These webpages are intended to support Hope staff whether working from home or continuing to provide essential services on campus during the Coronavirus outbreak.
The External Relations team will be continuing to keep us updated via the Staff Bulletin. Please continue to send stories to goodnews@hope.ac.uk for the wider Hope community.
The Starting the new academic year page will continue to be updated with FAQs and key links to NHS, Government and other sources of information.
Please visit our Covid-19 Volunteering web page for updates on what the Hope community is doing and what you can do to help the local community at this time. If you would like to contact the volunteering team please email covid19volunteering@hope.ac.uk.
10 October 2020 is World Mental Health Day. Take a look at some ideas for celebrating this important day.
Here is a list of resources to help support you during the current climate. This page is being updated regularly so keep checking back for new resources.
If you are worried about your or another colleague’s mental well-being and would like some support, please don't hesitate to speak to your line manager or your HR Manager. Their details can be found here.
Talk Liverpool provide a list of local and national services if you need urgent help.
Samaritans provide a 24/7 helpline on 116 123 and email facility at jo@samaritans.org.
The University provides a counselling service for staff, this is a chance to take time out and take stock if you are facing difficulties or challenges in some aspect of your life. You can explore these with a counsellor. They will offer some immediate insights and coping strategies as appropriate and suggest possible ways forward using the most relevant approaches for you.
Staff counselling is provided by an external provider, Counselling Solutions Northwest. They can be contacted direct:
Phone: 0151 285 3777
Web: https://sites.google.com/site/counsellingsolutionsnorthwest/contact-us
Email: info@counsellingsolutionsnorthwest.co.uk
The Education Support Partnership provides a 24 hours helpline to all staff working in education. There is also a web chat and email service and resources including a work-life balance test and videos about dealing with anxiety and loss.
Phone: 08000 562 561
Text: 07909 341 229
E-mail: support@edsupport.org.uk
Live chat link: www.educationsupport.org.uk/helping-you/email-support
Web: www.educationsupport.org.uk/
Merseycare now have an at-a-glance guide for local mental health services, including a 24/7 helpline for urgent support. Click here to see the guide.
Merseycare Liferooms are a free NHS service who provide a safe and welcoming space to meet others, access learning opportunities and learn about community resources.
Merseycare have also produced a range of useful self-help guides covering a wide range of issues including, anxiety, panic, stress, sleeping problems, low mood, depression, domestic abuse, and more).
Here are several resources from Talk Liverpool to help you maintain your psychological well-being during the Coronavirus outbreak. Click here
ALMA is Cheshire and Merseyside’s dedicated health and wellbeing website.
On ALMA you’ll find information and resources that will support your physical and mental wellbeing during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Staff can access a range of online support programmes via Silvercloud, a service commissioned by the local NHS services. The support programmes are designed to help you to improve and maintain your well-being by addressing any underlying issues that can negatively impact how you would like to live your life.
Silvercloud is now available for free by entering the code 'CMHCP' on signing up for a course. Online courses are available on topics such as stress, resilience, sleep, and COVID-19. You can sign up here.
As well as this, users will have access to a knowledge base of health and wellbeing apps that have been evaluated by a medical professional for their clinical effectiveness.
The range of apps includes mental wellbeing, exercise and diet, smoking cessation, sleep, and much more.
Comprehensive advice from the NHS, including hints and tips, access to a personalised Mind Plan, and helplines and what to do if you need urgent help.
Information and support from Mind, including a Coronavirus and mental wellbeing hub, and information about self-care.
This is a useful guide about supporting your mental health while working from home
Good advice about looking after your mental health during the Coronavirus outbreak
In this brief animation, Dr Russ Harris, author of the international best-seller The Happiness Trap, illustrates how to use ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) to deal with the Corona crisis and the fear, anxiety, and worry that goes with it. Watch here
The MARCH Network is a mental health network focused on the power of bringing people together with social, cultural, and community assets. With more people socially and physically distancing themselves, they have shared a collection of home-based, creative ways to support mental health during these unique and uncertain times. Click here for more information.
Mental Health First England have created a helpful explanation about stress and resilience.
Mind have lots of information about stress.
If you are worried about work-related stress, speak to your line manager. If you want to spend some time thinking about work-related stress, there is a useful Work Pressure Identification Proforma you could use to structure your thoughts.
If you, or someone you know, is affected by domestic abuse, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline can be called, for free and in confidence, 24 hours a day on 0808 2000 247.
There is also advice available in relation to domestic abuse and coronavirus, from Women’s Aid and the Home Office.
The Men’s Advice Line is a confidential helpline for male victims of domestic abuse and those supporting them. It can be contacted on 0808 801 0327.
You may also wish to download the free Bright Sky mobile app, which provides support and information to anyone who may be experiencing domestic abuse or is concerned about someone in this situation.
Familiarise yourself with The Silent Solution system. If you call 999, an operator will ask which emergency service is required. If you are unable to speak for fear being overheard, you can press 55. The operator will then transfer the call to the relevant police force as an emergency.
If it is safe to do so, you email your manager or hr manager to ask for help.
Everyone can play their part in helping those experiencing domestic abuse. http://uksaysnomore.org/listening-from-home/
The new #ListeningFromHome domestic abuse awareness campaign is encouraging family members, friends, colleagues and neighbours to be aware of, and report, signs of domestic abuse whilst the UK is in lockdown. The campaign advises:
We are encouraging staff to think about the following if they are working from home. We expect line mangers to stay in close contact with their teams, so that colleagues can stay in touch, share ideas, work together and raise any issues or concerns if they need to:
A Working from Home Self-assessment Checklist has been made available to your line manager for their individual team members. It can also be found in the Risk Assessment and Guidance on Homeworking during Coronavirus document. Please return this to your line manager and raise any issues identified with them. This should be reviewed at least every 6 months.
Guidance on setting up DSE (display screen equipment) can be found in the Workstation Set Up Guide.
Although staff working from home, will be expected to fulfil duties to the best of their ability. Staff are also encouraged to complete the mandatory Equality and Diversity and GDPR (Data protection legislation that came into place on 25th May 2018) E-Learning modules. If you haven’t already completed both modules, now is the perfect time. If you have already completed both modules, you can still log on and retake the modules as a refresher.
There are also other training resources available including Mental Health modules, resources for making a direct application to the Academic resources, a Modern Slavery E-module and links to other free training resources available in many different areas.
The Training Resources can be found on ‘My Hope’, and in the Staff Gateway under Training Resources.
If you have any questions or require any support, please contact Shauna Anton on antons@hope.ac.uk.
If you aren’t able to contact your line manager, please contact your HR Manager by email
https://www.leapers.co/resources/little-guides/coronavirus-working-from-home
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51868894
https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/working-remotely-top-tips-uk-v2_tcm18-73295.pdf
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/tips-working-home-children
Many colleagues have continued to work on campus since March in order to provide essential services. More colleagues have returned full or part-time to campus to provide teaching and support to our students as the academic year got underway in September.
The Starting the new academic year contains FAQs and key links to NHS, Government and other sources of information.
The COVID-19 Supporting Documentation pages contain information about safety protocols and risk assessments for activities on campus.
The Return to Campus Protocol outlines the process for any member of staff returning to work on campus. Any return must be arranged via a senior line manager and using the Return to Campus Protocol.
Managers will work with individuals to check whether there are any concerns to be addressed (including medical, caring, mental health considerations). Once the checking process is complete and permission to return to campus has been given by a senior line manager, colleagues must ensure that they are aware of all relevant safety protocols and risk control measures in place on campus via the Return to Campus Checklist, which must be signed by the member of staff and the manager and forwarded to Personnel.
Some colleagues will naturally have concerns about lockdown measures easing or increasing and returning to work on campus, and these will hopefully be addressed by the health & safety measures that have been put in place on Campus by the University.
If the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on your mental health and anxiety levels, or exacerbated a pre-existing mental health condition, this may be causing you concern about returning to work on campus.
The University has a range of resources to help and support you on these pages, and we welcome dialogue with you to enable your manager and/or HR Manager to work with you so that you can remain in/return to work/undertake your role/adapt to changes at work.
The University uses an external Occupational Health Advice provider, Health Management. In some cases it may be helpful to seek occupational health advice on your health/mental health concerns in relation to COVID-19 and returning to work on campus.
More information can be found here
More information can be found here
A service commissioned by the local NHS services. The support programmes are designed to help you to improve and maintain your well-being by addressing any underlying issues that can negatively impact how you would like to live your life.
Silvercloud is now available for free by entering the code 'CMHCP' on signing up for a course. Online courses are available on topics such as stress, resilience, sleep, and COVID-19.
You can sign up here.
E-learning module run through the same training provider as our GDPR and E&D Training, and joining instructions can be found in the E-Learning modules training manual (link to attached document).
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy