West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub has trialled a mental health and wellbeing app that is already in use widely across the country. The app aims to support NHS midwives, nurses and healthcare support workers with their mental wellbeing.
The ShinyMinds app has been developed by the NHS specifically for the NHS and has been co-produced with NHS employees and clinicians with the long-term goal of making it free for all NHS staff by 2024. The Hub conducted a trial of the app with a cohort of staff to understand how it could potentially be used and promoted locally.
As part of the Hub's pilot, 37 volunteers took part in the trial including representatives from Yorkshire Ambulance Service, local authority, and healthcare professionals. Following the trial, 18 of the volunteers provided feedback on their experience of using the app.
From this feedback, 61% of people agreed or somewhat agreed that the app helped to gain insight that will help to meet the needs of patients and clients. A total of 94% of responses expressed that they would recommend the ShinyMinds app to their colleagues. 94% of peoploe also agreed that the app was a worthwhile investment of time and energy. Some staff - nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants can access the app for no cost, for everyone else working in the NHS, it is £1 per year for a licence with all of this going back into further development of the app.
Anonymous feedback concluded that the "inspirational messages were useful as a snapshot pick-me-up or thinking point."
Another anonymous participant said: "I would love access to the app now that the trial has finished, as with being an admin manager, it was extremely useful and sometimes we can be forgotten as a lot of apps are advertised for clinical staff. Hopefully I will be able to use the app again in the future."
