“Hello, my name is Lydia Hartland-Rowe and this is just a quick check-in to say a bit about what is happening on the website, what’s coming through on the survey and also what is being listened to and looked at on the resources and podcasts.

Although we know that many people are working through August in roles across the health and social care sector, it also does seem to be a bit of a quiet time and we have certainly seen this in the use of the survey. But what we’ve noticed with the podcasts is that people seem to be returning to some of the material that went up a little while ago, and on looking through the pattern of listens since the podcasts first started in May, we can see that people do seem to look through the whole series and find things that feel relevant from both more recent and earlier podcasts.

So in the spirit of taking a bit of time in a slightly more quiet month, and also because in spite of how much seems to have changed, we know that many health and social care workers are still facing the kinds of challenges and potentially traumatising experiences that were around earlier in the course of the pandemic, I just wanted to remind you of some of what is there to look at and listen to on the site. We know from the survey results that there are two consistent threads throughout in terms of what people feel they need: rest and time out, and help self-care in relation to the difficult experiences to which people are exposed. So throughout the series we have included a number of brief podcasts by a yoga therapist and psychotherapist offering some helpful ways to gather together mind and body, and these seem to have been consistently returned to as a way, perhaps, of regaining balance. There are also podcasts aimed at helping to understand and think about what may be happening to us, to our teams and organisations in the face of potential trauma; podcasts coming from and aimed at those working in social care including homecare; podcasts focused on the body, and on the mind, and on key experiences that have come to the fore over these months; the experience of racism in this country, and the experience, too, of having Covid-19 and the fear that can arouse.

The podcasts come from contributors from across NCL and NEL, and we hope that you find something that is interesting, relevant and useful – and please get in touch if you feel something is missing or would like to contribute.”