Coping with COVID podcast

Coping with COVID podcast

By Dr Helen West and Dr Suzi Gage, Department of Psychology, University of LiverpoolEducation
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Coping with COVID podcast episodes

  • 28: Revisiting resilience: Chronicity and the four pillars of resilience

    In this episode, Helen is joined by Professor Laurence Alison and Emily Alison, to revisit the topic of resilience (episode 2). We talk about the four pillars of resilience: health, purpose, joy and feedback, and think about strategies to help us keep going after months of challenges and uncertainty.

    More information about resilience and stress, including the content by Colonel Steve Kleinman, can be found on the Project ARES website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/project-ares/

    To find out more about resilience, this is a link to an article exploring these concepts: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4185134/

    We’d like the podcast to respond to the challenges you’re facing, so please get in touch with your questions and concerns at [email protected]

    25 min
  • 27: Student experiences: Luke
    In this episode, Helen is joined by Luke, a junior doctor who worked as a sub-FY1 in the NHS at the end of his final year of medical school. We talked about what it’s been like, the things that have helped him to cope, and the importance of looking out for each other.
    If you’re a medical, nursing or AHP student, and you’d like to talk on the podcast about your experiences of working or studying during the COVID-19 pandemic, please get in touch with us. Contact us at: [email protected]
    If you need support, here are a few of our recommendations:
    School of Medicine Wellbeing Team (for medical students at the University of Liverpool) [email protected]
    University of Liverpool Student Support Services (for nursing, allied health and other students at the University of Liverpool) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/studentsupport/
    Employee Assistance Programme (for staff at the University of Liverpool) https://staff.liverpool.ac.uk/our-workplace-and-community/support-and-development/employee-assistance-programme/)
    NHS Staff Support Line https://people.nhs.uk/help/
    Samaritans free phoneline: 116 123  [email protected] www.samaritans.org
    22 min
  • 26: Engaging with news media
    In this episode Suzi speaks to Tom West, head of operations in one of the University’s institutes, about how he changed how he consumed news, after finding it was impacting on his mental health. This includes an exploration of the evidence around how news can affect us, strategies he found worked for him, and how the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with these.
    Some useful links:
    Here’s the initial findings from the UCL study Tom mentions
    “Increased time spent on following news about COVID 19 predicted declines in mental health and wellbeing”
    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.18.20177345v1
    Which is taken from a whole amazing longitudinal research study, with regular reports on the data along the way: https://www.covidsocialstudy.org/
    A couple of articles on why we tend to view the current state of the world more negatively, but view the past through a positive bias, which makes us feel that everything is getting worse, and the role the news plays in this dynamic.
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/why-2020-feels-like-the-worst-year-ever/
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/201909/how-negative-news-distorts-our-thinking
    Also, for people who are trying to engage critically with the news in an age of relentless conspiracy theories https://www.snopes.com/ is an excellent fact checking website. It’s quite heavily US-orientated, but it’s a great way to very quickly check whether a wild claim is true, and undertakes some excellent analysis of the origin and spread of certain conspiracy theories (https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/10/15/film-your-hospital-the-anatomy-of-a-covid-19-conspiracy-theory/)
    24 min
  • 25: Podcast reflections and news
    Suzi and Helen look back on the highlights and challenges of starting a podcast in a pandemic. Find out why we created the podcast, what we’ve learnt, our plans for the future, and how this podcast has helped our mental health.
    We love hearing your feedback, ideas and questions: our email address is [email protected]
    19 min
  • 24: “What I wish I’d known when I started medical school”
    Medical students and graduates share what they wish someone had told them when they started medical school. We’ve made this episode particularly for the first-year medics starting University during COVID restrictions, but I think it’s useful for us all to reflect on what we’ve learnt about looking after our mental health.
    Thank you so much to everyone who sent in audio clips for this episode. Also, Dr Luke Flain for finding contributors, and Dr Suzi Gage for editing.
    If you’d like to get in touch, our email address is [email protected]
    If you need support, here are a few of our recommendations:
    School of Medicine Wellbeing Team (for medical students at the University of Liverpool) [email protected]
    University of Liverpool Student Support Services (for nursing, allied health and other students at the University of Liverpool) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/studentsupport/
    NHS Staff Support Line https://people.nhs.uk/help/
    Samaritans free phoneline: 116 123 [email protected] www.samaritans.org
    19 min
  • 23: NHS staff experiences: Dr Richard Latten
    In this episode, Helen is joined by Dr Richard Latten, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Deputy Director of the Wellbeing Team at the University of Liverpool School of Medicine. Richard talks about his experiences working clinically during COVID-19, including uncertainty, the different phases of the pandemic, and a request from a patient.
    If you’d like to get in touch, our email address is [email protected], we’d love to hear your feedback.
    The BPS briefing paper on psychological responses in healthcare staff during different phases of the pandemic is available here: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/psychological-needs-healthcare-staff-result-coronavirus-pandemic
    24 min
  • 22: Mindfulness
    In this episode Helen is joined by Dr Julie Hanna, Director of Studies for the Occupational Therapy programme at the University of Liverpool.
    Julie talks about what mindfulness is, how it can be incorporated into your life, and why it could be particularly useful to students at the moment.
    The episode also includes a guided mindfulness meditation to try.
    References & resources mentioned in this episode: Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990, 2013) Full Catastrophe Living. London: Piatkus. Morgan, P., Simpson, J., & Smith, A. (2014).
    Health Care Workers’ Experiences of Mindfulness Training: a Qualitative Review. Mindfulness, 1-15, doi:10.1007/s12671-014-0313-3. Poys, W. T. M., Meulenbeek, P. A. M., Veehof, M. M. Klungers, J. and Bohlmeijer, E. T. (2014)
    The efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy as a Public Mental health Intervention for Adults with Mild to Moderate Depressive Symptomatology: A Randomized Controlled Trial. PloS ONE, 9 (10), 1-12 Using handwashing as a prompt for mindfulness: https://www.tenpercent.com/meditationweeklyblog/meditation-and-coronavirus
    The Headspace App: https://www.headspace.com/
    Julie also recommends: Williams, M. and Penman, D. (2011) Mindfulness, a Practical Guide to Finding Mindfulness in a Frantic World. London: Hachette Digital Wax, R. (2016)
    A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled http://mindfulnessforstudents.co.uk/resources/mindfulness-resources-for-students/
    http://franticworld.com/ https://www.oxfordmindfulness.org/
    27 min
  • 21: COVID conspiracy theories
    In this episode Suzi is joined by junior doctor and comedian Matthew Hutchinson to talk about conspiracy theories around covid, and healthcare more generally. Matt provides great insight in to why people might hold these conspiracy theories, and also offers advice on when and how to challenge them, and when it's better not to engage.
    Here are some links:
    I love this clip from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - offers some research and some great advice at the end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b_eHBZLM6U
    Here’s a brief summary of common conspiracy theory belief structure - https://www.lse.ac.uk/PBS/Research/Research-archive/The-conspiratorial-worldview
    Article on speaking to conspiracy theorists - https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/15/1004950/how-to-talk-to-conspiracy-theorists-and-still-be-kind/
    16 min
  • 20: Ethics of Care
    Helen is joined by Dr Teodora Manea Hauskeller, Lecturer in Clinical Ethics at the School of Medicine, University of Liverpool. They talk about the ethics of care during the pandemic, and how themes in the student experience episodes (5, 8, 11, 15 & 16) illustrate these concepts: considering the effects of PPE, visiting restrictions, and technology through a lens of medical ethics and philosophy.
    Mentioned in this episode:
    M. Barnes, Care in Everyday Life. An ethic of care in practice, Bristol: Policy Press, 2012.
    R. Barthes, Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography, tr., R. Howard, London: Vintage Books, 2000.
    B. Fisher, J.C. Tronto, ‘Toward a Feminist Theory of Caring’, in Circles of Care, (E.K. Abel, M. Nelson (eds), Albany: SUNY Press, 1990.
    A. Giddens, Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
    M. Heidegger, Being and Time, Oxford: Blackwell, 1967.
    V. Held, The Ethics of Care. Personal, Political and Global (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
    E. Levinas, Ethics and Infinity, tr. R. Cohen, R.A. Cohen, Duquesne University Press, 1985.
    J.C. Tronto, Moral Boundaries. A politic argument for an ethic of care, London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
    * For Hundertwasser ‘skins’ see: https://hundertwasser.com/en/applied-art/apa382_mens_five_skins_1975
    The new School of Medicine Ethics modules: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/medicine/study-with-us/cpd/courses-and-modules/appliedethicsforclinicalpracticei/
    30 min
  • 19: Moral Distress
    Suzi is joined by Vicky Thornton, who is the Head of Nursing at the University of Liverpool, to talk about moral distress and moral injury – two related concepts whereby a person feels unable to act in a way that aligns with their morals due to circumstances beyond their control - and the pressure or strain this can place on a person, as well as providing advice as to how to manage such feelings.
    Some recommended reading for people who want to know more:
    Moral Injury in Times of COVID-19 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42843-020-00011-4
    Occupational Medicine editorial about covid and moral injury https://academic.oup.com/occmed/article/70/5/317/5814939
    BMC Medical Ethics article about covid and conflicting ethics advice https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-020-00491-5
    Special issue on moral injury in the Journal of Traumatic Stress https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jts.22405
    An article about covid and mental health impacts https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/inm.12726
    25 min

About Coping with COVID podcast

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A podcast for medical, nursing and allied health students focusing on practical ways to look after your mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic