You are doing really important and difficult work and over the coming days and weeks you will probably find that there are times when you feel anxious, stressed, scared, sad, overwhelmed, angry, guilty, helpless or even numb. These are all normal responses to an extremely challenging situation.

You may experience different emotions at different stages of the pandemic. For example, early on, you might feel anxious thinking about what could happen or that you are in a heightened state of “readiness”.At the peak phases you may experience surges of adrenaline. Over time you may feel more like you are “running on empty”.

There may be times when you feel guilty about difficult decisions that you have to make. You may not feel any of these things. There may be times when you feel you are coping well and times you feel that you are coping less well. Everyone is different, and everyone will experience different emotions at different times.

We are here to support you, speak to your manager or a senior member to talk through your concerns. You can also speak to the online staff support team we have provided or where appropriate face to face should you need to.

You will be able to speak to one our staff support team made up of members from our Freedom to Speak Up team, psychology department, clinicians, staff counselling, and psychotherapist, as another line of assistance during what may be an anxious and overwhelming time.