How Methodist Homes (MHA) supported the wellbeing of their team during the pandemic [PART THREE]

Vicky Jackson was only days into her new role as Head of People Development at MHA when the organisation saw that COVID-19 was going to dramatically change how they delivered care and support across their services In the last of her blogs Vicky reflects on how MHA will support its teams after the pandemic.

After engaging widely with our operational colleagues we identified that many of our managers were spending a lot of their time supporting their team members through some of the most emotional and challenging times they have ever faced, both personally and at work.

This was amazing to hear and demonstrated just how caring and supportive our teams are, but we felt that if they were taking on this role it would be beneficial to provide managers with some enhanced skills and knowledge so they could help their teams in an impactful way.

So to support them in January/February 2021 we will be rolling out the Samaritans Listeners Training. This is a 2.5 hour webinar that provides managers with the skills to provide a listening ear, but also to support them in signposting effectively with their team members to gain professional support to help them move forwards and gain the support that they really need.

As part of our recovery plan as we start to move out of COVID-19 as people are being vaccinated we are developing an innovative opportunity with a charity that we were working with before the pandemic who are experts in helping our team tell their stories.

We will provide groups of our colleagues within each of our different areas the opportunity to tell their COVID-19 story. As part of this we are making videos of our colleagues sharing their stories that we can then share across MHA.

These stories will support others in understanding that their feelings and emotions following this pandemic are normal, and we hope will encourage wider conversation that supports the recovery process.

We are also planning to provide Walk and Talks in the summer months which came out of a suggestion from one of our chaplains who has a military background. He said that when service personnel had traumatic experiences they were encouraged to come together for an informal walk when returning from a posting. It was a space where they could talk about what they had experienced with people who knew what they had gone through.

These walks will be an opportunity for our colleagues to gather together socially in a lovely location across the UK. The walks will be supported by our chaplains who will pose reflective questions relating to wellbeing and experiences from COVID-19 so that people can walk and discuss these questions with each other.

To find out more about MHA’s work go to www.mha.org.uk

The blog series:

• Part one: Vicky reflects on how the entire organisation followed their One MHA ethos to implement wellbeing Initiatives throughout the pandemic supporting more than 7000 colleagues and 4000 volunteers. ⇨ Read the Blog
• Part two: In the second of her blogs Vicky reflects on how asking the organisation’s 7000 colleagues and 4000 volunteers about their experiences during the early part of the pandemic shaped their Wellbeing responses. ⇨ Read the Blog

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