Recovery and Renewal Days

The Recovery and Renewal Days grew out of the previous staff retreats, and were initially designed to help people respond to the COVID-19 crisis and keep well during self-isolation. They have developed into a staff resource for wellbeing, to provide a time for reflection and replenishment.

Recovery and Renewal days for Oxford Health Staff

Introduction

For a number of years the Oxford Health Department of Spiritual & Pastoral Care ran a series of well-received staff retreats.  These retreats have been developed into Recovery and Renewal Days.

The days are FREE and are facilitated in such a way that staff groups are able to develop resources for self-compassion and self-awareness. The emphasis of each day is the development of psycho-social and psycho-spiritual wellbeing. The days are open to ALL staff whatever their faith, belief or philosophy of life.

Aim of each day

The aim is to create a gentle, nurturing environment in which participants can find the support needed in order to replenish themselves.  By the end of each day participants will:

• Understand the importance of work/life balance for health and wellbeing;
• Be introduced to strategies for caring for self (and why this matters);
• Know how to find sources of support and how to make changes;
• Develop understandings of the roles we play e.g. partner, sibling, parent, carer and how they relate to who we are;
• Consider gender and race and the influence of historical and present-day understandings of power within the helping professions;
• Discuss some possible psycho-spiritual tools for living e.g. meditation, mindfulness and understandings of the natural world;
• Consider ways in which their learning will influence the care of patients

Criteria for attendance

Staff attending need:

• The permission of their manager to attend;
• Be able to attend in work time or whilst off sick;
• Be the only person attending from their team;
• Be prepared to attend for the whole time;
• Be prepared to have an individual conversation with a facilitator beforehand;
• Be sufficiently well to benefit from 2 days away;
• Give a brief statement as to why they think they would benefit from a retreat; *
• Be prepared to complete a short pre- and post-attendance questionnaire; **

In addition, where possible we try to represent all clinical, corporate and geographical areas with a mixture of banding.

*We request that applicants be as open as possible as to why they feel they would benefit from attending. 

** As part of the NHSE/I funded LiSHoRe project funds have been made available to evaluate the series of days with the hope of developing a model that can be used by others within health and social care.  Participant information, including feedback on the day will be anonymised and used to write up a detailed evaluation.

Options

1. Option 1: 24 hours. Overnight accommodation in single en-suite rooms (including the option of using 2 rooms that have been adapted for disabled users) with all meals and refreshments provided.
2. Option 2: 10am – 4.30pm. Lunch and refreshments included

Booking

For dates and details of how to book please see the Recovery and Renewal Day booking form staff intranet OR contact spiritual.care@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk The allocation of places will take place approximately 14 days before the date or each day is due to take place.

Facilitators

Facilitators include:

• Guy Harrison
• Sally Horner
• Rainah Madzorera
• Andrew Williams

Venue

Charney Manor Quaker retreat and conference centre, the centre piece of which is a stunning 13^th century manor house in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside between Wantage and Oxford. Please see www.charneymanor.com