Supporting colleagues' mental health

Time to Talk Day (Feb 6) highlighted some great work going on at Barnsley Hospital to support morale and colleagues’ mental health.

Run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness in partnership with the Co-op, Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. Here at Barnsley, our Health and Wellbeing Champions provide lots of support for those who struggle with low mood.

Among them is Sue Clarke, who is a Macmillan Cancer Support Worker. Sue has worked in the NHS for 25 years, starting in sterile services, and going on to 15 years in pathology. A mum-of-two and a grandma who lives at Gawber, Sue studied counselling with Barnsley College in her own time. 

She has come up with plenty of health and wellbeing initiatives in her time, such as the pathology garden, complementary therapies for staff, information boards supporting events like Race Equality Week, competitions with medals and prizes, and a ‘positivity tree’ in the department where she now works. 

She said: “I just started out with small things – maybe doing something morale-boosting at work for events like Halloween or the NHS 70th birthday. It moved on to things like arranging visits – for example, we did a visit to Andy’s Man Club. 

“I enjoy doing it. I have suffered sometimes with my own mental health so I know what it’s like. People think you can just say to someone who is down: ‘Oh, pull yourself together!’ but that’s like telling a person with a broken leg to go and walk on it.

“I just want our colleagues to know that even when times are hard, there are places and people out there where you will find help and support.”