Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mental health support he has put in place for people working in the care sector responding to increased numbers of people dying as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

This is clearly a very challenging time for our frontline workers. The Government wants everybody working in social care to feel like they have somewhere to turn, or someone to talk to, when they are finding things difficult.

‘Our Frontline’ has recently been launched, a collaboration between Samaritans, Shout, Hospice UK and Mind to provide information, emotional support and access to a crisis text service for those working on the frontline, including in social care.

Later this month we will also be introducing a website and app aimed at providing timely information for the social care workforce. It will include resources dedicated to help individuals and their teams manage in this new situation, understand what they might need to be doing differently to support each other, and pay attention to their mental and physical wellbeing.