Has your employer pledged to support Covid-19: Are You OK?

Business team face a big question mark.

Source: ING

Our Covid-19: Are you OK? campaign aims to raise awareness of the potential long-term impact of working through the Covid-19 crisis on nurses’ mental health and wellbeing, and to ensure they have access to sources of formal and/or informal support.

We want NHS organisations and other providers, for example, staffing agencies, care homes and private hospitals, to make a pledge (see below) to support the principles of the Nursing Times Covid-19: Are You OK? campaign.

By signing up, trusts and other organisations are making a public commitment to supporting staff experiencing problems related to working through the pandemic and encouraging a culture of mutual support.

We will be contacting employers and organisations over the coming months asking them to sign the pledge and support the campaign. Those that do so will be listed on out Covid-19: Are You OK? page.

But we need your help too. Please encourage your organisation to sign up by asking them to contact Nursing Times editor Steve Ford at steve.ford@emap.com

The Covid-19: Are You OK? pledge

[Organisation name] supports the principles of the Nursing Times Covid-19: Are You OK? campaign.

This means we recognise the often-distressing nature of caring for patients with Covid-19, particularly when patients numbers are high and resources are stretched. We also recognise the potential negative impact on the mental health and wellbeing of nurses and other staff of working through the coronavirus pandemic, and are committed to providing support to those who are affected. We also recognise that the effects of this work may be delayed and/or enduring and will ensure support remains available after the crisis has passed.

In supporting the campaign we pledge to:

Provide easily accessible formal mental health and wellbeing support to staff for as long as it is needed;
Foster a culture of mutual support, in which staff are alert to the possibility that colleagues may be experiencing problems as a result of their work during the pandemic, and ready to offer informal support such as listening and signposting to internal or external sources of formal support;
Ensure that staff who are experiencing problems know that they will receive a positive, supportive response if they disclose problems, and understand that being asked ‘Are you OK?’ is a gesture of support and care, not an accusation of weakness.

We have already taken steps to protect staff mental health and wellbeing including [include examples here]

Staff are the heart of our organisation; you have ensured the NHS was not overwhelmed in the initial peak – often at great personal cost, and continue to provide excellent and compassionate care to patients and their families. It is our responsibility to care for you, and to ensure that you are more than OK.