Maximising the Health and Wellbeing of the Midwifery Workforce: With Wellness Recovery Action Planning

Abstract

In this piece, the authors describe and discuss the impact of a practice development initiative with a cohort of midwives working in two of five health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland. This initiative involved the rolling out of ‘Wellness recovery action planning’ (or WRAP) awareness workshops. Six separate sessions were delivered to 100 midwives working within the Western and Belfast Health and Social Care Trusts. Feedback from participants revealed some intriguing insights but, in particular, that caring for others in the context of health and social care starts with effective care of the self. The authors conclude that with the apparent success of this initiative, similar WRAP awareness sessions and perhaps even more formalised WRAP groups could be offered to other staff groups, including midwifery support workers and beyond.