General Practice (GP)
Calm Room project
What is a Calm Room?
In September 2021, the Health and Wellbeing team launched an application process for Practice Managers to bid for funding to create Calm Rooms within their practice. We launched this at the Practice Managers conference, where we were joined by over 100 colleagues from General Practice. We received some really positive feedback about this initiative and decided to extend the application process for more colleagues to get involved.
We are delighted to share that we have now funded a total of 40 Calm Rooms in practices across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw.
Each practice received a Calm Room pack which included: health and wellbeing support resources for colleagues, door signs and a comments book.
Practice Managers are now in their final stages of design and creation. Below you can see examples of the amazing work completed so far.
Woodstock Bower Group Practice, Rotherham
Carterknowle and Dore Medical Practice, Sheffield
Larwood Surgery, Worksop
Richmond Medical Centre, Sheffield
Tramways and Middlewood Medical Centres, Sheffield
Manchester Road Surgery, Sheffield
Don Valley Healthcare (Bentley site), Doncaster
Sloan Medical Centre, Sheffield
Gleadless Medical Centre, Sheffield
We cannot wait to visit some of these areas in the Summer.
Health and wellbeing projects
From speaking to Practice Managers, we found that a lot of GP Surgeries did not have space to transform into a Calm Area, but still wanted to help improve the health and wellbeing of their staff. We created a new general project, where PMs were able to bid for funds to support colleagues in other innovtative ways. Some of the projects we have funded are:
- Supporting the Deepend Network, a collection of GP practices serving the most deprived communities in our region
- Yoga and relaxation therapies
- Improving staff rooms
Zero Tolerance training
Since August 2021, we have hosted many virtual Zero Tolerance training sessions for individual colleagues and full practice teams.
These intensive half-day sessions are designed to support frontline healthcare colleagues involved in any aspect of patient manegement to acquire the necessary conflict resolution skills required to safely manage patient aggresive behaviour in the workplace.
The session includes:
- Context, cause and communication of 'aggressive behaviour;
- Preparation and observation skills
- De-escelation and conflict resolution
- Building personal resilience
All delegates will receive a resource booklet after the session which will enhance their understanding and take their learning into their daily job.
You can check out our booking hub for the dates of the next training sessions, or you can email rdash.sybhwb@nhs.net if you would like to organise a full practice session.
Practice Manager Conference
In September 2021, we were invited to and sponsored the 3rd South Yorkshire Practice Managers Conference at Crowne Plaza Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield. We shared the day with approximately 100 Practice Managers from across South Yorkshire. We heard colleagues discuss the current issues that they are experiencing in primary care and what their health and wellbeing needs were. We were able to network with colleagues in primary care and present our health and wellbeing support offer; we also offered flyers and wallet-sized cards for Practice Managers to take back to their practice to place on noticeboards and staff areas. At the end of our presentation, we launched our Calm Room project. The final session of the day was a wellbeing and mindfulness exercise by Resilient Practice who we have continued to work with since the conference.
We cannot wait to go back in 2022!
