Pioneering Mental Health support programme

A pioneering mental health support programme for NHS staff has gone from strength to strength in recent years after initial funding, and ongoing support, from Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

The Peer Support Network aims to present staff with a listening ear and structured emotional support following stressful events, offering both one to one and group sessions with Peer Supporters trained in critical incident stress management.

The programme has run over 100 sessions in the last year alone, with 52 trained peer supporters now on hand throughout the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

Dr Monique McLeod, Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist and RHC Peer Support Chair, was part of the multi-disciplinary team responsible for introducing the concept in Theatres, Intensive Care and Emergency Departments within the hospital.

“It's about normalising the fact that getting help or just chatting with your peers and working through it, is an important part of the process of going through a stressful event. Peer Support should be a standard, integrated option for us to have as teams, to come together and share and support each other so that we can function again both as individuals and as a team to then go on to care for the next child and their family.”

Dr Monique McLeod

Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity has helped the programme expand in recent years by funding training for NHS staff, ensuring that the Peer Support Network can offer further support throughout Scotland’s busiest children’s hospital.

Siobhan Sweeney, Consultant ED Physician, RHC PSN Lead, adds:

“The charity has been instrumental in our ability to sustain and expand our service, particularly in maintaining our number of trained staff which has been hugely impactful.

“These stressful events are not necessarily something you would be comfortable bringing home to your own family or friends because it would be unusual topics to touch upon, whereas it’s kind of daily bread for the people that work here. That peer aspect of Peer Support becomes that much more relevant when you’re dealing with unusually difficult circumstances.”

“With the charity’s funding, Peer Supporters can provide support for staff who are working in a context which is recognised to be different. The hospital is both a wonderful and difficult space to operate in, so it feels appropriate that our Peer Supporters have been trained by an accredited trainer. The charity’s support has enabled us to have a crisis response like Peer Support which is attuned to the challenges of this working environment.”

Drew Smithsimmons, Healthcare Chaplain, RHC PSN Lead

Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity is proud to have enabled the expansion of the Peer Support Network, ensuring the mental health of staff in Scotland’s busiest children’s hospital is prioritised and supported.

If you work at the hospital and would like to get in contact with the Peer Support Network, email ggc.rhc.peersupport@nhs.scot.