Support for me

We’ve pulled together the list of handy menopause resources below to provide information and support for those experiencing the menopause.

They may also be useful if you know someone who is experiencing perimenopause or menopause, or you want to understand more about what it feels like to experience it.

Please let us know if there’s anything else you think we could add by using the feedback form at the bottom of this page.

General resources about the menopause

• Read the facts about the menopause – from #RockMyMenopause
• Watch a video question and answer (Q&A) session – ‘Menopause Uncovered’
• Watch a video about the difference between the perimenopause and the menopause with Dr Louise Newson (Punjabi translation)
• Watch an information webinar from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) featuring expert clinicians talking about the menopause
• Download a menopause support pack from Pausitivity

Resources about menopause symptoms

• Read about the symptoms of menopause
• Download a menopause symptom tracker
• Read about hot flushes and night sweats
• Listen to a podcast with Dr Jane Davis and Dr Louise Price on how to identify if you’re perimenopausal
• Listen to a podcast with Dr Jane Davis about the ‘rollercoaster effect’ many feel during perimenopause

Resources about staying well during the menopause

• Read about taking care of your bone health
• Read about taking care of your pelvic floor muscles
• Read about taking care of your mental health
• Watch a video interview about getting good sleep from Dr Jessica Baron
• Watch a video about food and the menopause with Dr Louise Newson (Hindi translation)
• Watch a video about exercise and the menopause with Dr Louise Newson (Hindi translation)
• Listen to a podcast with Dr Jane Davis about sex during the perimenopause

If you work in health or care across West Yorkshire and are experiencing feelings that are difficult to cope with, our mental health and wellbeing hub is here to help. You can self-refer yourself confidentially to the hub or alternatively, you can email wyicb-wyh.mentalwellbeinghub@nhs.net to arrange a wellbeing check-in.

Resources about menopause in the workplace

• Read about managing your menopause in work
• Watch a TedTalk where Andrea Berchowitz talks about the link between menopause and gender inequity at work

Resources about speaking to your GP during the menopause

• Download a menopause appointment guide to use when speaking to your GP
• Watch a video about getting help from your GP
• Read about hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
• Listen to the ‘HRT in a nutshell’ podcast with Dr Louise Price

As people managers and health and care leaders, we are responsible for ensuring we support our colleagues through every stage of their life.

Below are a selection of resources that can help people and HR managers to provide compassionate and informed support for colleagues experiencing the menopause.

• Why its urgent and important for all employers to talk about the menopause (online article featuring Professor Jo Brewis).
• Menopause support: an essential part of your HR toolkit (online article featuring Evelyn Dickey, former HR director at Seven Trent)  
• Menopause and employment law (online article)
• The menopause at work: guidance for line managers (from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, or CIPD)
• Download a ‘Let’s Talk Menopause at Work’ poster (from CIPD)
• Read the NHS electronic staff record (ESR) guide on logging menopause-related sickness

Schwartz Rounds

Schwartz Rounds provide a structured forum where all staff, clinical and non-clinical, come together regularly to discuss the emotional and social aspects of working in healthcare.

The purpose of Rounds is to understand the challenges and rewards that come with providing care, it is not to solve problems or to focus on the clinical aspects of patient care.

Rounds can help people feel more supported in their jobs, allowing them the time and space to reflect on their roles. Evidence shows that staff who attend Rounds feel less stressed and isolated, with increased insight and appreciation for each other’s roles. They also help to reduce hierarchies between staff and to focus attention on relational aspects of care.

The underlying premise for Rounds is that the compassion shown by staff can make all the difference to a patient’s experience of care, but that in order to provide compassionate care staff must, in turn, feel supported in their work.

What’s in a name?

In 1994 Ken Schwartz was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  During his treatment, he found that what mattered to him most as a patient were the simple acts of kindness from his caregivers, which he said made “the unbearable bearable.”  Before his death, he left a legacy for the establishment of the Schwartz Center in Boston, USA to help to foster compassion in healthcare.

“I have learned that medicine is not merely about performing tests or surgeries, or administering drugs… For as skilled and knowledgeable as my caregivers are, what matters most is that they have empathized with me in a way that gives me hope and makes me feel like a human being, not just an illness.”

Read Ken’s story here.

Schwartz Rounds were brought to the UK in 2009, beginning in relatively large organisations providing acute care, but are now operating in a range of different settings, supported by the Point of Care Foundation, including:

• community and mental health trusts
• hospices
• primary care
• educational settings

Watch

Hospital Chief Executive Suzanne Rankin talks about why she brought Schwartz Rounds into her organisation: https://youtu.be/JWxksG0Kq2E

A Schwartz Round in action at St Joseph’s Hospice. https://youtu.be/ftBXbvSkuX8

A Schwartz Round at a hospital trust https://youtu.be/0VfSkjGZAeY

Schwartz Rounds in West Yorkshire

Our ambition is to have Schwartz Rounds running in each of our places in West Yorkshire, and in as many organisations, large and small, as possible.

Schwartz Rounds are for everyone – if you work in a care home, a voluntary organisation in your community, a GP practice, a hospital or any other organisation that provides health or social care, you can start or take part in a Schwartz Round. We have a central team in each place that can help you with all the resources and training you need to help you and your colleagues get the most from this enriching experience.

No matter what your organisation does, the support and training you get to bring your Schwartz Round to life is free. You don’t have to work in frontline care – people in support roles need Schwartz too.

https://youtu.be/_CuxfCNDQ30

How to get involved

Each of our places in West Yorkshire has a dedicated person who can help you to set up a Schwartz Round, or find you a place on a Round that is already taking place in your organisation.

You can contact your local representative by emailing: wyicb-bdc.wyh.mentalwellbeinghub@nhs.net

Feedback from Schwartz Rounds in West Yorkshire

I've attended at least 4 Schwartz rounds. As a non-clinical member of staff I am far-removed from what goes on "behind closed doors" in consultation rooms, wards etc however, at the rounds I got more of a sense of the real-life situations that are dealt with on a daily basis, more than that, how resilient and selfless staff have been in traumatising situations.   I felt like I was more part of the hospital, that I had an awareness of what is so day-to-day for some people; it is very humbling. I also realised that at, whatever level you are, clinician non-clinical, I still had something to contribute during my working day, and this made me feel that I also, in a small way make a difference. When I left each meeting I felt like we were one big team.

Medical Secretary, Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Carl Betts, a paramedic from Yorkshire Ambulance Service, has shared his candid account of dropping his armour to speak openly at a Schwartz Round. Read Carl's story.

Adapting to homeworking can be unfamiliar and impactful. The following resources offer guidance and help:

• Flexing or fatiguing - follow the eight Rs to take some control back
• Practical tips for working from home
• Keeping well at Home
• Working from home - tips and hints
• How to set up Zoom video conferencing
• WHYPAY? Conference Service - how to guides
• How to Use Microsoft Teams
• Guidance for ways to support your mental health while working from home.
  Mental Health First Aid England Video as follows:
• Working from home

• Wellbeing Hub A3 Anxiety Self-help
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Long COVID19
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Menopause
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Sleep Self-Help Sheet
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Stress and Burnout self-help
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Suicidal Thoughts Self-help
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Workers of Carers
• Wellbeing Hub A3 Working from Home
• WellbeingLeafletA4_SuddenColleagueDeath

Most people won’t need to access psychological therapies, but it is important to get help if you need it. If you have been exposed to highly stressful, traumatic or frightening experiences at work you are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Symptoms include reliving what has happened through vivid dreams or flashbacks, feeling very anxious, angry, irritable and guilty. Some people will feel low in mood, have trouble sleeping and have physical symptoms.

For many people these symptoms will improve over time, but if they don’t improve after one month, you can be referred, or self-refer for psychological therapy. Services will also work with you if you are suffering from depression or anxiety.

You can get help from the Samaritans, on freephone 116 123.

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Our partner organisation Halsa have an extensive range of free self-help resources covering topics including Eat Well, Feel Weel, Think Well and Sleep Well. 

• Our Working Carers section has been designed to help working carers look after the person they care for, and themselves, during these unprecedented times. The areas covered are:

Money worries;
Your rights as an employee;
Looking after your mental health;
Looking after your physical health;
Healthy eating;
Looking after the person you care for;
Looking after children's mental and physical health; and
Trying to get back to 'normal'.​

• Relationship Matters - When two people share responsibility for a child, no matter whether they are still together or separated, the relationship between them has a direct impact on the mental health of their children.
• Domestic violence - The stress of lockdown means that domestic violence is on the rise. If this is happening to you a friend or a family member it's important to know that you are not alone please this Domestic Violence Information Sheet for support and further help.
• To help you think about the different ways and people that can help you in an emergency, if you look after someone who couldn’t manage without your support.
• The Hub is offering a new support group as part of our Critical Incident Staff Support Pathway (CrISSP). We know that events at work can impact on home and personal relationships. If this describes you or colleagues you know and you would be interested in attending a small group with other staff who have been impacted in this way please have a look at this poster and register your interest with us at wyicb-bdc.wyh.mentalwellbeinghub@nhs.net

As part of the national health and wellbeing programme for our NHS people, and working in collaboration with our staff networks, we have developed a number of bespoke support offers for NHS colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds.

BAME Network Podcast:

'Can You Hear Me?' is a new podcast giving a voice to the diverse talent working to improve health and care for people in West Yorkshire, presented by our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff Network.

Episode 1 is presented by network member Fatima Khan-Shah, Programme Lead for the Unpaid Carers and Personalised Care Programmes.

Fatima was joined by some fantastic people to get the series underway, including Dr Sal Uka, Medical Lead for The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts; Dr Habib Naqvi; Deputy Director for the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard at NHS England; Yvonne Coghill,  Director for WRES Implementation at NHS England, and Nyoka Fothergill, Leeds City Council.
Listen to episode 1 here.

Episode 2 is about carers, ahead of Carers Week which starts on
Monday 8 June 2020

It features presenter Mo Sattar, a GP in Leeds and member of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership's BAME Staff Network, in conversation with Owen Williams OBE, Chief Executive at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, and Sherone Phillips from the Palliative and End of Life Team within the Personalised Care Group at NHS England, who is also a carer herself.
Listen to episode 2 here.

Episode 3 is about white privilege

Usha Kaushal, Lead Pharmacist and an Operational Lead at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, leads the discussion with Samantha Allen, Chief Executive of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Wallace Sampson, Chief Executive of Harrogate Borough Council and Rob Webster, Lead CEO for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership and Chief Executive at South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust.
Listen to episode 3 here.

Episode 4 is around workforce issues

Delphine Arinze from The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust talks with Uduak Archibong, Professor of Diversity at the University of Bradford, Kez Hayat from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Sayed Ahmed from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Conversation on this episode was centred around workforce issues and the experience of being from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic community in the health and care workforce.
Listen to episode 4 here.

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For further information, guidance and training on risk assessment please see the following resources:

• Covid-19 - staff risk assessment training support
• Risk assessment - at risk staff (Covid-19)

Neurodiversity - reasonable adjustments. This document serves as a starting point to help you identify the reasonable adjustments you may need in the workplace. Instead of concentrating on specific conditions like Autism, ADHD, or Dyslexia, it addresses various aspects of neurodiversity and suggests potential adjustments. Everyone's needs are unique, so select the adjustments that are most relevant to you as an individual.

Staff in care homes, whether Council or privately owned, are part of our West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership. The COVID 19 pandemic has been especially challenging for those working and volunteering in care homes, whatever their role - from the lack of PPE, to anxieties around protecting loved ones and those they care for, the relentless pressure on keeping residents safe has taken its toll. Whilst we are hopefully coming out the other side of the pandemic, we know that this brings rise to other concerns such as anxieties around vaccinations, impact of losing people they have cared for or struggled with the level of care they have been able to provide.

The Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub has produced a newsletter for care homes which you can read here together with a covering letter from our consultant psychologists.

We have also recorded a podcast about the issues and challenges facing care home staff as a result of the pandemic. You can listen to that here.