Barchester Healthcare is an independent care provider that runs care homes and registered hospitals across the UK.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barchester Healthcare have introduced a number of initiatives to promote and support staff wellbeing.
They have emphasised the importance of not only providing their staff with the right mental health support tools but ensuring that their staff receive regular communication that gives them the information, support and confidence to continue fulfilling their roles well at this time.
There are three key areas that they have focused on.
Wellbeing support
A COVID-19 support line has been set up for all staff employed by Barchester. This gives their staff the opportunity to unload or share any worries that they may be having with workers that have more experience of working in a care home and/or hospital environment. Specific guidance has been created for their staff that provides advice on health and wellbeing, remote line management and using technology to stay in touch with colleagues. The management team also continues to promote the use of health and wellbeing apps, such as Headspace and Maudsley Learning.
Internal communications
Barchester have implemented a timetable of planned daily and weekly communication for all their staff, which seeks to recognise and thank their teams while continuing to provide corporate and official updates. They engage with their staff in a variety of ways, including conference calls, vlogs, daily bulletins and letters.
Learning and development
The learning and development team at Barchester have created some specific learning modules on leading through a crisis, supporting others with empathy, maintaining morale, building resilience and more. All leaders and managers at Barchester are encouraged to complete these.