Frontline HCPs-Anyone had experience of Frontline 19?

[Retiremental]

Good or bad?
Finally decided I need some help with all of this but just registered and had a text to say they are overwhelmed with referrals at the minute. Not sure where else to turn. FB support groups are just too big and impersonal. Don’t feel things are bad enough to warrant the GP and support at work is non existent apart from chaplains which just doesn’t appeal at the minute.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Frontline19 is advertising for counsellors and therapists to work for free, hence they don't have a big workforce. It's another shameful part of what's gone on that there hasn't been proper funding for mental health care for frontline staff yet.

For one off calls if you are in England or Wales there is www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/health-and-care/here-listen-support-line-nhs-people/
Please do not hold back from self referring to your local IAPT service or primary care mental health service. Things don't have to be that bad, they have staff to support at the milder end too. To be honest you will be doing services a favour because if HCPs hold back from using them budget won't be made available to staff a proper service.

Thanks for that.
I didn’t realise they were using volunteers

Just wondering if anyone has found any other sort of online group support that has been useful?

Does your trust not have any well-being programmes / services in place @Retiremental ? It's pretty dire if they don't . Is there anything you can access through your professional body?

Nothing like a wellbeing program but they do have a counselling service but it’s manned by one of the services that I work really closely with so I wouldn’t feel comfortable using it.

Hi I started Frontline19 back in March of this year and run it with Ellen Waldren. We have been working 18+ hours a day for months so we are just taking a small break - ditto with the therapists. We have over 1000 active volunteer psychotherapists, counsellors & psychologists right now but they are full with clients. We are actively looking at funding at the moment so that we can pay people to do the work but have been so busy with requests. We normally match people with a therapist within 2-3 days and will restart on 4th January 2020. I hope that helps. Take care ❤️

I suffered complete burnout a few weeks ago and my wife found Frontline 19 from a Google search. I poured my heart into my email to Frontline 19 and was allocated a counsellor within an hour - which I thought was amazing!

An absolutely brilliant service. Regarding Covid burnout its hard to know what has helped the most. I was completely exhausted so time off sick just to recharge has probably helped the most. However counselling is helping with the anxiety and possible PTSD and trauma as well.

Things are really tough at the moment access any service you can to at least try and see if it helps. We should have a thread on here for HCP to support each other.

@ClaireFrontline19

Hi I started Frontline19 back in March of this year and run it with Ellen Waldren. We have been working 18+ hours a day for months so we are just taking a small break - ditto with the therapists. We have over 1000 active volunteer psychotherapists, counsellors & psychologists right now but they are full with clients. We are actively looking at funding at the moment so that we can pay people to do the work but have been so busy with requests. We normally match people with a therapist within 2-3 days and will restart on 4th January 2020. I hope that helps. Take care ❤️

There's a lot of journalists scan Mumsnet for stories. Can one of them please pick this up and pick up a fight to get this service funded?

There is a mental healthworkforce out there to support the frontline but because it doesn't fit into the narrow criteria of IAPT and their other UK equivalents it is running on nothing but goodwill. Counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists cannot afford to work in big numbers for free, especially at the moment when many have reduced their caseloads due to the extra strain of working via Zoom etc during a pandemic.

The frontline deserves to be supported by a consistent, salaried workforce. It is an excellent investment for the future. Research from the SARS1 outbreaks shows that mental health support of your staff prevents attrition in the longer term.

‘ We should have a thread on here for HCP to support each other.’

There have been a few started but they are all hijacked by deniers.