NHS staff carried the mental health cost of the COVID-19 pandemic long after the headlines faded 

by Pamela Almeida
By spring 2020, healthcare workers (HCWs) were being called heroes. Then gradually the pandemic abated, life returned to normal, and the headlines moved on. But what happened to HCWs’ mental health? In our new study — one of the largest of its kind — we aimed to find out. 
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Who had each other’s backs?

By Dr Bethany Croak, Dr Rebecca Rhead, Dr Danielle Lamb, Prof Sharon A.M Stevelink & Prof Stephani L Hatch
Formal support was broadly available to all, but for some groups it was peer support that proved hardest to access, and that gap matters more than we might think. 
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the NHS rolled out a range of support services for its staff: well-being hubs, rest rooms, free parking, and food parcels. By six months in, 83% of staff surveyed had used at least one of these services. On the face of it, the system was working. 
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What is making staff sick and wanting to leave their job?

By Syeda Tazrin, Bethany Croak, Sharon Stevelink, Neil Greenberg  
 
Long waiting lists and cancelled operations in the National Health Service (NHS) have long dominated headlines. Recently, the pressures on the NHS workforce have intensified; 9.6% of NHS staff left the service in the year to September 2020, compared to 12.5% in the year to September 2022 (1). The COVID-19 pandemic along with the ongoing difficult economic climate, namely the compounding effects of austerity and subsequent funding cuts to the health and social care sector, continues to put significant strain on staff and mental health services. In addition to staff leaving, sickness absence rates are at an all-time high. March 2022, in particular, saw a record high sickness absence rate of 6.0%; this is higher than during the peak pandemic times of March-June 2020 (4.0%) and January 2021 (5.7%) (2) and a 29% rise from the 2019 rate (3).  
 
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Burnout and mental wellbeing among NHS mental health staff in England during the COVID-19 pandemic: to what extent did psychological resilience play a role?

By Syeda Tazrin, Bethany Croak, Neil Greenberg, Sharon Stevelink   
 
Psychological resilience is defined as the ability to recover following difficult times. It is an attribute that is highly valued in society and most notably perhaps in the workplace. Job recruiters, for example, seek the ability to adapt to high-pressure and fast-paced environments. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, messages about individual resilience were prominent. This is particularly the case for physically and emotionally demanding fields such as healthcare, where workers may be routinely exposed to traumatic experiences compared to other workers. The long-term impact of a ‘resilience and perseverance culture’ is naturally an interest to many, including this current study which investigated whether resilience amongst mental health workers is related to long term burnout and mental wellbeing.   
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