As the COVID-19 situation progresses and the Government guidance continues to change, individuals may be feeling anxious, tired and fed up a year on from the first COVID-19 lockdown in England. Mental Health support during times like these are paramount, which is why Care first have worked tirelessly to ensure our services remain available 24/7 throughout the pandemic to provide emotional and practical support and ensure we have every aspect of your overall wellbeing covered.
Now we are at the end of a year since the start of the first lockdown in England it could be considered a good time to reflect on ‘How Care first has supported through a year of the pandemic’. For many of us we may feel like just forgetting the last year altogether due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Many have experienced loss, isolation, loneliness, stress and anxiety caused by uncertainty – which could never have been anticipated.
Care first services have remained in place throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with the only change being to face to face counselling that has been conducted via video link instead due to the COVID-19 restrictions. This will remain the case until government guidance changes.
Care first have provided extra resources throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in the way of the weekly COVID-19 communication pack. This pack contains a weekly calendar of themes, articles on each theme and a live webinar for each article/theme for the week. Care first wanted to provide this extra support to the organisations and people that we support.
During the last year Care first have hosted 243 webinars through the weekly COVID-19 communication pack. These 243 webinars have had over 30,000 people register to watch the live event and over 9,000 people watch the recorded version via Go to Webinar. This is on average is a 160 people per webinar who have either registered for the live event or who have watched the webinar recording retrospectively. There is likely to be many more people who have viewed the webinars through the Care first Lifestyle website too, which we cannot see how many people have viewed them via this method.
The three webinars with the most registrants for the live webinars were:
- Understanding anxiety and tips to cope (Link: https://youtu.be/6bRlsBEgZ6Q) – 879 registrants
- Stress, Resilience and Mental Health (Link: https://youtu.be/qhWE9K6x42I) – 834 registrants
- Tips for home schooling and keeping children occupied at home (Link: https://youtu.be/LqOGkXaV9z8) – 684 registrants
Care first will continue to put together the COVID-19 weekly communication pack and send it out to support organisations and people during these uncertain times. The second page of this article looks at some anonymised feedback from people in relation to the webinars and also where to find all the COVID-19 advice and support on the Care first Lifestyle website.
Some Anonymised Feedback: Care first COVID-19 Weekly Communication Pack
- “Thank you, these are going down really well with our staff.”
- “Just wanted to say that the feedback from staff is that these are really helpful.”
- “There have been some great quality webinars, very informative.”
- “The anxiety one was excellent. I’m attending every day! Fantastic!”
- “Really enjoyed your talk. It was really inspirational & has motivated me to do more to help people.”
- “Thank you for the webinar last week. It was a helpful reminder of what we need to do to maintain mental health during this crisis.”
The Care first Lifestyle Website: Dedicated COVID-19 Support Section
All of the weekly calendars, articles and webinars that Care first have put together throughout the COVID-19 pandemic can be found via the Care first Lifestyle website (as shown above). If you are not sure of your organisations login details for the Care first Lifestyle website, please check with your HR/People team.
How can Care first help?
If you feel you may need some emotional or practical support, you can contact Care first. Care first is a leading provider of confidential, professional counselling, information and advice services. Whilst our BACP accredited counsellors are available 24/7 to provide support with emotional issues, our expertly trained information specialists are available 8am-8pm Monday-Friday to provide advice on any practical issues that may be causing you a stress or worry and help you feel more in control of a situation. All employees are eligible to use Care first, our services include; telephone counselling, information services and online support.
If you would like to learn more about “COVID-19 – How Care first have supported through a year of COVID-19” Then please join our webinar on Wednesday 17th March at 12pm using the details below – https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1121849719385154574
If you are unable to join the webinar live, a recording of the session can be accessed using the same link above after the webinar has taken place. If you wish to contact the Care first telephone counselling and information line then please don’t hesitate to call the Freephone number provided by your organisation and you can speak to a professional in confidence.