Fighting sickness absence on the NHS frontline

The mental load

Frontline NHS work asks a lot of the mind. You’re dealing with pressure and emotion on a scale most people never experience, then expected to reset like it never happened and do it all again next shift. There’s very little space to process what you’ve just seen before you’re thrown straight into the next situation. 

Even the most resilient people can crumble under that weight over time. So if support’s hard to access or reserved for moments of absolute crisis, most people take the stoic route and simply crack on instead – trying to cope until they can’t anymore. That’s when mental strain turns into sickness absence, with people needing time off to recover. 

Mental wellbeing support should just be there, easy to get to and treated like a normal part of working life. That only really works when mental health itself is normalised in NHS workplaces, with no shame or stigma, so people feel comfortable reaching out and managers know what to look for when someone’s struggling.  

Talking about your mental health at work should feel as ordinary as talking about the weather, which, let’s be honest, we bloody love doing in this country.

The physical strain

NHS work puts a real physical strain on people, and most of the time it’s just accepted as part of the deal. The hours are long and gruelling, and before you know it you’re back on shift before your body’s had a proper chance to recover.

You can push through for a while, like most NHS workers do. But as Dutch psychiatrist and author Bessel van der Kolk explores in his work, the body keeps the score.

When people can look after their bodies, get medical help fast and early – before little health problems turn into big ones – and come back when they’re ready, it gives them a much better chance of staying well and staying in work. 

The financial stress

Money worries are part of everyday life for a lot of NHS staff. With living costs climbing and pay not always going as far as it needs to, lots of people feel pressure to pick up extra shifts just to stay on top of things. 

That stress spills into the rest of life pretty quickly. It can keep you up at night, make it harder to stay focused and leave people feeling like calling in sick is the only way to get some headspace. A lot of the time, money worries can feel like chucking a few more bricks into a backpack that’s already full of them. 

Things like financial education, help with managing debt and savings on everyday essentials can ease some of that pressure and, soon enough, take a few bricks out of that backpack.

One NHS, many different realities

In the NHS, pressure tends to come from different directions at once, so support that only keys into one area means people are still dealing with the rest on their own. Vital team members can end up taking longer periods of sickness absence because the support around them doesn’t line up with what they’re facing in real life.

Looking after NHS staff properly means recognising how these pressures overlap and putting support in place that covers the whole picture – all while staying relevant to what people are dealing with day to day.

And while we’re on the subject of real-life support, it’s worth remembering just how mixed the NHS workforce is. In many teams, up to five generations are working side by side. A 22-year-old healthcare assistant could be supporting a 60-year-old consultant on the same shift. People are at completely different stages of life, facing very different challenges, from rising living costs through to caring responsibilities and long-term health issues. 

Support has to flex with that. It needs to work for people starting out, people juggling family life, and people who’ve been doing the job for decades. One-size-fits-all doesn’t reflect the reality of the NHS, and it never really has.

Support for the everyday – and the hard days

Employee benefits can help pull all that support into one place, so it’s easier for people to find what they need whenever they need it.

Sometimes that’s as simple as whipping out your phone at the supermarket and getting a decent discount on the weekly shop, and sometimes it’s access to expert mental health support when you’re going through a tough patch.

Having that range of support in one place means it’s there for the everyday stuff as well as the moments that matter more. It can also make a difference to how quickly people get back on their feet, rather than needing longer stretches away from work.

This is what Perkbox is built for. We help organisations bring employee wellbeing, benefits and engagement together in one place, making support more accessible for frontline teams and easier to offer at scale. 

It’s all part of looking after the people who spend their working lives looking after the rest of us. The same people who handled my appendicitis with total professionalism while I was, thanks to the morphine, not quite on the same wavelength.