Health at work
We aim to offer a range of experiences that address the needs of our employees, in order to help maintain a healthy workforce. We recognise that the Trust is not able to do this alone and there is a need to maximise and utilise all resources available some of which will be within the Trust i.e. employees and other resources may be sourced externally e.g. Local Authorities, other NHS organisations.
Staff flu vaccination clinics 2019/20
We will hold drop-in clinics for TEWV staff only. Dates to follow, please take your ID badge with you.
Employee support services
The employee support officers support employees to return to work, provide listening support during difficult times including personal and work related issues, explore reasonable adjustments, work life balance, provide access to self-help tools as well as more tailored support for staff where necessary.
The service can be contacted independently by employees or by a referral from their line manager. The service works with employees within the boundaries of confidentiality and can be accessed whether employees are currently at work or absent from work.
Our aim is to take a proactive approach wherever possible and reduce the amount of sickness absence through mental and physical ill health. The service also provides emotional support for employees that experience serious illnesses, such as cancer. The appointment of the employee support officers contributes towards meeting the six pledges of the Mindful Employer Charter that we signed in 2009.
Mindful employer
Being a mindful employer demonstrates our commitment to increase people’s awareness of mental ill-health, and also our commitment to recruit and retain staff who have mental health issues.
At least 23% of staff sickness absence in our trust is mental health related. As a trust we want to ensure we are an exemplar employer to staff who experience mental health issues and we are seeking the views of staff in relation to our role as employer of people who may experience mental health issues.
For more information about the Mindful Employer initiative visit www.mindfulemployer.net
Staff mindfulness
The staff mindfulness programme provides training in mindfulness to all Trust staff, both clinical and non-clinical. There is now considerable evidence that learning mindfulness can lead to a variety of benefits in relation to wellbeing, stress and resilience. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been shown to significantly reduce relapse rates in individuals with recurrent depression and is recommended by NICE for this purpose.
Initially you would attend a three hour introductory workshop and following this have the opportunity to apply to undertake an eight week programme.
Employee psychology service (EPS)
As part of its commitment to supporting the health and well-being of our staff the Trust is piloting provision of a new service for those employees who may be experiencing significant episodes of work related stress, anxiety and/or depression.
The EPS is offered by a consultant clinical psychologist for the duration of the pilot and will involve helping employees recover from, and develop resilience to, work related stress and associated anxiety/depression.
Referrals to the service will be identified by the occupational health service or via the employee support service.
Occupational health
There are many different occupational health services which are available to all staff near or at their place of work, or at home. These include:
- Pre-employment health screening
- Counselling
- Physiotherapy
- Vaccinations
- Needlestick and blood exposure incident assessment, treatment and follow-up
- Workplace assessments
- Department/Unit based teaching about stress awareness, health at work, etc
- Blood pressure checks as part of the annual know your numbers campaign.
Trust retreats
After ten successful years, including receiving the ‘Working Behind the Scenes’ Trust Award in 2009 and national recognition in the Boorman Report, the Trust sees the retreats as a major way of helping staff think about their life and work. Each retreat lasts forty-eight hours in Sneaton Castle, Whitby.
Over the past ten years more than 550 members of staff have attended one of our retreats. Many were not sure what to expect and some were apprehensive. In the end, almost everybody said in their feedback that it was a very valuable experience.