejudices That Shape Our Lives – Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City – Joy White
Superior: The Return of Race Science – Angela Saini
Check out a helpful guide for parents to discuss resources, activities, and tips for families to empower children to work towards racial equality entitled Parents Guide to Black Lives Matter.
To keep this group private for staff only, you will be asked some questions and to provide your NHS email address. This will only be used for verification purposes and will not be published anywhere on the group.
This is a space for you and we encourage you to take part, get involved and create content for each other.
Coffee Mates
Coffee Mates is your opportunity to spend around 30 mins having a (virtual) chat and getting to know someone new, who wouldn’t necessarily be someone for your usual work environment. Your chats can be about anything and it doesn’t need to be work related. There is no agenda, no goal, just have a catch up and see where it takes you. It’s all about you having a break, a chat, developing new support networks and having a chance to recharge.
Here’s what Lesley Sharp has to say about her experience: “For me meeting colleagues you otherwise wouldn’t helps promote understanding between disciplines and develops lines of communication for future possibilities; also it develops the use of Zoom as a different way of working from home and on site.”
Coffee Mates catch-ups can take place by phone or video conferencing platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. If you’d like to sign up send an email with the subject ‘Coffee Mates’ to healthwellbeing.lypft@nhs.net to say ‘count me in’ with the area you work in and we will do the rest.
To contribute a selfie, blog, poem, take part in a podcast or for any other contributions please email communications.lypft@nhs.net.
Coronavirus recovery
Mary Franklin-Smith, a therapist from the CONNECT Eating Disorders Service, shared her story with us on Zoom about recovering from the infection. Watch now on YouTube.
Lisa Cromack, an Involvement Coordinator, contributed a blog for Learning Disability Week about her recovery from coronavirus. Read it on our website.
First in a series of podcasts featuring our amazing colleagues (Recorded October 2020). Hosted by Josef Faulkner, Clinical Operations Manager for Community and Primary Care Mental Health Services.
Colleagues chat with Josef about their experiences through the pandemic – work pressures, shielding, working from home, coping with anxiety and stress and more. Plus Josef asks for some tips on how they have kept themselves well.
If you have questions that cannot be answered locally please email corona.virus@nhs.net.
We support a speak up culture, where all staff feel safe and confident to raise concerns. If something at work is troubling you, please tell us. Do not be afraid to speak up if you don’t think something is right. For more information visit ‘Raising Concerns’ on Staffnet where you can also find out more about the five new Ambassadors Christopher Anozie, Victoria Savage, Robin Ellis, Katie Yarr and Alexis Bennett.You can raise concerns in different ways:
Speak with your line manager, clinical supervisor or union representative in the first instance
Contact a member of the Freedom to Speak Up Team:
the Trust’s Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, John Verity is at lypft@nhs.net or call / text on 07980 959 407
NHS England and NHS Improvement have verified all the kind offers being made to NHS staff and have listed them on the NHS website. This list includes offers across supermarkets and transport along with details on how to access these offers, and any terms and conditions to be aware of.
AA breakdown support
The AA will assist any NHS worker who breaks down on their way to and from work, even if they have not paid for AA cover. If you need roadside assistance, call the dedicated hotline on 0800 0725 064.
NHS People – wellbeing support
A range of guides, apps and events to support the wellbeing of you and your team are available at people.nhs.uk
Your wellbeing is our priority and we want to support you to feel safe and well at work and at home. We are fostering a culture of compassion, inclusion and belonging. A culture in which wellbeing is everybody’s business and where we support each other.
when everyone, however knowledgeable and experienced they may be, will feel overwhelmed, anxious and out of their depth.
