Keep well, one step at a time: don’t just travel in your mind

I don’t do running, but many people do. In fact, a UK government survey published earlier this year, found that nearly 7 million people went running at least twice a month. In this house, my wife J runs 5km at least three times during the week and 10km at the weekends. She has all the kit, and music buds in, off she goes, coming back full of vim and vigour and set up for her day.

I walk. Walking gives me time to think. Most of my blog ideas start to form and get developed while I’m out walking.  These days I average 30-40 walking miles a week. However, I was once a very keen long-distance walker, particularly around coastlines. I have walked around the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man, but my most favourite long walk was the Coast to Coast. It is just under 300km and passes through three contrasting National Parks: The Lake District; Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. As part of supporting #NHS1000miles my aim this year was to walk 2020 miles. As of yesterday, I have walked 2066 miles. I walk for the same reasons J runs. It’s for my well-being and to help keep me fit, both mentally and physically.

There are many health benefits from walking on a regular basis It’s free and can be done at any time of the day or night, and it takes less than an hour a day to walk just 2.74 miles. Do this every day for a year and you will have walked 1000.1 miles. This will go a long way to reduce your risk of diabetes, stroke, obesity, heart attack and depression. It will also help improve your sex life, and of course add years to your life.

During the pandemic many more people took up running, walking or cycling. It was easier to do then as well. We had sunshine, long days and there was a sense we were all in this together. All of which now seem a distant memory. As we come out of the second lockdown, but not the pandemic, the days are colder, shorter and dark. Already many people are commuting at both ends of the day in the dark, and perhaps not seeing the daylight properly until their day off. As Winter draws closer, people might find it increasingly difficult to find the time and even the motivation to continue to exercise on a regular basis.

Yet now is the time we should try to find ways of exercising regularly. You didn’t need to be a psychic to have predicted the pandemic would impact upon people’s mental health. The first lockdown brought into sharp focus the impact of social isolation and loneliness, the fear of becoming ill, the disruption in many of our familiar routines and ways of living. As the pandemic has continued, economic insecurity and the loss of loved ones have added to the stress and anxiety lots of people have experienced. Against this background, it is not surprising that individuals become disorientated, unable to make sense of what is happening and experience a sense of loss without there actually being a bereavement. Sadly, young people and young adults in particular appear to be most impacted by this sense of grief.

What is true for the general population is also reflected in the experience of an increasing number of health and social care workers. When the first waves of the pandemic struck and the first lockdown was imposed, there was a definite sense of camaraderie and whilst there were many problems with PPE, testing and so on, there was a determination to get through the worse of it. A&E departments were largely quiet, and much elective work ceased. Whilst people were redeployed to help in critical care services, generally staff were willing to do so. Much has been done in the short term to help with peoples mental and health and wellbeing (I have heard from a number of different sources that strangely free car parking was a real winner for many staff).

Over time, the relentless cycle of the pandemic has left colleagues exhausted, demoralised and struggling with their own mental health problems. Our A&E departments are back to pre-pandemic levels of demand, the unintended consequence of renewed redeployment has left many members of staff feeling their own roles are not valued, stress-related referrals have gone up and staff absences have hit unprecedented highs. Of course, we still have the ‘usual’ Winter pressures to contend with. And I haven’t even mentioned the huge distraction the command and control folk’s constant demand for data and the impact such political scrutiny has had on leaders and managers morale.

The long term impact is yet to emerge. Just as the physical and mental health consequences of long-Covid are beginning to be understood, I suspect we will need to look at the longer term impact on the mental health and wellbeing of those staff exposed to so much loss and who have worked in such challenging professional environments. Ensuring that the wellbeing of staff in both the short and long term is addressed is something dear to my heart. I have been appointed the Board Staff Wellbeing Guardian at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, and last week I met Lee Barnes, Head of Staff Wellbeing at both Blackpool and East Lancashire Hospitals. We had much in common not least of which was a strong desire to see the NHS Staff Wellbeing Guardian Principles positively upheld. It will be an exciting journey, and like my daily walks will start with that first step, and one step at a time I’m confident we will get there.