Managing Mental Health in the Workplace - Part Three: Healthcare

In support of Mental Health Awareness Week, we spoke with clients from a variety of sectors, not-for-profit, healthcare, higher education, and schools, about the ways in which mental wellbeing impacts the work they do, their staff and their organisation's policies and procedures.

Helene Usherwood spoke to Crishni Waring, Chair of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. She has a background in change management and organisational development and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development. Crishni has worked across all sectors and has a diverse industry background encompassing healthcare, education, retail and logistics. She is also the current Chair of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, a charity with a mission to protect local wildlife and wild places.

In this article, Crishni discusses the ways in which wellbeing across the NHS has continually become a priority over the last several years and the impact of that on the staff and the level of care provided.

Can you tell us about yourself and your role as Chair of NHFT?

I joined NHFT from Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT), another Community and Mental Health Trust where I was a Non-Executive Director for over five years. Whilst at CWPT, I chaired two different Board Committees and was appointed Senior Independent Director. I joined NHFT as Trust Chair in 2016 and am currently serving my second term.

We as a Board have collectively recognised that the quality of care we provide to the communities we serve is intrinsically linked to the quality of our employees’ experience. This is backed up by research and evidence. So, we have placed huge emphasis on the wellbeing of our staff and the need to create a compassionate and inclusive culture at NHFT. I am really proud of the progress we have made on this, but there’s always much more to do.

What are your thoughts on the general health and wellbeing of staff that you come across in the NHS? Are people more aware of staff finding it hard to cope with the pressures of the work and System? Is it a topic that is being discussed regularly?

I think it’s fair to say that the pandemic brought staff wellbeing much more into focus across the NHS, and a significant amount of additional wellbeing support was put in place, including Non-Executive Wellbeing Guardians who have a role, supported by the whole Board, in keeping staff wellbeing at the front and centre of our minds.

There was also recognition of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on our ethnic minority staff and the need for specific interventions to address that and more culturally sensitive support. Emerging out of the pandemic and a period of sustained operational pressure has undoubtedly created a greater risk of fatigue and burnout.

We are very mindful of the need to continue a strong wellbeing focus.

What has been your experience of helping to drive the wellbeing agenda across the Trust and wider healthcare System?

In the Trust, we launched our first Wellbeing Strategy in 2017, and we secured the external Wellbeing Charter accreditation shortly afterwards, which was a really positive step. Increasingly our focus was on keeping people well at work and feeling supported rather than managing sickness absence. We introduced an annual wellbeing conference and have since worked with partners in our local system to put on a week-long virtual Wellbeing Festival, which offers fantastic insights into how we can all look after ourselves from experts and people with wellbeing stories to tell, including celebrities.

How have you seen effective wellbeing strategies have a positive influence on the workforce? Do you feel this then impacts on the levels of service user care being provided?

Staff undoubtedly value the focus on their wellbeing, although it can be operationally difficult for some colleagues to take advantage of the opportunities. So that requires line managers to actively encourage staff to participate and do simple but very important things like encouraging staff to plan and take their annual leave. The NHS Staff Survey measures a People Promise theme of “We are safe and healthy”, and we can see how we benchmark against other similar organisations through that. We do benchmark well and have maintained our scores despite the pandemic, but our aim will be to improve these further.

We absolutely believe that investing in the wellbeing of our staff will ensure better quality of care for our patients and service users.

What do you think the future of wellbeing and mental health looks like in the wider NHS? For staff and service users.

The importance of mental health and wellbeing is increasingly being recognised and is much more a part of our public conversation.

We only need to look at the amount of days lost across all industries due to stress and mental health concerns to appreciate the importance of this in all workplaces, let alone the NHS.

More generally, there is an increasing focus on prevention and supporting people to live well.

What have been your greatest lessons learnt during your time as Chair of NHFT regarding the part the Board play supporting the workforce?

The Board needs to lead this agenda and make sure it is treated as a priority. That also means understanding the health and wellbeing impact of every decision and viewing health and wellbeing interventions as an investment rather than a cost.

Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Follow Anderson Quigley