Mental health support vital moving forward

Amid all the positive news stories lately, with the vaccination programme exceeding expectations and NHS Test and Trace finally beginning to show its worth, the announcement that healthcare staff will be offered access to evidence-based mental health services at one of 40 new hubs should be celebrated.

The strain that our healthcare staff face in normal circumstances is more than most of us can imagine and it only emphasises the care, compassion and drive to help people that makes it such a rewarding vocation. But this last year that strain has become unbearable.

As Claire Murdoch said, staff have put their minds and bodies to the limit treating hundreds of thousands of seriously ill-patients with coronavirus.

The free-of-charge hubs will help to offer advice and support, but more importantly their aim is to proactively contact staff groups who are most at-risk to offer them support so they get the care they need as quickly as possible.

It has been disappointing to read the health staff are unlikely to see the pay rise they deserve in the upcoming Budget, as it is only right they receive all the support that they need as we head towards an end of lockdown, the next stages of the vaccination drive and, hopefully, a return to normality.

Michael Lyons, editor