Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, attention focused on a new class of ‘key workers’ and the very real physical risks inherent in carrying out their work, which was seen as key to society’s functioning. But as the pandemic continues and vaccination programmes reduce the physical risks of their jobs, the mental health and wellbeing of these frontline workers has risen to the fore, with particular focus on adult social care workers.

In 2019, the Care Workers’ Charity (CWC), reported that care workers already experienced sometimes high levels of bereavement in their work, and they recommended employers consider the impacts of such loss on their workers by offering support like debriefing sessions. This finding came even before these workers found themselves at the sharp end of the pandemic, caring for those at the greatest risk of Covid-related mortality.

Pandemic stressors have since exacerbated existing workplace wellbeing challenges in care. The CWC reported that before the pandemic just over half of workers they surveyed thought about leaving their roles because of the job’s impacts on their mental health. The Work Foundation has conducted new research on workforce challenges in adult social care in partnership with Totaljobs. This found that nearly half of care workers looking to leave the sector said this was because they wanted a less stressful work environment. The relationship between retention and mental health cannot be ignored, and given the existing difficulties within the sector to fill vacancies and risks of increased churn due to Brexit, supporting workers’ wellbeing is going to be a significant issue for the sector going forward.

Managing stress is integral to maintaining workers’ wellbeing. Research from late 2020 by PSSRU and the Health Foundation found that 81% of care workers said the extent to which their jobs made them ‘feel tense, uneasy or worried’ increased since Covid-19 began. This was slightly worse for those in residential care and much worse for those aged 25-34.

For some workers, new stresses from the pandemic have combined with existing challenges in the sector around persistent unfilled vacancies leading to short staffing and increased workloads. Our research surveyed care workers currently or recently in the sector and found that 42% of care workers had seen their workloads increase because of the pandemic. Additionally, 35% said they worked more overtime and 30% had to make up hours for self-isolating colleagues.

Our research also found that while around 38% of workers agreed their employer offered support when something distressing occurred at work, about 1 in 4 disagreed and just over a quarter neither agreed nor disagreed. When we asked what services or benefits care workers accessed to maintain their wellbeing over the last 12 months, only 14% said they’d accessed mental health support outside work, and just 4% said they accessed professional resources on stress management and/or took up counselling offered by their employer. This doesn’t necessarily show that workers weren’t accessing the care they need or that it wasn’t available, but it does raise questions about the extent to which workers are being supported to maintain their mental health and wellbeing, especially in times of stress but also in the longer term.

Since the pandemic, government departments and sector bodies have signposted workers to resources to support wellbeing. Examples include the Scottish Social Services Council producing guidance for workers to manage their wellbeing, and Social Care Wales also creating a resource to support care workers’ mental health and wellbeing.

As the Health and Social Care Committee’s recent report from the session on Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and social care argues, additional resources and support offered during Covid-19 need to be sustained given the traumas workers have experienced.

In our research, survey respondents provided examples of ways their employers have supported wellbeing, including hiring someone to offer counselling for workers, checking in regularly, being available to listen and offering praise, advice and encouragement.

However, many workers in our survey revealed they felt unsupported by their employers. Therefore, simply sustaining any newly created support may not be enough. This is why our research recommended that the sector take a proactive, strategic and long-term view of workplace wellbeing. Care providers should develop wellbeing surveys that benchmark and track the wellbeing of their staff, as a minimum, alongside offering wellbeing services and training to help managers support workers. For providers seeking inspiration, there are many examples of good practice even outside the sector, such as the mental health charity Mind, who produced mental health guidance for emergency services staff and volunteers, which has been tried and tested.

Read the entire report here.

Related Blogs

• 

  Christmas in Lancaster

• 

  Settling into university life as an international student

• 

  About my degree: BSc Finance

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by our bloggers and those providing comments are personal, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lancaster University. Responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within blog posts belongs to the blogger.