Image credits:
- Stones photo by Nick Page on Unsplash
- Hospital photo by Amir Arabshahi on Unsplash
Listen, Share, Hold, Respond
Principal Investigator(s): Dr Catherine Henshall
Contact: chenshall@brookes.ac.uk +44 (0) 7768 918298
Project start: April 2021
Project finish: April 2022
Funded by: NHS England
Announcement
Psychospiritual Care for NHS Staff: A series of webinars
The Listen, Share, Hold, Respond (LiSHoRe) project team bring you a series of six webinars, free and accessible to all, on topics relating to psychospiritual care for NHS staff. No registration required. Our speakers are all high-profile experts in the field and aim to bring presentations, discussions, and practical “tips” to explore and respond to psychospiritual needs.
About us
Listen, Share, Hold, Respond (LiSHORE) is a multi-site, participatory consultation project to understand the psycho-spiritual experiences and support needs of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) NHS workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Concurrently, an evaluation and adaptation of existing psycho-spiritual supportive interventions (recovery and renewal days/webinars) provided by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT) and the Oxford Centre for Spirituality and Wellbeing (OCSW) to underpin development of a psycho-spiritual toolkit to meet the needs of NHS workers across the UK.
The aim is to address the gap in whole-person health, equality and support for BAME NHS staff who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Although physical, psychological and social effects of the pandemic on BAME healthcare workers are acknowledged, using concepts such as “weathering” (accumulated stress response affecting health outcomes) and “moral injury” (psychological distress resulting from actions/lack of action that violates someone’s moral code), a focus on spirituality has not – to our knowledge - been explored. Spiritual wellbeing is a key dimension of health, yet, is absent from the literature and from interventions addressing Covid-19 rehabilitation and recovery.
Psycho-spirituality covers key aspects of wellbeing including meaning, hope, community and values; these are important for building a resilient, compassionate, respectful and equal workforce. However, there is an avoidance and lack of support for spiritual development within the NHS’s culture and structure.
Research impact
The project will deliver:
- evidence-based psycho-spiritual support and education for individuals, teams and organisations
- a report to NHSE/I with recommendations for practical actions and policy
- the publication of papers reporting findings in peer reviewed academic journals
- recommendations for development of additional resources to add to the existing webinar spirituality toolkit
- the opportunity to test effectiveness of interventions in a multi-site randomised controlled trial
- the potential to roll out and embed interventions across NHS organisations nationally.
Online supportive consultations will be run with a diverse, representative sample of BAME staff in NHS settings across England. These co-facilitated groups will last one hour and will explore people’s pandemic experiences and their psycho-spiritual needs. Concurrently, we will run, evaluate and update our suite of supportive interventions:
- 18 Recovery and Renewal Days (R&R). Regular on-line/in-person day sessions for eight to twelve staff. A safe space for giving voice to causes of stress/distress, and to explore psycho-spiritual coping, connection and communication. Evaluation via PRoQual tool and Spirituality and Inclusion Scale.
- 6 Webinars: Psycho-spiritual resources: Accessible, online presentations, discussions and practical “tips” to explore and respond to psycho-spiritual needs (informed from supportive consultations). Webinars live, interactive and recorded to form repository for NHS England.
The project is led by Dr Cathy Henshall (Oxford Brookes University) and Rev Dr Guy Harrison (OHFT) with co-applicant’s Dr Riya Patel (University of Coventry) and Dr Brian Nyatanga (University of Worcester) and Dr Juliet Chastney (OHFT). Our BAME advisory group consists of BAME health care staff representatives and EDI leads from OHFT.
Leadership
