Experiences of mental health and wellbeing support for NHS staff during the COVID-19 pandemic: a reflexive thematic analysis

Staff in the National Health Service (NHS) have been placed under considerable strain during the COVID-19 pandemic; whilst NHS Trusts provide a variety of health and wellbeing support services, there has been little research investigating staff perceptions of these services. Moreover, the research that does exist typically includes only clinical staff, despite a large proportion of patient-facing NHS workers being in non-clinical roles. We interviewed forty-eight clinical and non-clinical healthcare workers from eighteen NHS Trusts in England about their experiences of workplace health and wellbeing support during the pandemic. Reflexive thematic analysis identified that perceived stigma around help-seeking, and staffing shortages due to wider socio-political contexts such as austerity, were barriers to using support services. Visible, caring leadership at all levels (CEO to line managers), peer support, easily accessible services, and clear communication about support offers were enablers. Our evidence suggests Trusts should have active strategies to improve help-seeking. This could involve providing all staff with regular reminders about support options, in a variety of formats (e.g. email, posters, mentioned in meetings), and easily remembered single points of access, delivered by a mix of in-house and externally-provided services, to cater for those more and less concerned about stigma and confidentiality. In addition, managers at all levels should be trained and supported to feel confident to speak about mental health with staff, with formal peer support facilitated by building in time for this during working hours. As others have pointed out, this will require long-term strategic planning to address workforce shortages. ### Competing Interest Statement MH, RR, and SW are senior NIHR Investigators. SW has received speaker fees from Swiss Re for two webinars on the epidemiological impact of COVID 19 pandemic on mental health. RR reports grants from DHSC/UKRI/ESRC COVID-19 Rapid Response Call, grants from Rosetrees Trust, grants from King's Together rapid response call, grants from UCL (Wellcome Trust) rapid response call, during the conduct of the study; & grants from NIHR outside the submitted work. MH reports grants from DHSC/UKRI/ESRC COVID-19 Rapid Response Call, grants from Rosetrees Trust, grants from King's Together rapid response call, grants from UCL Partners rapid response call, during the conduct of the study; grants from Innovative Medicines Initiative and EFPIA, RADAR-CNS consortium, grants from MRC, grants from NIHR, outside the submitted work. SS reports grants from UKRI/ESRC/DHSC, grants from UCL, grants from UKRI/MRC/DHSC, grants from Rosetrees Trust, grants from King's Together Fund, and an NIHR Advanced Fellowship [ref: NIHR 300592] during the conduct of the study. NG reports a potential COI with NHSEI, during the conduct of the study; and I am the managing director of March on Stress Ltd which has provided training for a number of NHS organisations although I am not clear if the company has delivered training to any of the participating trusts or not as I do not get directly involved in commissioning specific pieces of work. DL is funded by the NIHR ARC North Thames. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. Other authors report no competing interests. ### Funding Statement Funding for NHS CHECK has been received from the following sources: Medical Research Council (MR/V034405/1); UCL/Wellcome (ISSF3/ H17RCO/C3); Rosetrees (M952); NHS England and Improvement; Economic and Social Research Council (ES/V009931/1); as well as seed funding from National Institute for Health Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, King's College London, National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response at Kings College London. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Health Research Authority (reference: 20/HRA/210, IRAS: 282686) along with local Trust Research and Development approval. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes 船The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (DL), upon reasonable request. The data have not been made publicly available due to the personal and sensitive content of participants experiences.