Looking after your team through
challenging times: psychological
wellbeing for healthcare professionals
Virtual Community Meeting
10th February 4pm
#Caring4NHSpeople # ProjectM
Welcome to our monthly national community event
supporting the health and wellbeing of our NHS people
during the Covid-19 response

Introduce yourself in the chat box
Say:
• Who you are
• Where you are today
• One thing you’re currently doing to
look after yourself during this
challenging time
• Send to “all participants”
To join the wellbeing community list, click on
the link at
http://horizonsnhs.com/caring4nhspeople/

To join the mailing list of people who
get the information about this
community:
http://horizonsnhs.com/caring4nhspeople/
#Caring4NHSpeople
#ProjectM
Staying in touch…
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM
For all the wellbeing offers: england.nhs.uk/people
All the #ProjectM offers: https://people.nhs.uk/

Looking after your team through
challenging times: psychological
wellbeing for healthcare professionals
Virtual Community Meeting
10th February 4pm
#Caring4NHSpeople # ProjectM
Welcome to our monthly national community event
supporting the health and wellbeing of our NHS people
during the Covid-19 response

Aims of today’s
national health and wellbeing
community event…
• Offer support, ideas, knowledge and wisdom
to those with a role in supporting the health
and wellbeing of our staff
• Share the range of wellbeing support activities
that are available
• Connect with each other and collectively build
our community of those who support the
health and wellbeing of our staff
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM

• Welcome – John Drew, Zoe Lord & Elizabeth Nyawade
• National wellbeing overview – Claire Parker
• #ProjectM – Alan Nobbs
• Psychological wellbeing for health and care professionals – Dr Esther Murray
• Closing Remarks – Zoe Lord & Elizabeth Nyawade
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM

The team today
Contributors
Zoe Lord
Facilitators
Elizabeth Nyawade
Chat box facilitator
Social Media
Leigh Kendall
YouTube host
Ramima Khanam
Bev Matthews
Technical host
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM
Ian Baines
Dr Esther Murray
Claire Parker Alan Nobbs
John Drew
Neil Owen

Introduce yourself in the chat box
Say:
• Who you are
• Where you are today
• One thing you’re currently doing to
look after yourself during this
challenging time
• Send to “all participants”
To join the wellbeing community list, click on
the link at
http://horizonsnhs.com/caring4nhspeople/

National Wellbeing
Overview
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM
Claire Parker
Senior Programme Lead of Health and Wellbeing
NHS England and NHS Improvement

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The health and wellbeing of our NHS people is a key theme
in the People Plan
Overall outcome Pillars Themes for action in 2020/21
 More people
 Working
differently
 In a
compassionate
and inclusive
culture
. . . to support
the delivery of
the NHS Long
Term Plan
Looking after
our people
Belonging in
the NHS
Growing for
the future
We are safe, and physically and mentally healthy and well
We work flexibly
Expanding and developing our workforce
Recruiting and retaining our people
We are open and inclusive, and staff have a voice
Leaders are compassionate and inclusive at all levels
New ways of
working and
delivering care
Making the most of the skills in our teams
Educating and training our people for the future

11 |
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National HWB offers directly available to all staff have been
accessed over 700,000 times through www.england.nhs.uk/people
175,373 app downloads 12,443 contacts with our
dedicated helplines
518,887 sessions
2,750 leadership circle
940 common room
1,417 coaching & mentoring
1,382 REACT participants
5,300 primary care
coaching sessions
7,000 webinar participants
120,000+ views of
webinars + materials
2,000+ newsletter subscribers
At 3 February 2021

12 |
The Pulse Survey suggests that staff generally feel well supported -
and that when they do, it reduces stress
 Throughout COVID, staff generally have felt well supported (64-69%) and
well informed (80-85%)
 The combination of these two factors leads to measurably lower levels of
anxiety (27% versus average of 34% for all NHS staff), as shown below;
 Staff report being more anxious about their immediate family and
friends and those they care for than their own health
 The level of anxiety felt by staff has been rising in recent months, but
remains below the level of the rest of the UK workforce (35%)
Pulse survey –114 NHS employers registered, 33,819 respondents across all 8 waves so far

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• It is important that the health and wellbeing offer continues to evolve and our focus is turning to
three main areas:
• We need to ensure Health and Wellbeing Guardians are supported in their role and
champion health and wellbeing consistently within organisations – we have developed a toolkit
and identified senior health and wellbeing advocates who have offered to help us
• We need to equip line managers and teams with the tools they need take ownership of health
and wellbeing and that supportive, compassionate, conversations take place routinely
• We need to continue to deploy evidence-based interventions on mental health that staff can
access rapidly, while also promoting the current offer; and have a focus on Occupational
Health becoming an integral part of a preventative health and wellbeing management system
to help organisations develop and own interventions
• We believe we need to have a focus on these activities while ensuring that ‘people recovery’ sits at
the heart of what we do
How do we see the programme evolving?
Presentation title

14 |
 Extending free access to health and wellbeing apps to NHS staff until
the end March 2021, funded nationally
 Development of an accessible physical health offer in partnership with
Invictus Games Foundation
 Financial wellbeing support in partnership with the Money and Pensions
Service (MAPS)
 Violence reduction training and extending the pilot of body-worn cameras
in the ambulance sector
 Implementing H&WB conversations for all NHS staff, practitioner guide
produced and signposting to NHS Employers user guides
 Introducing ‘Leadership lifeguards’ to provide coaching and support to
line managers
 Further development and research into the offer to BAME staff and
networks, including working in partnership with faith groups
 Family and relationship support in partnership with specialist providers
We continually refine the support offer to staff through winter with
the additional challenges associated with COVID
COVID
illness
The effectiveness and reach of the HWB support is tracked and evaluated week by week
to refine and respond to what staff need and what they seem to value most highly

#ProjectM
Support for managers and
team leaders to connect, share and
learn together
Offers & Top Tips
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM
Alan Nobbs
Head of Design and Development
NHS Leadership Academy
@Alannobbs

#ProjectM Update
Presenter: Alan Nobbs
Date: 10 February 2021
#ProjectM Supporting and connecting leaders and managers in health and care

#ProjectM emerged as a new leadership development and support offer with a health and
wellbeing focus aimed at all NHS Team Leaders and Managers who could use a helping
hand in managing challenging times during COVID-19 pandemic and Winter Pressures.
People.nhs.ukprojectm
#ProjectM Supporting and connecting leaders and managers in health and care
What is #ProjectM?

Bite-size resources
• Self-care
• Team-care
• Inclusion and compassion
• Resilience
• Stress & Burnout
• Themed webinars (24/02)
Connecting with others
• Tweetchats
• Virtual peer groups
• Informal ‘tea & talk’ sessions
Mentorship
• #ProjectMentor
• #ProjectMentorMe
• Virtual Mentors peer group
Social Collaboration
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
Supporting and connecting leaders
and managers in health and care.
#ProjectM
We heard, we did…

17 February 8-9pm – Wednesday Download
An informal time to connect with peers
24 February 1-2pm – Listen & Learn Session
Sonya Wallbank shares lessons on burnout
2 March 7-8pm – Tweetchat
13 March 4-5pm – Wellbeing Wednesday
Follow @NHSLeadership on Twitter for
updates and inspirational bite-size learning.
#ProjectM Supporting and connecting leaders and managers in health and care
#ProjectM – What’s next?

Looking After Your Team in
Challenging Times
#Caring4NHSpeople #ProjectM
Dr Esther Murray
Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology
Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry

e.murray@qmul.ac.uk

(Litz et al., 2009, Shay 2014)

• Because everyone has a moral code and beliefs about
the way the world is or should be
• We all have a sense of our own goodness, and the ways
in which we fit into the world
• When we are put into a situation where either we or
others can’t or don’t behave in ways that fit with these
beliefs, we have to work to make peace with that

(Litz 2009, Currier 2015, Park 2010)

Physical Cognitive Emotional Behavioural
Aches and pains Inability to
concentrate
More emotional Appetite changes
Rapid heart rate worry/rumination/
intrusive thoughts
Irritable Sleep disturbance
Nausea, dizziness Heightened/
lowered alertness
Unable to relax Social withdrawal
Chest pains Memory problems Feeling
overwhelmed
Excessive alcohol
use
Fatigue Poor problem solving Loss of confidence Use of substances
Breathing
problems
Confusion Low mood
Restlessness Feeling numb

Collaboration –
working together for
common goals,
reminding staff of
efforts outside their
own working areas

In the chat box…
Share one thing that
you're going to do as a
result of joining the
session today...
Photo by Júnior Ferreira on Unsplash

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your own role supporting staff health and wellbeing
during and after Covid-19?
POLL
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