Whether virtual or face to face, there’s still time to sign up to host an NHS Big Tea following the Government’s latest Covid-19 guidance.
Register today and join the hundreds who have already signed up for the big outpouring of support for the NHS’s birthday on 5th July to celebrate our NHS heroes and connect with loved ones.
Everyone is invited to take part at 3pm on the 5th July, or at any time that suits them on or around that date, and thank the NHS safely by holding a virtual or physical tea party that follows government guidance.
Make a difference
Funds raised by the NHS Big Tea will help NHS Charities Together provide additional support for NHS staff, volunteers and patients, helping it to go over and above what would otherwise be possible.
Below are just a few examples of how NHS Charities Together funding is already helping to make a difference by combating the isolation patients experience and connecting young people whose mental health has been impacted by the pandemic.
Patient Support Hub
A volunteer led Patient Support Hub was set up by Southampton Hospital Charity in March 2020 to combat the isolation faced by patients as the result of visitor restrictions at hospitals and isolate at home orders.
The Hub provides a range of services for isolating patients that include food shopping, befriending and extra support in the form of advice and help.
Emma Squires, Patient Support Hub lead at UHS said:
“What we are trying to do is help those who fall into the middle ground of being clinically well enough for discharge but who would benefit from a bit of extra practical and emotional support. “That may include food parcels until they are back on their feet, an ear to listen and perhaps help to signpost to well-established community volunteering services that could help with longer-term support. Many patients refer to the service as a ‘lifeline to the outside world.”
Peer Support Hub
Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity’s Peer Support Hub programme was kickstarted by NHS Charites Together funding and focuses on connecting young people who are facing mental health challenges with Peer Support Workers.
These support workers will be aged between 16 and 24 years old and come from the same communities and backgrounds as those they will be supporting. They will also have lived experiences of mental illness, helping them to support others with their medical recovery, as well as assisting them with their own.
The uncertainty of the pandemic has had an understandably negative impact on the mental health of young people, and so this support is needed now more than ever.
Alex Borg, Director of Mental Health Services at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said:
“The initial funding will help us to start the programme, but our ambition is to increase capacity to help more young people across our city. We’re incredibly grateful to NHS Charities Together and the public for helping to fund our new Peer Support Worker programme. We are focused, more than ever, on providing long-term support through this new model, to deal with the lasting effects of Covid-19 on youth mental health.”
