Courses rolled out for people with Long COVID in Bradford district
The symptoms change over time and can affect any system in the body, for example feeling extremely tired, breathlessness, brain fog, difficulty sleeping, and low mood or anxiety.
The ‘Recovering from COVID’ course first ran in October 2020 as a pilot to support NHS staff and hospitalised COVID patients who self-reported as having Long COVID.
Since then, seven more courses were funded to support social, health and care staff. Participants gave excellent feedback and, on average, rated their health as significantly better than before starting the course.
'Rollercoaster'
Heather Pontefract, Consultant in Special Care Dentistry, enrolled on the course in March last year after getting COVID-19 and struggling to return to work afterwards. She explained:
My experience of COVID was like a rollercoaster. Some days were an uphill struggle with fatigue, brain fog, headaches, insomnia and issues with palpitations and blood pressure. I still have quite a few days when it is very difficult or impossible for me to work. I was looking for resources that would help support my return to work and cope with the problems I was having.”
Heather described how the ‘Recovering from COVID’ course made a difference by supporting her to manage the symptoms: “The course was run and executed really well. All the speakers were well informed on their subjects. They allowed participants to get involved too which was really important as we haven’t had other peer support from anywhere."
The seven-week course is delivered virtually by the Primary Care and Wellbeing service (PCWBS) at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCFT). This team includes a clinical psychologist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, dietitian, speech and language therapist, assistant psychologist, personal support navigator and a team administrator.
The team works closely together to look at different aspects of patients’ lives, including sleep, diet, stress, mobility, as well as social, physical and emotional demands to support their recovery. This means the team can offer tailored advice to help people understand how to manage symptoms and improve their overall health.
Courses
These courses are now being rolled out across the district so local people with Long COVID can be referred by their GP.
Dr Sari Harenwall, Principal Clinical Psychologist at the Trust and corresponding author of the report, said: “We are very excited to share the results from this study which gives us a lot of optimism for treatment of Long COVID. Although we recognise that the course will not resolve all Long COVID symptoms, it has the potential of setting people on the right path and reducing the risk of it worsening.
You can read the full report on the service on the National Library of Medicines website.
