We held a mental health virtual event in October to highlight how important it is to look after yourself, and how the Charity has been supporting our staff.

Each segment has been cut into individual videos, and the supporting presentations have been made available as a download at the bottom of this page. All information was correct at the time of recording.

Introduction

Watch our interim directors Beth Hall and Jeneen Thomsen talk about how your support has enabled us to increase the psychological and wellbeing support for our 12,000 staff, and how our children’s psychological and therapy services have adapted during the pandemic for our patients, specifically those needing to isolate and shield.

Maria Day and the child psychology team

Maria discusses how the demands on the child psychology team have grown over the last few years. In Southampton, they treat children of all ages for a range of illnesses. Each session is tailored to the child, and depending on the age, sometimes they have to get creative! The team also have sessions with parents around their child’s condition.

Maria works closely with the cystic fibrosis medical team, so she runs through what a typical day looks like.

Maret talks about the staff support service available at UHS

Maret discusses her work with patients and staff groups, and goes through how to manage their wellbeing.

Staff wellbeing over the last 18 months has been a priority, and frequently she has to explain that they are having  a normal reaction to extraordinary conditions, to help normalise what they are experiencing. The Charity funded StaffLine psychological phone support for staff, so Maret explains the difference this has made to staff.

Karen MacKinnon wellbeing lead in UHS

Karen discusses all of the wellbeing initiatives that have been delivered within the hospital including boost boxes for staff, creating safe spaces for staff to speak to someone, and how over the last year they have joined up with psychological services to boost what they can offer to staff.

She talks about her role, and how she hopes she can give our staff hope, to get them through the day to day hospital pressures. She also signposts to support websites to help you through a difficult time, before going on to talk more about the current and ongoing wellbeing support for staff.

Q&A panelist session

Here we join back up with our panelists to discuss a number of questions around how Southampton Hospitals Charity are supporting staff welfare and mental health within University Hospital Southampton.

Introduction

Maria Day and the child psychology team

Maret talks about the staff support service available at UHS

Karen MacKinnon wellbeing lead in UHS

Q&A panelist session

Download the presentations here