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Mental Health and Wellbeing Resources

Overview

Looking after your mental health and wellbeing is an ongoing practice. Alongside the formal counselling and psychological support available to PGDiTs through services such as Workplace Wellbeing and Take Time, there is a wide range of self-directed resources that can help you to build healthy habits, manage stress, develop coping strategies, and maintain your wellbeing throughout your training and career.

This page shares a curated selection of resources that PGDiTs may find particularly helpful, which are intended to complement and not replace therapeutic support.

If you are experiencing significant and/or urgent difficulties with your mental health, please see our emergency contact advice.

Contents

Physical health and wellbeing

Looking after your physical health is an important part of mental wellbeing as the two are closely connected. NHS England's physical health and wellbeing resources offer practical guidance on sleep, nutrition, exercise, and managing the physical demands of clinical work.

Many trusts offer their own physical wellbeing initiatives such as staff gyms, cycle-to-work schemes, and physiotherapy services. Your employing trust’s staff intranet or occupational health team is the best place to find local information.

Supportive courses

We commission a range of professional and personal development opportunities as part of our Professional Skills Courses offer. These courses focus on developing a suite of non-clinical behaviours that support you to thrive throughout your postgraduate training and wider clinical career. This includes courses aligned to improving your workplace wellbeing, such as managing imposter syndrome, understanding unhealthy perfectionism, increasing your confidence and more.

Apps and digital tools

NHS England has curated a list of wellbeing apps which are free to access for all NHS staff. These apps and digital tools can support your mental health and wellbeing and include a focus on sleep, mindfulness, anxiety management, and general wellbeing.

You might find mindfulness and meditation apps beneficial for managing stress, sleep apps may be most supportive to shift workers and mood-tracking apps may help you to notice patterns over time. The right app(s) will be a personal choice, and we'd encourage you to explore the different options and identify what works best for you.

Self-help guides and online resources

Several NHS-affiliated organisations have developed high-quality self-help resources covering a range of common concerns.

Webinars

Doctors in Distress is a UK charity dedicated to protecting the mental health of healthcare workers. They facilitate a range of support groups, a programme of free webinars and reflective practice sessions for doctors, dentists, and other clinicians, covering topics such as compassion fatigue, dealing with complaints, and processing difficult clinical experiences.

Local trust resources

Most NHS trusts in Yorkshire and Humber offer their own staff wellbeing resources, which may include staff counselling services, employee assistance programmes (EAPs), staff physiotherapy, mindfulness sessions, Schwartz Rounds, peer support groups, and chaplaincy services. The specific offer varies between trusts and changes over time, so we'd encourage you to check your trust's intranet or contact your occupational health department to find out what is available where you work.

Developing positive habits

While the resources above provide structured tools and support, the foundations of mental wellbeing are often the simplest method of self-directed support. Consistently following these recommendations to develop them as positive habits will have the most benefit. 

  • Protecting your sleep as far as the demands of clinical work allow, and prioritising rest after on-call or night shifts

  • Eating regularly during shifts and staying hydrated, even when workload makes this difficult
  • Maintaining connection with people outside of work who are not associated with your profession, including family, friends, partners, communities, and interests
  • Exercise has well-documented benefits for mood, anxiety and resilience. It doesn’t need to be exhaustive, movement of any kind can have a positive benefit 
  • Setting limits and boundaries, where you can, and committing to them. This might include saying no to additional commitments when you are at capacity, taking annual leave and protecting your time off
  • Reflecting on difficult experiences rather than pushing them aside, whether this be talking them through with trusted colleagues, via supervision or reflective practice groups, or accessing more formal support such as via our locally funded counselling and psychological support services
  • Recognising early signs that things are becoming difficult, and taking action sooner rather than later

 

None of these options are a substitute for healthcare or therapeutic support when you need it. However, over time they can help to build and protect your workplace wellbeing throughout a demanding clinical career.

 

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