• GP: If you need support with your mental health please speak to your GP

• Trust helpline: for urgent support contact your mental health Trust helpline:

  • Northamptonshire: https://www.nhft.nhs.uk/mentalhealth-number

  • Lincolnshire: https://www.lpft.nhs.uk/contact-us/need-help-now

  • Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland: https://www.leicspart.nhs.uk/contact/urgent-help/

  • Derbyshire: https://www.derbyshirehealthcareft.nhs.uk/getting-help/help-mental-healt...

  • Nottinghamshire: https://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/help-in-a-crisis

• NHS Health Education England Learner Health and Wellbeing: various practical resources to provider trainees and learners with information and tools to improve their own health and wellbeing

• NHS Staff Support line: a free helpline is available to all NHS staff in England. Trained professionals can give you advice on coaching, bereavement care, mental health and financial help. Support via text is also available to doctors any time of day.

• Samaritans: a service that is available from 7am to 11pm, 7 days a week. Call 0800 069 6222 or text FRONTLINE to 85258 for support 24/7 via text

• Mental Health hubs: suitable if you wish to explore talking therapies. See https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/t...

• Wellbeing apps: NHS staff have free access to a range of suitable apps available here

• Wellbing guides: working with a team of experts the NHS has developed a range of short guides to help support medical professionals with improving their experience of work. The guides cover topics such as getting a good night of sleep, personal resilience, support for line managers, guidance on how to be a compassionate leader during a bereavement and tips on how to run your own 10 minute Pause Space

• Invictus Games Foundation Partnership: a series of podcasts that reflect on a variety of themes and a “5K our way” challenge, designed to help inspire and support our NHS people to step away from work and take time for themselves.

• More on Wellbeing: https://www.england.nhs.uk/supporting-our-nhs-people/wellbeing-support-o...

• Your Wellbeing due to the Covid-19 pandemic: https://www.eastmidlandsdeanery.nhs.uk/trainee/psw/your-wellbeing-throug...

• Vita Health Group, in partnership with the NHS, provide mental health services to local residents in various districts throughout the UK: https://www.vitahealthgroup.co.uk/

• St Helens and Knowsley are the primary employer for GP doctors in training and also provide wellbeing support via their wellbeing hub on the website: https://leademployer.sthk.nhs.uk/health-work-and-wellbeing

• Doctors in Distress promote and protect mental health of healthcare workers https://doctors-in-distress.org.uk/ and Doctors in Distress Events | Eventbrite

• East Midlands Gambling Harms Service offer specialist treatment and support to people struggling with problem gambling East Midlands Gambling Harms Service

• #Lookingafteryoutoo (BAME): offers one-to-one wellbeing coaching support for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff working in NHS and ambulance trusts through COVID-19 and beyond. This individually tailored coaching support will focus on proactively supporting you to process experiences, offload the demands of whatever you are experiencing, deal with difficult conversations, develop coping skills and be supported in developing practical strategies. Talking to a trained coach will help develop practical strategies to manage the situation and maintain your health and wellbeing, so you can carry on with your work and your life, ensuring your wellbeing and resilience remains a priority. All coaching sessions are free and confidential – details will never be shared with employers. All coaching sessions are available via phone or video call, seven days a week at a day and time that suits you. To book your first coaching session please click here. You can manage existing sessions or bookings here.
• #Lookingafteryoutoo (Primary care): offers coaching support for our primary care colleagues (including those working in both clinical and non-clinical roles across general practice, dental, optometry and pharmacy services) who have faced unprecedented challenges throughout the pandemic. The coaching offers a safe space to offload the demands of whatever you are experiencing and be supported in developing practical coping strategies. It might be that through a one-off conversation you are better able to cope with your situation and stay well, or you might find a few sessions helpful. You can find out more here.

• General Medical Council: the GMC have an extensive list of support agencies on their website to give guidance for doctors under investigation. These support services are general and not confined to those undergoing investigation.
• MPTS: appearing before a tribunal can be daunting and the MPTS Doctor Contact Service is available to any doctor on the day of a hearing, and is particularly aimed at those attending alone or without legal representation.A member of MPTS staff unconnected to your case will be available to talk to on the day of your hearing to help lessen the isolation and stress that you might feel, signpost useful support material and services, and talk you through the hearing process.
• British Medical Association: the BMA is the trade union and professional body for doctors in the UK. They provide advisory services for doctors, including those suffering with health related concerns. Your Wellbeing gives links to organisations, services and websites which offer help with addiction or mental health concerns. You can also access the following, free of charge, without being a member of the BMA:
  • BMA Doctor Support Service: the BMA runs this service on behalf of the GMC to offer emotional help to doctors under investigation. Call: 020 7383 6707 or email: doctorsupportservice@bma.org.uk
  • BMA Counselling: this service provides constructive advice and support. Call: 0330 123 1245 (open 24 hours a day, seven days a week)
  • BMA Peer Support: this service gives you an opportunity to speak in confidence to another doctor. Call 0330 123 1245 and ask to speak to a doctor adviser.
• NHS Practitioner Performance Advice (formerly the National Clinical Assessment Service, NCAS): this service works to resolve concerns about the practice of doctors, dentists and pharmacists by providing case management services to health care organisations and to individual practitioners. Call: 020 7811 2600
• Medical Defence Union (MDU): call 0800 716 646 or email: advisory@themdu.com
• Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS): call 0333 043 4444 or email advice@mddus.com
• Medical Protection Society (MPS): call 0800 5619 090 or email querydoc@medicalprotection.org - the MPS also provide members access to counselling for stress as a result of receiving and dealing with complaints, clinical negligence claims, disciplinary matters, and other medicolegal issues. Just contact your medicolegal case handler, or email info@mps.org.uk

Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) is a nationally driven initiative to support trainees to safely and confidently return to training following a period of sustained absence.  It applies to trainees who have been out of training for a period of 3 months or more for example due to: a gap in training, parental leave, sick leave/phased return or OOP (Out of Programme).  The SuppoRTT team provide full and impartial advice and will signpost opportunities available regionally and nationally.

Click here to find out what is on offer and how you can access the scheme.

• BMA Charities: access to two charities which help all doctors and their dependants, and medical students in times of financial crisis
• British Doctors’ and Dentists’ Group: a mutual/self-help group of doctors and dentists who are recovering, or wish to recover, from addiction/dependency on alcohol and/or other drugs
• British Doctors’ and Dentists’ Families’ Group: an independent self-help group which offers help, support and recovery for all family members who are suffering, or have suffered, from the effects of a doctor’s or dentist’s alcohol or drug addiction
• British International Doctors’ Association: works to achieve equal treatment of all doctors and dentists working in the UK based on their competence and merit irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, country of origin or school or graduation
• The Cameron Fund: a medical benevolent fund that supports current and retired GPs, as well as their families, in times of financial distress, whether through ill-health, disability, death or loss of employment
• Dentists’ Health Support Trust: a registered charity with a national network of advisers providing dental professionals with free support and advice on health, alcohol and drugs issues
• Dochealth: a confidential, not for profit, psychotherapeutic consultation service for all doctors, helping them to explore professional and personal difficulties with senior clinicians (fee payable for doctors using the service)
• Doctors Support Network: an independent, confidential, peer-support network for doctors and medical students with concerns about their mental health. Offers an online, confidential, anonymous support forum. Aims to improve wellbeing of doctors by safely connecting them with other medics with similar concerns
• HOPE for disabled doctors: help and support for doctors with a disability or chronic illness
• Medic Support: a confidential service that provides support to medical students and doctors who have been identified as having issues relating to performance or health
• Medical Council on Alcohol (MCA): an independent charity of health professionals from all medical specialties, dedicated to improving the understanding and management of alcohol-related health harm. Its activities include working with healthcare professionals to increase their understanding of the risks associated with their own alcohol consumption and of the measures to address these
• Pharmacist Support: independent charity working for pharmacists, their families and former pharmacists and pharmacy students to provide help and support in times of need. Services include: wellbeing service; listening friends confidential helpline; financial assistance; specialist advice in the areas of debt, benefit and employment law and an addiction support programme
• Royal Medical Benevolent Fund: a charity for doctors, medical students and their families, providing financial support, money advice and information when it is most needed due to age, ill health, disability or bereavement. Provides support for doctors and their families through all stages of their career and beyond
• Sick Doctors Trust: independent organisation providing support and help for doctors, dentists and medical students who are concerned about their use of alcohol or drugs
• UK Health Professionals with Hearing Loss: support for deaf and hard of hearing health professionals
• Welcome Back to Work: a network providing support and resources to GPs looking to return to work after an absence of less than 2 years

• The documents available here have been written to provide guidance for those tragic occasions when doctors in training have died unexpectedly. The documents deal with a particularly difficult set of issues and very difficult circumstances aimed to support Postgraduate Deans and their teams to respond promptly, comprehensively and appropriately in these circumstances.
• NHS Education for Scotland - A range of training materials inluding animated short films are available at Support Around Death Scotland | Support Around Death
• A package of learning and refelctive resources for medical and dental education teams across the UK to help people feel more confident in responding to a sudden death - Home | Turas | Learn

In the first instance, we encourage you to speak with your Educational Supervisor about career related issues. 

However, if you are considering a move away from Medicine or are unsure of which specialty to choose and need more advice, NHSE has a dedicated careers team who can help in the following ways:

• Working with individuals
• Career workshops for small groups
• Web and VLE resources
• Foundation School and Specialty School events and workshops

Click here for the careers self-referral form, once completed a member of the Careers team will be in touch to discuss your circumstances.