Other support services

Below is a directory of other useful support services that you can access.

The Stay Alive app – a suicide prevention resource

The Stay Alive app is a suicide prevention resource for the UK, full of useful information and tools to help you stay safe in crisis.  You can use it if you are having thoughts of suicide or if you are concerned about someone else who may be considering suicide. The app includes: A safety plan with customisable reasons for living  A LifeBox where you can store photos and memories that are important to you Strategies for staying safe and tips on how to stay grounded when you’re feeling overwhelmed Guided breathing exercises and an interactive Wellness Plan. The app also links you directly to local and national crisis resources, with space to add in your own too. Stay Alive is one of a set of wellbeing apps signposted by NHS England for NHS people. Find out more about Stay Alive on the Grassroots Suicide Prevention website.

Download Stay Alive on the Apple App Store

Download Stay Alive on Google Play

The Worksafe Programme: support for organisations approaching gambling harm

There are at least 400,000 people currently experiencing serious gambling related harm in the UK, with a further 2 million at risk (Public Health England). Out of control gambling can damage relationships, finances, and physical and mental health. At work, productivity, ambition, and engagement may be affected, as well as adherence to safety protocols and vulnerability to criminal activity. Worksafe was created to provide tailored support to employers, as they develop a wellbeing at work approach to gambling harms whilst at the same time mitigating business risk.

Worksafe (betknowmoreuk.org)

Together

Supporting people with mental health issues through mental health services.

Visit Webpage here

Women’s Aid

Women’s Aid Live Chat is open from Monday to Friday 10:00am – 4:00pm, and on weekends, Saturday and Sunday 10:00am-12:00pm. This could be a safer way to access some support; particularly if an abuser might also be in the property so it would be unsafe to make a telephone call.

Visit the webpage

Young Minds Helplines for parents and young people

Contact the Young Minds Helplines if there are concerns about a young person’s mental health during this difficult time. Parents Helpline: If you are a parent who needs advice about your child’s mental health you can contact the Parents Helpline directly on 0808 802 between 9:30am-4pm. YoungMinds Crisis Messenger: If you are a young person experiencing a mental health crisis you can text YM to 85258 for free 24/7 support. The Young Minds website is here.

Visit the webpage

Career support for Primary Care

Structured Career Pathways for dentists and the whole dental team.

Link to resource:
Visit the College of General Dentistry website. 

Topic: Career
Audience: Primary Care; dentists
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Various

Are you a GP, a hospital doctor or a professional in a demanding job?

Most of us went into our profession to improve people’s lives, and have an interesting and varied career. After studying for what seemed like a lifetime, we finally qualified and were let loose into the world of work.

Fast forward several years. We’ve done hours and hours on the job, coped with sleepless nights, difficult colleagues, traumatic situations and impossible exams. But our careers can be as demanding as they are rewarding, and navigating the high stress culture at work leaves many of us feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.

You may feel like a frog in boiling water. Things have heated up so slowly that you didn’t notice the extra-long days becoming the norm, you don’t question the loss of control over your work and you’re used to constantly being on the edge of burnout – until you reach boiling point.

Let’s face it, frogs generally have only two options – stay and be boiled alive, or jump out of the pan. Happily, you are not a frog. You have many more options, choices and control than you think.

That’s where this podcast comes in. It is possible to be master of your own destiny, to craft your job and career so that you can thrive even in the most difficult of situations. There are simple changes that you can make which will make a huge difference to your stress levels, your resilience and productivity and help you enjoy life again.

Link to resource:
Listen to the You Are Not a Frog podcast or explore the Shapes resources for doctors

Topic: Stress
Audience: Primary Care; doctors
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Podcast, courses, coaching

The GP Career Support Hub from the NHS aims to help doctors understand which options are available to them at different stages in their career.

Link to resource:
Visit the GP Career Support Hub website.

Topic: Career
Audience: Primary Care; GPs
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Various

If you feel stuck in a rut, unable to progress, or have circumstances that are impacting on your career, Career Coaching may be able to help.

Coaching is not advice, and it doesn’t tell you what to do, but is about working collaboratively with you to identify steps and aspirations.

Link to resource:
Find more information to help determine whether Career Coaching would benefit you.

If you are a Royal College of Nursing (RCN) member, you can book a coaching session by contacting the advice team.  

Topic: Career
Audience: Primary Care; nursing staff
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Coachin

Whatever you want from your career in pharmacy, you can find tools, connections and knowledge to help you achieve it. From free one-to-one support sessions, mentoring to general advice for pharmacists.

Link to resource:
Visit the Royal Pharmaceutical Society website.

Topic: Career
Audience: Primary Care; pharmacists
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Various

Drug and alcohol addiction

The British Doctors & Dentists Group is a mutual/self-help group of doctors and dentists who are recovering, or wish to recover, from chemical addiction – alcohol and/or drugs (prescription and non-prescription) – and other behavioural addictions.

Link to resource: 
Visit the British Doctors and Dentists Group website

Topic: Addiction
Audience: Primary Care; doctors and dentists
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: In-person and online meetings

The Sick Doctors Trust was established in 1996 by a group of doctors who were themselves recovering from addictions and were concerned at the lack of effective arrangements for helping others who found themselves in difficulty as a result of alcohol or drug use.

Access this resource:
Call the support line on 0370 444 5163

Visit the Sick Doctors Trust website

Topic: Addiction
Audience: Primary Care, doctors
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Support line

Leadership resources

Sign up to the Active Practice Charter and join the national network of practices making positive changes in their surgeries to boost staff and patient wellbeing.

Link to resource:
Sign up your practice to the Active Practice Charter.

Topic: Social
Audience: Primary Care; practice managers
Who is this for: Teams, organisations
Resource format: Webpage

The aim of this module is to offer general practitioners and practice managers practical approaches to protecting staff wellbeing, and to inspire the development of healthy workplaces.

Link to resource:
Visit the RCGP eLearning Hub.

Topic: Social
Audience: Primary Care; practice managers
Who is this for: Teams, organisations
Resource format: E-Learning

Mindfulness and wellbeing

The BMA’s wellbeing services include a range of free and confidential services and information to help support doctors and medical students:

  • Confidential 24/7 counselling line, and Peer support service for all doctors and medical students on 0330 123 1245
  • BMA members, plus their partners and dependents, can also access a free structured course of up to six sessions of therapy with a counsellor
  • A UK wellbeing support directory detailing various support services by geographical availability on their sources of support page

 

Link to resource:
Visit the BMA website for more details about the counselling service

Contact the BMA to request access to a counsellor:

By phone: call 0330 123 1245 (24 hours a day, seven days a week)

Online: visit the Health Assured online portal and request support via the ‘contact us’ form or the live chat button, stating ‘BMA’ as your organisation.

How it works

Following a triage, you can access in-the-moment support or be referred for a structured course of up to six sessions with a counsellor.

The counselling service is confidential. All counsellors are members of the BACP and are bound by strict codes of confidentiality. 

Topic: Mental health
Audience: Primary Care; doctors; medical students
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Counselling

In this episode of the Primary Care London podcast, host Munir Adam speaks with Dr Nirja Joshi about stress and wellness in the workplace. 

Individually and collectively, we all need to understand stress and wellbeing better so that we can contribute to making our workplaces more enjoyable, improve productivity and prevent burnout. This episode covers topics such as what we mean by stress, wellbeing and burnout; how to recognise stress; why it’s so common; what strategies we can employ at work; what changes we can make ourselves, and where to turn for help.

The Primary Care London podcast is produced by the North East London Training Hubs, and its content is relevant for all Primary Care clinical staff. However, this particular episode is relevant for anyone working within the NHS.

Link to resource
Listen to the podcast episode.

Topic: Coping with stress
Audience: Primary Care; health professionals
Who is this for: Individuals; teams
Resource format: Podcast

These mindfulness based videos have been created for nursing staff, but could benefit anyone. The six videos each cover a different stage of your day, from starting your day to arriving home. Each video provides practical techniques which you can put into practice.

Link to resource:
Watch the videos.

Topic: Mindfulness
Audience: Primary Care; nursing staff; social care staff
Who is this for: Individuals
Resource format: Video

Keeping Well NCL is a wellbeing and mental health project that connects and supports the North Central London health and social care workforce during the Coronavirus outbreak.

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More information

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