January 9, 2023
One Care leads on wellbeing programme for primary care staff
One Care is leading a programme to support staff health and wellbeing across primary care disciplines in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG). It is the first programme of its kind, working with organisations across dentistry, community pharmacy, optometry, and general practice.
Staff in primary care face mounting pressures, including: increasing workload; difficulty recruiting and retaining staff; and treating patients with increasingly complex needs. With the additional challenges of winter pressures, we need to look after ourselves and one another more than ever.
Despite its importance, many people working in healthcare don’t feel they have time to focus on their own health and wellbeing. Continuing on this path is unsustainable for most, and is likely to lead to increased burnout and sickness absence.
The BNSSG health and wellbeing programme aims to ensure all primary care staff have an equal opportunity to access support. Hosted by One Care, BNSSG’s GP federation, it is working with the Integrated Care System and the national NHS health and wellbeing team.
The programme has three schemes:
- Collating and sharing all freely available health and wellbeing support, training, and resources with primary care colleagues.
- A network of health and wellbeing ‘champions’, linked to a peer support network across primary care in BNSSG, to support with promoting health and wellbeing offers and initiatives to their colleagues.
- An enhanced health and wellbeing project, working with primary care organisations to explore what health and wellbeing looks like for them, then working with them to embed meaningful health and wellbeing initiatives. This project offers participating organisations a £2,000 bursary.
So far, the programme has contacted primary care organisations across BNSSG to find out which individuals and organisations are interested in taking part. More than 30 organisations expressed interest, and welcome events were held in mid-December. These will run again in early January 2023.
Tailte Breffni, One Care’s health and wellbeing programme manager said “This is a great opportunity to understand the unique issues primary care organisations are having and what support is required, rather than assuming a ‘one size fits all’ package. We hope to use this information to inform the system and develop future health and wellbeing support for primary care.”
Contact health.wellbeing@onecare.org.uk if you are in a primary care organisation in BNSSG and would like to get involved in the programme.
One Care leads on wellbeing programme for primary care staff
