Category: Uncategorised

Whether you have been working throughout the pandemic, been furloughed, working from home, self-isolating or something else, Barnet UNISON understands the impact this may be having on your or a colleagues mental health.

Having good mental health helps us relax more, achieve more and enjoy our lives more. Below are details about websites and organisations to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing.

Able Futures

Able Futures can help you manage your mental health at work so you can enjoy more good days. If eligible they provide you nine months advice and guidance from a mental health specialist who can help you learn coping mechanisms, build resilience, access therapy or work with your employer to make adjustments to help your mental health at work.

Call Able Futures free on 0800 321 3137 from 8am to 10.30pm, Monday to Friday or apply online.

https://able-futures.co.uk/

Nafsiyat

Nafsiyat is an intercultural therapy centre, committed to providing effective and accessible psychotherapy and counselling services to people from diverse religious, cultural and ethnic communities in London.

We currently offer intercultural therapy to people living in the London boroughs of Camden, Islington, Enfield and Haringey. This therapy is short-term only, but available at no charge.

To access this therapy, you need either to be referred to us, for example by your GP, or you can apply to refer yourself.

https://www.nafsiyat.org.uk/

 

NHS Every Mind Matters

Visit the NHS Every Mind Matters website:

https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/

 

Urgent support

If you are having thoughts of suicide, are harming yourself or have thought about self-harm, it’s important to tell someone.

These thoughts and feelings can be complex, frightening and confusing, but you do not have to struggle alone.

If you cannot wait to see a doctor and feel unable to cope or keep yourself safe, contact one of the organisations below to get support right away. Or see further NHS advice on dealing with a mental health crisis or emergency.

 

Free 24-hour listening support

When life is tough, Samaritans are here to listen at any time of the day or night. You can talk to them about anything that’s troubling you, no matter how difficult.

Call free on 116 123 or visit the Samaritans website

Shout offers confidential 24/7 crisis text support for times when you need immediate assistance.

Text “SHOUT” to 85258 or visit Shout Crisis Text Line

 

Urgent, non-emergency medical advice

If you need help urgently but are not at risk of death or serious illness, use the NHS 111 non-emergency advice online.

NHS 111 advice online

Only call 111 if you cannot get help online.

People with hearing problems can use the NHS 111 British Sign Language (BSL) service.

 

Crisis support for young people

If you are under 35 and feel that life is not worth living any more, call Papyrus’s HopelineUK from 9am to 10pm weekdays and 2pm to 10pm on weekends.

Call HopelineUK on 0800 068 41 41

Text 07786 209697

Visit the Papyrus website

 

CALM

CALM is the Campaign Against Living Miserably, for people in the UK who are down or have hit a wall for any reason.

Call 0800 58 58 58 (daily, 5pm to midnight)

Free, anonymous webchat with trained staff

Visit the CALM website

 

Dial 999

In a life-threatening emergency, phone the emergency services and ask for an ambulance.

When to call 999

 

When to get help from your GP

It’s important to seek help from your GP immediately if you are experiencing the following symptoms for the first time or are not already receiving care from mental health services/

If you live in England, in most areas you can also refer yourself for free, non-urgent NHS psychological therapy services, also known as IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) services, which provide evidence-based treatments for depression and anxiety.

Services remain open during the coronavirus pandemic, so do seek professional help if you think you need it.

UNISON guidance for members working in Special Schools and Colleges

Context: With the new variant of the virus shown to being considerably more transmissible than the version prevalent in 2020 the previous risk assessment will no longer be fit for purpose. As a matter of priority, specialist schools and colleges focus on:

• Revisiting and improving the previous risk assessments and building time into the beginning of term for this to take place
• Risk assessments should be updated for the premises as a whole and for individual children and young people with more complex needs
• Time must be built in for extra training of staff in adopting the new measures identified.
• Allowing time for pupils and their parents/carers to be inducted into the new processes

Read more – click this link: https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2021/01/Advice-for-UNISON-members-working-in-special-schools-and-colleges.pdf

Happy New Year! – Good Riddance to 2020!
Barnet UNISON holds first Branch Meeting of 2021

Barnet UNISON Emergency Branch Meeting 6^th January
Barnet UNISON should have increased its zoom account so that more than 100 people could join!!!

Our apologies to all those trying to get onto the call but couldn’t because we only had a capacity of 100. We will be holding another meeting and we will increase the capacity!

We believe the intention of this lockdown is to stop people circulating more than necessary in order to radically reduce the rates of infection. Therefore any work being undertaken which is not absolutely necessary will contribute to the spread of the infection and puts us all at risk.

The Government’s message is being interpreted in all kinds of ways which means, for example, that School A only has a handful of children attending and School B has 60 children attending. We want to help you ensure the wider community stays safe by stopping the more generous interpretation of what the Government is saying.

Key messages from the meeting:

1. If your workplace feels unsafe or the work you are being asked to do is not critical then please do contact the UNISON branch: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk
2. Almost all of those workplaces which have moved quickest to successfully challenge practice which is dangerous and contributes to the rising infection rates have had a rep / health and safety rep and a WhatsApp group. These have enabled colleagues to clarify their views and alert the branch in an organised and collective manner. If your workplace does not have any of these in place then contact the branch to set them up.
3. Where there are a couple or more colleagues in a particular setting, or carrying out similar duties, who want to have an online meeting to clarify more quickly what stance they want to take, should contact the branch. We have the facility to set up a zoom meeting for your area of work if this will help you.
4. All risk assessments – site ones and personal ones – have to be revisited in light of the new situation. If they are not being revisited then you cannot be assured your work environment is safe.
5. We will support anyone who does not feel safe at work.
6. We are asking for an urgent review of PPE guidance. We believe the FFP2 and FFP3 masks should be issued for people to wear as these actually do offer much greater protection from inhaling COVID particles. This is particularly important for those who have to work with COVID positive residents in our community.

The levels of COVID infection rates means that the NHS is on the brink of breakdown. This means anyone who becomes critically ill may not get the care and attention they could have expected during the summer and further risks people being exposed to life changing disability or death. Both of these outcomes are significant not just for the individual concerned but for their family and friends. This is the context against which we have arrived at our position.

We began the meeting with one minute silence in memory of our members who have died during this pandemic and those who have suffered bereavements.

We acknowledged that the lockdown probably would not have happened by Monday had the trade unions – notably the education trade unions – begun organising their members to send in section 44 letters stating that their workplaces were not safe.

Locally Barnet UNISON had a zoom meeting for nursery workers on Sunday 3^rd January and half an hour after the end of the meeting the head teachers of the maintained nurseries were announcing closure of those sites due to receiving letters from staff expressing their concerns and stating they would not be attending their place of work.
Nationally at the same time the NEU held an online meeting with an attendance of 400,000 to get the same message across to its membership.

Those who participated in those actions can be proud of the role they played in getting the Government to act more swiftly to protect all of us.

Please join the UNISON meeting for members employed by Capita or Regional Enterprise

Tuesday 9 March 2021

12 noon

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

Or call in (audio only)

+44 20 4526 5795,,517972409#   United Kingdom, London

Phone Conference ID: 517 972 409#

COVID-19 response fund

The COVID-19 response fund reopened on Monday 16 November, offering grants of up to £500 to help members whose household incomes have been affected in any of the following ways:

• You and/or your partner are currently furloughed
• You and/or your partner are currently receiving Statutory Sick Pay and are either shielding, self-isolating or off sick due to other COVID-related reasons
• You and/or your partner have been made redundant or lost your job due to coronavirus
• You and/or your partner’s employer have reduced your working hours, including loss of regular overtime (applicable also where partner is self-employed and loss of earnings can be proven)

Please note that applicants must be a UNISON member with savings of less than £2,500 and have paid at least two months’ subscriptions.

We want to make this fund go as far as possible and help as many members as we can. Therefore please only apply if you are in financial difficulty as a result of COVID-19.

Depending on your situation, help will be awarded as follows:

• £350 living costs for applicants who are furloughed or have a salary reduction due to COVID
• £500 loss of employment grant due to redundancy
• Up to £500 housing costs grant – towards rent, mortgage, or council tax arrears that have accrued since March 2020

In addition to There for You funds, we are very grateful to have received generous grants from UNISON and CHSA (the COVID-19 Healthcare Support Appeal) which enable us to support members who are struggling at this time.

Apply now

You can also download an application form to print and post back to us. Details are on the form.

Nafsiyat Reflective Sessions by London Borough of Barnet

While 2020 has been a momentous year for many reasons, the death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter movement has been seen by many as a turning point that has encouraged people to speak out, call out discrimination when they see it, and fight for a more equal and just society. Here in Barnet, the council has also made a series of commitments to ensure equalities and diversity are at the forefront of our decision making, for residents and for staff.

And we know that so many of you have a lot that you want to say, and share with colleagues. That’s why we have begun a new partnership with Nafsiyat, an organisation established in 1983 to ensure that the diverse religious, cultural and ethnic communities in London could access culturally appropriate psychotherapy and counselling services. It was the first therapy centre in the country to take account of the cultural background of the patient and therapist and recognise its importance.

So we are introducing, from next week, a series of ‘reflective sessions’. These will be group sessions for up to 10 people. Their aim is to allow staff to reflect, particularly on the Black Lives Matter movement and how it may have affected them, but also more widely on the society in which we live and discrimination that they may have faced. The sessions are open to staff from any ethnic, cultural or religious background and should be considered a ‘safe and confidential space’ to talk about anything.

Book your place on one of the session times below here. All sessions will be run on Zoom:

Monday 7th December 12:30-13:45

Friday 11th December 11:00-12:15

Friday 22nd January 11:00-12:15

Monday 25th January 12:30-13:45

Friday 19th February 11:00-12:15

Monday 22nd February 12:30-13:45

To book a session please click on the below link

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nafsiyat-reflective-sessions-tickets-131324371731

The lead up to Christmas and New Year can be challenging for us in so many ways and this year, perhaps more than ever. Sometimes we can all benefit from a bit of support to help look after ourselves so the festive season can be an enjoyable time.

Able Futures can give you advice, support and practical assistance at no cost and with no waiting lists.

So there is no cost to you, access support quickly and it is totally confidential…..it’s a no brainer, cope a bit better this festive season, get in touch with Able Futures.

Call Able Futures on 0800 321 3137

https://able-futures.co.uk/mental-health-support-for-individuals/?utm_source=employer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EST_Xmas20

Able Futures has developed a Mental Health Advent Calendar including a daily tip you can use to help your mental wellbeing this festive season. To find out more click the below link.

https://able-futures.co.uk/access-to-work-mental-health-support-service/news/mental-health-advent-calendar/?utm_source=employer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EST_Xmas20