The Christie charity is pleased to announce it has received £50,000 funding from NHS Charities Together.

NHS Charities Together awarded us the funding as part of its COVID-19 recovery and post-pandemic grants. This is to support the mental health and recovery of NHS staff and volunteers.

The grant is to support the complementary health and wellbeing service at The Christie. The team has provided therapies to help staff cope with both physical and psychological health issues during this challenging time.

This includes a staff support line and virtual support with non-touch complementary health and wellbeing services.

Giving NHS staff additional psychological support provides a number of benefits. Not only does it help staff manage potentially stressful and difficult situations, it also means they can care for patients better.

Staff can pass these coping strategies on to patients and provide a more consistent quality of care.

With the funding from NHS Charities Together, the complementary health and wellbeing service will expand its offering to staff. This means a larger group of staff members will be supported by the service for a longer time.

The complementary health and wellbeing service at The Christie recognises that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on global mental health.

On top of this, it can be hard for NHS staff to ask for support, due to feelings of shame, guilt or weakness. But evidence shows if people seek help, advice or support early, this can prevent issues escalating. It also helps people feel empowered, stronger and more resilient.

At The Christie, the complementary health and wellbeing team has developed guidance to support line managers to carry out risk assessments for staff in vulnerable groups. This will help them understand the specific risks that staff members face from COVID-19.

Early on in the pandemic, the complementary health and wellbeing team provided telephone advice to staff to help with COVID-19 worries. As demand increased, they produced a variety of support guides and videos to expand the service.

Although there have been many national and local initiatives to support NHS staff, staff have struggled to access some of these apps and websites. More importantly, they aren’t targeted at any specific staff groups.

Thanks to the generous grant from NHS Charities Together, the complementary health and wellbeing team at The Christie are in a unique position to offer bespoke emotional and psychological support to our staff in these challenging times.