Musgrove Park Hospital

The hospital has signed up to the national Charter for Employers who are Positive About Mental Health. The charter is part of the Mindful Employer initiative, which aims to improve awareness of mental health in the workplace and supports organisations to recruit and retain staff. It means staff at Musgrove who experience stress, anxiety, depression or other mental health conditions will be given the support they need by hospital management and will also be able to access a range of additional practical and emotional support from the Mindful Employer website. Dr Sam Barrell, chief executive at Musgrove Park Hospital, said: "It is our staff who make Musgrove the caring hospital it is, and this was recognised by the Care Quality Commission, which recently rated our care as 'Outstanding'. "But we know that one in four people experience mental illness at some point in their lives, including loneliness and isolation, and this is likely to affect some of our staff, particularly when dealing with emotional situations at work. "We recognise that working in the NHS can be a very pressured environment, particularly in the position it is currently in with increasing numbers of very unwell patients needing greater levels of care, coupled with unprecedented financial pressures. "That is why we have a number of measures in place and are increasing our support to colleagues to ensure that get the help they need, when they need it, and are also making a public commitment to see that through." Mindful Employer is a national initiative run by Workways, part of Devon Partnership NHS Trust. For more information, go to www.mindfulemployer.net .