Organised by ACC UKAlthough no longer making headlines, the experiences of NHS staff in the frontline during the Covid-19 crisis has left many with mental health issues. This service has been set up to support them by providing counselling on a no-fee basis.
Why now?
As the pandemic is in decline across the UK, there is some time and space for medics to seek help. Help us help them with your donations. Your support will mean that we will be able to continue to care for the mental health of our NHS workers who have been directly affected during the COVID-19 crisis for issues that have arisen or made worse due to caring for people with COVID-19, for example: trauma, loss and grief, moral injury arising from ethical dilemmas, stress and anxiety, burnout, feelings of guilt about engaging in self-care, etc.
The background to the service
At the start of lockdown in 2020, the ACC Board felt that we should respond to the Covid-19 crisis by establishing a service to provide no fee counselling to NHS staff, residential care home staff and the bereaved. This was launched at the end of April 2020 and over 10 months, we provided over 2,000 free counselling sessions. All of the work on this scheme (management, administration and counselling) was provided on a voluntary basis and ACC did not receive any funding for the service. Alongside this work many of the counsellors would have been working with their own clients, whether privately, for charities, in the NHS, etc.
From the end of January 2021, we felt that we could not continue to provide this service. However, in response to a small amount of funding from the NHS we have changed the criteria so that the free service is now only available to NHS staff as we recognise that the work of recovery begins when the cameras have moved away and the need for counselling and support remains vital for those staff who have been working under such increased pressure, anxiety and trauma.
The counselling service is open to NHS clinical and non-clinical staff working with/have worked with COVID-19 patients; it is inclusive and welcomes people of all religions, cultures, ethnicities, sexualities, gender and gender expressions, age, disabilities, etc.
To find out more about the service, please visit our website https://www.acc-uk.org/news/hidden-holding-pages/covid-19-crisis-counselling-support-service.html
Charities pay a small fee for our service. Learn more about fees
