Staff Wellbeing Group

Staff Support & Wellbeing Group

Team story of support provided by the Staff Wellbeing Group - Margaret Kerr, Head of Organisational Development

The NHSFV Wellbeing Programme was introduced to support staff during the COVID 19 Pandemic earlier this year. The programme aimed to build upon the existing staff health and wellbeing activity within the organisation.

The Staff Support and Wellbeing group is chaired by NHSFV wellbeing champion, HRD Linda Donaldson, team members exceeds 23 members and includes organisation wide representation from Staff side, Nursing, Medicine, Woman and Children’s Services, AHPs, Spiritual Care, Psychology, Organisational Development, Communications, Mental Health, Health Promotion, Public Health, Medical Education, Cancer Services, Palliative Care and Falkirk and Stirling Health and Social Care Partnerships.

Since the group came together, they have worked as a united team to build on the foundations which were previously developed to ensure staff were provided with the help they needed and worked as a collective to get the support underway quickly. As a group, they showed creativity, passion and commitment to ensure help was accessible for all staff where and when they needed it.

A range of wellbeing resources including information, self-management tools and signposting to further sources was collated by Occupational Health Psychology and disseminated to staff via the intranet and internet. NHSFV Communications department and webmaster supported awareness raising of support services available across the organisation.

Listed below are some examples of support provided:

• Spiritual Care and support led by Tim Bennison which included the hotline and drop in sessions
• The Psychology Service and Mental Health provided support at the Sanctuary in FVRH Library area and other areas in FVRH and community hospitals, where drop in sessions were provided on topics for example relaxation and mindfulness
• Additional support provided by Psychology included
• Psychological First Aid for individual staff members delivered by telephone or Near Me, in addition to face to face sessions. Team leads training sessions using Psychological First Aid was delivered across social care, care homes and Strathcarron hospice, with the aim of the team leads cascading the principles to the wider work force.
• A consultancy and advice line was available for team leaders and managers to contact a senior psychologist for guidance in supporting staff wellbeing when particularly challenging situations arose.
• Training sessions and support on challenging communication around death and dying related to Covid-19 were provided by palliative care and psychology.
• Support sessions focused on maintaining resilience were delivered to hospital based teams. Some sessions were delivered jointly with a consultant microbiologist in order that staff members’ anxieties about Covid-19 could be holistically addressed.
• Support sessions tailored for new junior doctors
• Support provided by other group members
• Coaching provided by the Organisational Development and the Keep Well team
• Medical Peer Support and Junior Dr support by Medical Education and Consultants within NHSFV
• Virtual Staff Room for shielding staff supported by Health Improvement and Palliative Medicine.

Via our HRD and Wellbeing Champion, the group linked with national initiatives to ensure Forth Valley was offering support consistent with other Health Boards, and could share local initiatives. Care-home specific information packs were devised and disseminated to care homes.

The team continue to provide support to staff across NHSFV. Evaluations of support accessed by staff have been very positive.

Listed below are some examples of feedback:

“The Staff support was very helpful, allowed us to open up and gain insights into one another.”

“Helped me develop coping mechanisms”

“Very helpful and helped me get perspective on how to deal with issues”

“Very helpful session, encourages staff engagement and helps identify issues and resolutions”

“Generally supportive environment in hospital, I haven't had to contact any more formal staff support”

“A very good opportunity to express stress worries and other issues without fear of judgement”

“I felt more able to return to work and have a conversation with my manager about how I can get back to work safely “

“Psychological robustness is a key skill to have in order to fulfil my potential as a doctor. I feel I can take forward the techniques learned to enhance my wellbeing and effectively manage stress”

In addition to positives for those accessing the service, there were benefits to those staff members who provided the support:

“I enjoyed the development of collaborative relationships with other teams throughout the organization with reciprocal benefits of increased knowledge of each other’s roles and skills”

“Feeling valued and appreciated by the teams we delivered sessions to, and a sense that teams had taken something useful away from the experience. This brought me a sense of job satisfaction and improved wellbeing at work at a time when there was significant stress”