VITAL CONNECTIONS

An initiative by HM Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser CBE and former Network Rail Chief Executive Mark Carne CBE to reduce suicide rates and improve wellbeing couldn’t have come at a better time, writes PAUL STEPHEN

On March 23, Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation to announce a near-complete lockdown of the UK in order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

Although aimed at preserving individuals’ physical health, the confinement of people to their homes and the enforcement of strict social distancing measures left many of us struggling to maintain our mental wellbeing.

While some of the social distancing measures have now been gradually eased, isolation from friends and family, the continued threat of COVID-19 and the general upheaval it has caused to our normal daily lives have all had a profound psychological impact.

Meanwhile, financial concerns and the potential or actual loss of livelihoods owing to the pandemic, as well as the recession that is certain to follow, will have compounded widespread feelings of stress, depression and anxiety.

But amid all of its ill-effects, Coronavirus has served as a powerful reminder of the need to take better care of our mental health and that of others. Social connectedness now seems more important than ever, with people placing greater value than before on face-to-face contact, and increasingly turning to technology to find alternative and innovative ways to communicate.

The pandemic has also created new outlets for people to volunteer and serve their local communities, such as through delivering food and medicines or befriending via telephone those in self-isolation.

A new appreciation has also emerged of our frontline staff and key workers for their continued hard work throughout the outbreak, sometimes at increased personal risk to themselves. This includes the army of rail staff that has helped keep vital supplies of freight and important passenger flows moving while the rest of the country has seemingly ground to a halt.

If we turn the clock back to almost exactly a year before Johnson’s announcement, mental health and wellbeing were again being placed at the top of the agenda in the rail industry.

Standing on the mezzanine level in London King’s Cross on March 27 2019, representatives from the Office of Rail and Road, Network

Rail and seven other leading organisations had gathered to launch the Million Hour Challenge.

Its premise was simple - to generate a million hours of volunteering for Samaritans during Control Period 6 (April 2019-March 2024) and to raise £ 2.5 million to support the charity’s existing and future activities.

By calling on all 300,000+ people working in the rail industry and its supply chain to take part, it was estimated that each person would have to volunteer just three hours and 20 minutes of their time over the next five years for the Million Hour Challenge to be completed.

The initiative was the brainchild of HM

Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser CBE and former NR Chief Executive Mark Carne CBE, both of whom had noticed a fairly low uptake of the five days’ volunteering leave that is offered each year to all NR employees.

Samaritans is a cause close to Prosser’s heart, given his own experience of dealing