NHS in Mind has a set of eight techniques with YouTube videos for front line workers experiencing stress amid the coronavirus pandemic (Picture: NHSInMind/PA)

Two friends have launched a mental health support website to help frontline workers cope with battling the coronavirus outbreak.

Trained cognitive behavioural hypnotherapists Slee Parrish and Alex James designed NHS in Mind after feeling that staff were being ‘sent out with watering cans to put out a bush fire’.

The new website features instructions for a set of eight techniques, accompanied by simple YouTube videos, for employees who are experiencing feelings of fear or stress while at work.

They are designed to be easy to grasp and simple to perform and include breathing exercises, guided meditation and relaxation.


Part-time nurse Slee Parrish designed the website with Alex James after seeing her colleagues worry about the situation in Italy (Picture: NHSInMind)

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The techniques include breathing exercises, guided meditation and relaxation (Picture: NHSInMind)

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Slee, who also works part-time as a senior nurse at the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, initially created the toolkit for her colleagues after seeing them become anxious watching the impact of Covid-19 on health professionals in Italy.

She said: ‘We are not used to this, as medical practitioners we’re used to helping and seeing our patients survive and being happy about that.

‘But there is a proportion of our patients we are helping but we can’t do anything, we are trying everything and they are dying and that is going to have a huge impact on our colleagues.

‘They are going to come out with similar things that the military has come out with after being on the frontline.

‘We are also going to be losing colleagues, we know that… That’s not only scary, it’s heartbreaking.’

While Slee’s NHS trust is working hard to ensure staff are properly supported, she has highlighted the fact that staff are having to work long hours in ‘awful conditions’ while wearing ‘hot’ and ‘uncomfortable’ personal protective equipment.

She said: ‘It does feel for my colleagues that we are being sent out with watering cans to put out a bush fire.

A member of the military outside the Excel Centre, London while it is being prepared to become the NHS Nightingale Hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues (Picture: Reuters)

An NHS nurse collects more dressings from her car as she does a home visit in Sefton Park, Liverpool after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown (Picture: PA)

‘People are putting their lives on the line and our management are desperately trying to get us the right kit.’

While the tips were initially created for Slee’s colleagues, she has urged other NHS trusts where staff are ‘putting their lives on the line’ to use them, and they have already been put to use in South Africa and Bermuda.

Other public sector and emergency service workers like teachers and firefighters would also benefit from the resources, she believes.

Slee said: ‘The breathing exercises are really, really important. Whenever they realise they are feeling panicked, or when they are going into a very stressful situation, they can just do these.’

She added: ‘It calms them, gives them more outward focus, attention, concentration, it gives that all back to them.’

Slee has asked people to keep her updated on how the resources are being shared, and is requesting suggestions on how NHS in Mind could be adapted for police officers and ambulance services.



The free resources can be found at nhsinmind.co.uk.

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