Standing shoulder to shoulder with healthcare workers with Long Covid in the UK
In March last year we wrote a blog letting you know about the work we were doing to set up Supporting Healthcare Heroes UK (SHH-UK) as a charity. We are delighted to let you know that we now have charitable status – Registered in England & Wales No. 1205685. Our mission and aims are set out below in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Our mission and aims
Now that we have charitable status the hard work starts. Within this blog we will be providing information about our aims and what each of these means in practice.
Who we plan to help
We are often asked who we will be helping. Figure 2 below provides a summary of who we plan to help. We are aiming to help any UK healthcare worker (HCW) who developed Long Covid during the course of their professional duties, whether or not they are still employed.
Figure 2 Who we aim to help
How we plan to help
Reduce financial hardship caused by Long Covid
Grants
Once we have sufficient funds we will be awarding grants to UK HCWs with Long Covid and who are in desperate financial need. Details about who will be eligible to apply for a grant are outlined in Box 1. Details of the types of grants available are outlined below.
Box 1: Who will be eligible to apply for our grants
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The types of grant available are to provide financial support for HCWs who developed Long Covid in relation to:
- Additional costs stemming from the clinical condition of Long Covid, e.g.:
- travel costs for treatment
- adjustments to home
- disability aids
- recommended activities for health reasons
- A short term inability to cover usual expenses due to drop in income as a result of Long Covid, e.g.:
- going from full to half pay as a result of sick pay
- from half pay to nothing
- changed income because change of job
- early retirement
- The costs of making adjustments from former employment to a new situation: e.g. costs associated with:
- retraining
- counselling or coaching
- moving house to reduce outgoings
Assistance with applying for benefits
Many HCWs with Long Covid are applying for benefits, often for the first time. We understand that this can be difficult, particularly with Long Covid cognitive dysfunction (brain fog). We are working to pull together some additional information for our website which we hope will provide a starting point for HCWs applying for benefits for the first time.
In the meantime we recommend using the entitledto benefits calculator to work out which benefits you are entitled to.
Debt Advice
Many HCWs with Long Covid now have debts. We have partnered with PayPlan to provide free debt advice for those who need it. More information is available by clicking here.
Ill health retirement
HCWs with Long Covid are applying for ill health retirement (IHR) in increasing numbers. To support HCWs in this position we advise them to:
- join our Forums to discuss this and share advice with other HCWs
- read our blog describing one nurse who was awarded Tier 1 and Tier 2 ill health retirement from the NHS pension scheme and how she negotiated the process here
- have a look at the Long Covid Nurses and Midwives information leaflet on IHR
- visit the Royal College of Nursing’s online resource for people living with Long Covid – information on IHR available here.
Relieve isolation and ensure healthcare workers with Long Covid have a voice
Reducing isolation
The SHH-UK team are aware that many HCWs with Long Covid feel isolated and benefit greatly from online communication with others in similar situations. Given this we have the following information available on our website:
- details of several Facebook groups supporting HCWs with Long Covid here
- information about face to face (online) meetings are detailed in this blog
Our first support group meeting for HCWs with Long Covid is taking place at 1230 on 20th March. To join you need to be a member of SHH-UK. If you’re not a member already you can become a full member here or should you wish to sign up as a normal member (not wishing to access our financial assistance) you can register here. More information about the support group can be accessed by clicking here. This group is a pilot to see how sustainable running our own support groups is.
We have also recently set up our discussion forums. More details about these will be provided in tomorrow’s blog.
Ensuring healthcare workers’ stories are heard
We are keen to provide HCWs with Long Covid with a voice to ensure their stories are heard out with the Long Covid community. One way we do this is by publishing people’s stories on our blog and promoting these on social media. We will be posting several of these blogs over the next 10 days. These blogs can be accessed here. week. Box 2 provides details of the other blogs we have publishing detailing HCWs’ Long Covid Stories.
Box 2: Long Covid stories published previously
Sinead’s story: https://shh-uk.org/sineads-story/ Jenni’s story: https://shh-uk.org/jennis-story/ Dee’s story: https://shh-uk.org/dees-story/ Anna’s story: https://shh-uk.org/annas-story/ and https://shh-uk.org/dear-work-colleagues-or-long-covid-nurses-and-guilt/ Holly’s story: https://shh-uk.org/how-living-with-long-covid-gave-me-a-new-perspective-on-life/ Treasa’s story: https://shh-uk.org/the-adventure-that-is-on-no-ones-bucket-list-my-life-with-long-covid/ Brenda’s story: https://shh-uk.org/i-now-have-no-job/ (vlog) |
We have also published a series of short testimonials from a range of HCWs with Long Covid on the home page of our website and on the blogs page. Going forward we will be working with journalists to highlight both what is happening to HCWs with Long Covid and the huge gap in support.
Feel free to get in touch with us
You can use our contact us page available here, or via email or via our social media channels, linked at the bottom of the page. Sign up to our newsletter below to receive our updates automatically.