West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership gets extra funding for staff mental health support
Our Hub ambition is to work in collaboration with all our Partnership organisations and services, building on the existing provision in place to ensure that our workforce can access appropriate support for their mental health and wellbeing needs.
Staff wellbeing is a top priority across our Partnership with many leaders highlighting concerns about staff stress and burnout through the pandemic. Latest research carried out by King’s College London and reported this week asked 709 workers at nine intensive care units in England about how they were coping as the first wave eased. Nearly half reported symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or problem drinking. One in seven had thoughts of self-harming or being “better off dead”.
The hub is already beginning to take shape with clinical and other professionals recruited into the project team. Work is underway to connect with a full range of people in our organisations to ensure all voices are heard and needs identified, including those who may be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic.
Dr Sara Munro, CEO for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme said:
“This funding from NHS England and NHS Improvement means that we can move quickly to enhance support for staff, ranging from individual psychological therapy through to easy access to groups and services that are able to respond quickly and appropriately to people’s needs.
We are mobilising this hub at pace, using our connections with organisations in the public and community and voluntary sectors, as well as the NHS, to identify the staff who need this help now and in the months ahead, and to build sustainable support for staff wellbeing in the future.
Professor Brendan Brown, CEO for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Workforce Programme said:
“As we learn more about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of our colleagues working in every aspect of our systems response, we know that we have a responsibility to take even greater steps to support and care for them. This applies to all of our colleagues, working in acute and mental health trusts, in general practice, in community, voluntary and social care and in roles that are less visible but just as important in supporting our communities and keeping them safe and well.
We have more than 100,000 people working in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate health and care system and every one of them is crucial to how we cope with the crisis.”
