With support from NHS Charities Together, the national charity caring for the NHS, we have been providing Trust staff with essential health and wellbeing support during the pandemic.
Our extensive staff health and wellbeing programme was set up in March last year and will become a mainstay in how we support staff at Chelsea and Westminster and West Middlesex University Hospitals, even when the outbreak has subsided. Elements of the programme include:
- Psychological counselling and mental wellbeing support including training for staff who were deployed from other areas of our hospitals to work on COVID wards
- Wellbeing hubs at both hospitals providing a welcoming environment for staff to relax, chat with colleagues, reflect, and refuel with refreshments. The hubs are also stocked with toiletries, phone-charging points, massage chairs, yoga mats and colouring supplies
- The transformation of the Level 5 Sky Garden at Chelsea and Westminster as a space for intensive care staff to take breaks and relax with sleep pods
- Mental Health First Aid training to help staff deal with the stress and anxiety that COVID-19 is causing them. Our Mental Health First Aiders (we are training 80 in total this year) provide ad hoc sessions – anonymous or face-to-face – and weekly clinics for staff to talk about how they’re feeling and know they are not alone
- Online exercise, yoga and meditation classes.
Kerry Huntington, CW+ Fundraising Director, explains: “We are extremely grateful to NHS Charities Together and our donors who have supported our staff and volunteers both practically and emotionally during what has been the greatest challenge of our generation. It is fantastic that we can continue to ensure these invaluable services remain available to staff in the future.”
© 2023