Read on Twitter
I’ve been contacted by a few friends and family members recently, asking for some tips on how to support the mental health of teams of healthcare staff (my family’s full of NHS heroes!) and I thought maybe it was worth doing a little thread highlighting the toplines. So:
Firstly, I’m sorry to hear your staff are struggling. We know from research studies that there's a discrete mental health impact on healthcare professionals and staff during a pandemic.
The lancet rapid review on "the psychological impacts of quarantine" explores this a little, if you’re interested in the theory behind it all. https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30460-8/fulltext
For more practical support:
I’ve heard of some hospitals (particularly for staff working on covid wards and on the itus) have provided extra mental health support in the form of psychologists, group debriefing sessions, and extra/ priority access to talking therapies.
I’ve heard of some hospitals (particularly for staff working on covid wards and on the itus) have provided extra mental health support in the form of psychologists, group debriefing sessions, and extra/ priority access to talking therapies.
So if you have that already, make use of it, and if not, its worth feeding your concerns up to senior management and asking what can be provided to support staff resilience and wellbeing.
You might want to share a couple of Mind resources with your team - maybe in a WhatsApp group chat or in a comms email:
firstly the page on our website about going into work as a key worker, which we created when we realised that the usual advice we were giving to people who were staying home, did not help if you couldn’t do that: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus/coping-as-a-key-worker/
Also our pages on trauma, which explores a diverse range of possible causes, what trauma can feel like and how it can present, as well as some self-care and treatment options: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/trauma/about-trauma/
And there's also a lot of specific mental health at work resources for healthcare professionals over on our Mental health at work website, in the ‘our frontline’ section. This would be one to have a flick through yourself, share with your peers as well. https://www.mentalhealthatwork.org.uk/ourfrontline/
Finally, one of the most simple things you can do which can be surprisingly impactful, is to create some space in your team meetings to talk about how things have been for everyone and to be open about your own perspective as well.
"Permission to be vulnerable" is such an underrated thing- and as a leader, setting the tone for conversations to happen in a safe space, can be really empowering for staff.
My other suggestion is that you could encourage your team members to fill out a Wellness Action Plan, and again you could role model/normalise thinking and talking about wellbeing by doing one yourself, and perhaps sharing a couple of things from it.
More on wellness action plans here: https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/taking-care-of-your-staff/employer-resources/wellness-action-plan-download/
Its important to emphasise that anyone can have a WAP, theyre not just for people with mental health problems, and that they don't need to be official. A staffer could choose to complete one and not share it with anyone, or share it with just their manager, etc etc
Personally, I have one, so does most of the people in my team i think. I share mine with my manager, and useful bits that are handy for my line reports to know i share with them too. I wouldn't be surprised if our CEO had one too. Wellness Action Plans are great!
So there are some suggestions, there's sooo much more on our website to look at, and I'd encourage people to take some time to flick through the coronavirus info suite too ( http://mind.org.uk/coronavirus ). Thank you to all the HCPs and frontline staff taking care of our loved ones. 
