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Hospice UK and emotional wellbeing and bereavement support service Just ‘B’ have joined with other charities to provide mental health support for frontline NHS staff as they cope with the COVID-19 outbreak.
The support is provided by Hospice UK and the Just ‘B’ service from North Yorkshire Hospice Care, the Samaritans, Citizens’ Advice and Shout, among others. Nurses, doctors and other key staff will be able to quickly receive help with grief, trauma counselling, relationships and financial issues.
Tracey Bleakley, CEO of Hospice UK, said:
“We know how hard staff are working to provide care for patients both in the NHS and in our hospices across the country. We are delighted to have been asked by NHSE/I to help set up a service to provide grief and trauma counselling to people working in the NHS. We want to do all we can to help clinical and other staff working hard to beat the coronavirus. This helpline allows us to bring our expertise to care for people who are doing an incredible job.”
Chief Executive of Just ‘B’, Tony Collins, said:
“NHS staff across the UK are dealing with some of most challenging situations imaginable as part of their unwavering commitment to caring for our communities. So they fully deserve our support in return.
“Just ‘B’ is extremely proud to be working with NHS England, Hospice UK and the Samaritans to offer this emotional support hotline to our NHS colleagues at the toughest of times, to enable them to carry on helping others.”
The phone line will be open between 07:00 and 23:00 every day, while the text service will be available around the clock.
The phone number is 0300 131 7000 or staff can text FRONTLINE to 85258. The helpline coordinates over 1,500 volunteers, with staff routed to relevant counsellors depending on the support they need. Other organisations providing support include Silver Cloud, NHS Practitioner Health, Sandhurst Military Academy and NHS Leadership Academy.
Notes to editors
- More information about the helpful is available here: www.england.nhs.uk/2020/04/nhs-launches-mental-health-hotline-for-staff-tackling-covid-19/
- Hospice UK is the national charity for hospice and end of life care. It works to ensure all adults and children living with a terminal or life-shortening illness receive the care and support they need, when they need it.
- Hospice UK supports more than 200 hospices across the UK which care for over 200,000 adults and children every year.
- Just ‘B’ is a specialist bereavement and emotional wellbeing service based in Yorkshire. It has been delivering specialist emotional and bereavement support to local communities across Yorkshire for more than 10 years.
- Just ‘B’ is part of North Yorkshire Hospice Care, with a family of services operating as Herriot Hospice Homecare, Just ‘B’, Saint Michael’s Hospice and Talking Spaces.
- For further information about hospice care visit our website www.hospiceuk.org or follow us on Twitter @hospiceuk
- Get all the latest news from the hospice and palliative care sector, as well as patient stories, on ehospice UK at: www.ehospice.com/uk
