Support for care home and social care staff
A few examples of IAPT services providing specific support to care home and social care staff are below:
Haringey:
Have worked with Priscilla Wakefield House (a local care home with 180 employees) to provide support to care home staff. IAPT staff have fortnightly virtual sessions with the care home staff, and have provided them with access to Silvercloud. Conversations have been framed in terms of wellbeing and resilience, rather than anxiety and stress, to reduce stigma. The service plans to deliver a similar service to other local care homes.
Priscilla Wakefield House has 10 in-house Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) (out of 180 employees) who run wellness sessions. The care home has also partnered with a North London hospice to do some face to face sessions (socially distanced with 8 staff each time) to explore their feelings and emotions. The face to face sessions have worked better than via video, because it develops more of a 1:1 relationship and builds trust.
Bedfordshire:
Has taken a long time and a lot of effort to build relationships and connections with local care homes and their staff, including several outreach events.
Newham:
Have done Mental Health Awareness training with staff in Councils, to help identify people who may need mental health support.
Have worked with care home staff to support their mental health, as well as for the care home residents.
Bromley:
Have developed mindfulness ‘taster sessions’ for health and social care staff, and have offered care home staff ‘building resilience’ sessions. They have developed a rolling programme for staff within Bromley Healthcare, and have now expanded the offer to CCG and Council staff. They support staff who are newly-trained in Mental Health First Aid. At the start of the pandemic they set up a dedicated staff line to help manage anxiety etc.
Hillingdon – developed and repurposed a communications campaign called ‘You are not alone’ sent to care home staff with information offering Covid-specific support help:
Challenges:
- Some care home staff have been reluctant to come forwards for MH support due to a number of reasons – for example stigma, religion and worry that their colleagues or manager will find out.
- Assumption that care home staff have access to Wi-Fi/digital access at home, but many only get access to Wi-Fi at work, therefore video therapy consultations aren’t always possible with these staff outside of work.
- Many services have found it challenging to connect with local care homes and their staff.