Health and wellbeing support

Do you need support with your health and wellbeing? Perhaps you are feeling like you’re struggling to balance both work and personal commitments, or maybe you feel overwhelmed? Support services available are listed here.

Physician Associate specific health and wellbeing support

The North West Physician Associate Forum is an alliance to support, empower and progress Physician Associates across the North West of England.

Find out more at https://www.northpaforum.co.uk

Coaching and mentoring

The North West Physician Associate Forum offers free coaching and mentoring support to Physician Associates training and working in the North West. The mentors and coaches have been developed through the On Becoming programme, a programme that is accredited by the European Mentoring, Coaching Council (EMCC) for this purpose.

Coaching will be available over a period of 6 meetings, agreed with your coach, to help you address any difficulties you may be facing. Our Coaches adhere to the ethical standards of the EMCC. Coaching you also helps to develop our coaches in the skills and attributes of coaching through our feedback and supervision processes.

Mentoring is a longer term relationship that is proven to advance you in both career and your life goals. Mentoring is ideal for student PAs as well as newly graduated and employed PAs in their first few years of work.

Find out more at https://www.northpaforum.co.uk/coaches-and-mentors

On Becoming

The North West Physician Associate Forum provides the On Becoming self-development programme that will equip Physician Associates for the daily interpersonal relationships at the core of their work.

Find out more at https://www.northpaforum.co.uk/on-becoming

NHS-wide health and wellbeing support

Short daily stress-management sessions via Zoom for healthcare professionals around the globe. Sessions run morning, afternoon and evening and are free to access, no registration necessary.

Find out more about Covid Calm at https://www.covidcalm.org.

An app to support those with anxiety or worry using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and other tools. Free NHS access until end of December 2020.

Find out more about Daylight at https://onboarding.trydaylight.com/daylight/access/100#1/1.

The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provides confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The free 24-hour telephone counselling and information services can be accessed at any time of the day and night. Call: 0800 783 2808.

Visit EAP online at http://healthassuredeap.co.uk and enter 72936 in the username box and 72936 in the password box. You can also download Health-E app at on the App Store and via Google Play.

A site for mindfulness and meditation. Free to access until December 2020 if you register with an NHS email address.

Find out more about Headspace at ttps://www.headspace.com.

Fontline primary care colleagues involved in the delivery of Primary Care services, both clinical and non-clinical, are facing unprecedented challenges through Covid-19. Looking after you too offers coaching support to help primary care staff to maintain their psychological wellbeing during this time, enabling them to maintain the delivery of frontline primary care.

Individual coaching support is available with a highly skilled and experienced coach.  This will be a space for you to offload the demands of whatever you are experiencing and be supported in developing practical strategies for dealing with this.  It might be that through a one-off conversation you have all the strategies you need to cope with your situation and stay well.  Or you might find a few sessions helpful.  It is all led by you.

Sessions are available Mondays to Fridays between 08:00am-10:00pm and on Saturdays and Sundays between 10:00am-6:00pm. The first session will last up to 45 minutes. The sessions will be delivered virtually, preferably via a video platform, but telephone appointments are also available. Subsequent sessions will be dependent on the conversation between you and your coach. Your coach might signpost you on to further support if they think this might be helpful. You may receive follow-up emails to support you in maintaining your wellness once your coaching sessions have finished.

Register and book a coaching session at https://people.nhs.uk/lookingafteryoutoo/register.

The Greater Manchester Bereavement Service was launched on 30th April 2020 and provides a single point of contact for people in Greater Manchester to get advice and support if they are bereaved, directing them to both local and national services.

People can either call the service on 0161 983 0902 or visit www.greater-manchester-bereavement-service.org.uk

The Greater Manchester Resilience Hub was set up in response to the Manchester Arena Attack in 2017 to co-ordinate care and support for thousands of children, young people and adults whose mental health and/or emotional wellbeing was affected.

Greater Manchester Resilience Hub is also providing support to all health and care workers (and their families), working in Greater Manchester, who have been affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Find out more about the Greater Manchester Resilience Hub at www.penninecare.nhs.uk/mcrhub and the coronavirus support available at www.penninecare.nhs.uk/mcrhub-covid19.

NESTAC (New Step for African Communities) Charity works to empower the disadvantaged population within the Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, particularly refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants from the new emerging communities in Greater Manchester.

NESTAC provides mental health support specifically aimed at people from BAME communities. Find out more at http://www.nestac.org.uk.

The NHS Staff support line is a confidential free staff support phone line 0300 131 7000, operated by the Samaritans accessible 7:00am-11:00pm seven days a week

Alternatively, you can text FRONTLINE to 85258 for 24/7 text support

The NHS practitioner health service is confidential and can be accessed between 8am-8pm weekdays and 8am-2pm weekends by emailing gp.health@nhs.net, calling 0300 0303 300 or visiting the website at https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk.

Our NHS people is a wellbeing support platform created by the NHS as support for you to manage your own health and wellbeing while you look after others at this time. It offers short guides, pathways through information and links to external apps. Requires registration but doesn’t require an NHS email address.

Find out more at https://people.nhs.uk/.

From Tuesday 7 April, the Silver Cloud digital mental health platform will be available to provide extra support and help for those who may be feeling stressed and anxious during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Silver Cloud offers a number of online programmes to help ease stress levels, improve sleep or build resilience. Each programme uses proven methods, including cognitive behavioural therapy, and all information entered is anonymous, confidential and secure.

The provision of Silver Cloud is part of a Greater Manchester wide programme of new digital services and online support launched this week. Mental health services are facing new challenges and coming under additional pressure due to the COVID-19 outbreak as they try to support those already accessing services and deal with new cases, whilst managing the impact on their staffing levels. This new package of support aims to help people to stay well, reducing the need for them to attend GP practices or hospitals. This new provision can be accessed by those with existing mental health issues as well as anyone who may be struggling due to social distancing and self-isolation restrictions.

Access Silver Cloud at https://gm.silvercloudhealth.com/signup/

Health and wellbeing offers in the form of virtual Common Rooms are open to anyone working within the NHS across England, regardless of job role, organisational context or hierarchy and includes all final year students who have been working on the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Common Rooms are a safe and supportive environment hosted by an experienced and approved practitioner. They involve one-off meetings for one hour with a maximum of 10 NHS staff – although you are of course able to access them as often as you may feel to be helpful to yourself. Discussion in the room is guided by the participants and focusses on present and future coping and support.

By joining, you will have time to:

  • reflect
  • share frustrations and experiences
  • find ways to cope with how Covid-19 is affecting your life at home and at work

The Virtual Common Rooms are listed on the NHS England events page at https://www.events.england.nhs.uk.