Staff Recognition Week: Continuing to talk wellbeing during challenging times

Throughout week commencing 21 – 25 September, we are holding a special staff Recognition Week to say thank you to our fabulous staff for everything they have done over the past few difficult months and continue to do during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Recognition Week will showcase and celebrate the amazing work of our staff and how they have been innovative in adapting their practices to ensure that our patients and service users have continued to get the very best care and treatment possible throughout this time. The commitment of our staff to making a difference in these unprecedented times is truly inspiring.  You can read about our inspiring staff and how they have adapted during the pandemic below. 

The Trust’s Let’s Talk Wellbeing service provides psychological assessment and treatment (talking therapies) for common mental health problems for patients in Nottingham City and parts of Nottinghamshire, and Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

These include depression, anxiety, panic, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma and stress. As one in four people will suffer with a mental health problem at some stage in their lives, it was essential that the service carry on supporting patients through the Covid-19 lockdown and beyond.

Andy Sirrs, Principal Clinical Lead, says that at the outset of lockdown the team immediately implemented plans to move to remote working. This meant that staff were able to work from home from the first week and the vast majority of their patient contact shifted to video and phone calls.

Pulling together to maintain the service

“Most of our contacts had been face-to-face before the pandemic and I was very proud that the hard work of the team meant we lost no continuity in our service. Staff were incredibly flexible and adapted very well, with some working from their kitchen table and so on. Everyone pulled together to maintain the service.

“All our admin staff have been answering patient calls from home and have adapted to new processes to enable clinical staff to work effectively with new technologies whilst continuing communication with GPs about the changes in patient care via digital channels.

“Some members of the admin team continued coming into the office bases to accept phone referrals and deal with the post. They worked flexibly and in shifts to allay any concerns about social distancing, and this helped support colleagues who were at higher risk of Covid-19 complications by allowing them to also work safely at home.”

In addition to maintaining the patient facing service, the clinical team also helped out on the staff wellbeing support line.

Adapting communications to continue delivering great patient care

The Let’s Talk Wellbeing service worked with the Trust to test various conference call facilities and the IT team helped them introduce a bespoke facility for the team.

Andy says that most patients have been happy to accept video or phone calls and their ‘did not attend’ rates have decreased since lockdown. “It can be a lot easier to access the therapy when someone gives you a call when it’s your appointment time,” he said. “We’ve also seen an improvement in our recovery rate measures during the pandemic, so patients are clearly still benefitting well from this service.”

Nottingham has around 700 referrals a month; Leicester and Leicestershire & Rutland has around 1,600. These numbers dropped in the first weeks of lockdown but since then levels have returned to normal.

“While this has been a difficult time, as we introduced new ways of working that we all had to get used to, I think we’ve seen benefits for staff as well as patients,” added Andy.

“Our staff sickness rate has gone down over the period and the new service delivery methods have been well received by the vast majority of team members. Some found it hard to work from home but they have still been able to come safely into our bases to work if they wish, and in the future we’re looking at plans for staff to be able to work half their time from home if they choose.

“The changes have also allowed us to accelerate the introduction of remote treatment options, increasing the accessibility of our service.

“Feedback from patients has been that they are pleased the service has remained open and that they are able to access treatment in their own home, so we hope that, through our adaptations to work during the Covid pandemic, we have successfully improved the experience for both our patients and staff.”