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The Listening Call, an international volunteer platform founded by the Belgian-Spanish Arsenia Corcoba Santamaria, aims to offer psychological help to healthcare professionals on the frontline of hospitals during the coronavirus crisis. Currently, hospitals often provide psychological support for their own nurses and doctors. The Listening Call wants to lighten the workload of the hospital-based psychological services, by providing free online or telephone calls to its services outside working hours and at a convenient pace for hospital staff. With a multicultural team of professional coaches, doctors and psychologists, The Listening Call offers a safe space to all healthcare providers worldwide who are in need. “To ensure the backbone of our healthcare system, we need to support healthcare professionals more than ever,” says Arsenia Corcoba Santamaria, founder of The Listening Call.
The coronavirus pandemic is demanding a lot from our healthcare professionals. Day after day, they are putting all their efforts into caring for patients suffering from the coronavirus. Many of them are working on the frontline in our hospitals and are under great pressure due to the special safety measures, long shifts, high workload and the emotional impact, which must not be underestimated. They are the ones who take care of all patients – after a doctor has made the diagnosis – and follow them up closely.
The special situation demands a lot from healthcare providers, who have to keep going 24 hours a day. However, the pressure must not become too great and we need to ensure that caregivers can maintain their personal well-being. This needs to be done in order to ensure the emotional backbone of our healthcare and to guarantee optimal care for new patients.
To lend an ear
That is why The Listening Call, a multicultural and multilingual Professional Support Team (PST) of professional volunteers such as coaches, doctors and psychologists was set up. “We want to give healthcare providers a space to vent and help them cope with the emotional burden of their work,” says Arsenia Corcoba Santamaria of The Listening Call. “They can reach us through a phone call or message and tell their story to coaches, doctors and psychologists from different parts of the world.”
Many hospitals already have a psychological platform available for their nurses, doctors, administrative services or management. “The Listening Call primarily serves as a second line of psychological support. Healthcare professionals can connect with us outside their working hours, entirely at their own pace“, emphasizes Arsenia Corcoba Santamaria. “In this way we will be supporting the psychological service of hospitals and relieving them of some of their workload.”
A global and free initiative
The Listening Call provides its support in eight different languages (English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan) and is active in seven different countries (United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Canada). That enables The Listening Call to assist as many volunteers as possible.
Healthcare professionals, working on the frontline in hospitals during the coronavirus crisis, can contact The Listening Call via their Facebook page, the hospital where they are employed or via [email protected]. An appropriate time is then sought for a call, which can be made online or over the phone and is, of course, completely free of charge. The flyer about the initiative can be found via this link.
