Post-Covid Virtual Programme

What is Post-Covid Syndrome?

The World Health Organisation recognises a Post-Covid Syndrome often with different names. It describes a syndrome where some people who have had Covid-19 can have symptoms that last for weeks, or months after recovery from their acute illness. As you recover from Covid-19 you may still be experiencing the impact of the virus on both your body and mind. These changes should get better with time but there are things you can do to help! We hope this course gives you the toolkit to understand what has happened and what to expect as part of your recovery.

The virtual programme

Our eight-week virtual management programme is designed to help you in your Post-Covid recovery. The aim of the programme is to enable and empower you to self-manage and take charge of your symptoms. With the advice and guidance given during the course we hope you take away the tools to self manage. With Covid-19 being a syndrome, we are learning about each day, the symptoms being reported are varied, but we have specialists in those exact areas on board to help and advise! We have experts in all fields who will join us each week to answer any questions you have! A big thank-you to all the specialists in NHS Trusts across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Following the virtual programme, you will have the opportunity to join our peer support groups, which run fortnightly over three months. Here you have the space to discuss your recovery with peers who understand you. Together you can engage and support each other.

The eight weeks: What to expect?

Each week will consist of time watching the specially recorded video together in the group and then after a short break come together for a Q&A session with a specialist in that respective field. The week-by-week schedule is as follows:

Week 1: Fatigue (session 1) explaining what causes fatigue Post-Covid and how it can affect us, balance, and acceptance

Week 2: Fatigue (session 2) looking at activity management, stress, relaxation and the importance of sleep

Week 3: Helpful breathing strategies when recovering from Covid. Normal vs dysfunctional breathing, controlling, and retraining your breathing, visualisation and mindfulness techniques

Week 4: Managing cognitive difficulties; discussing memory, attention, and brain fog, recognising the impact on our wellbeing

Week 5: Psychological Wellbeing Service by CPFT; understanding emotional difficulties following Covid; identifying ways to improve psychological wellbeing

Week 6: Physiology of pain; understand the ways our bodies generate pain signals, chronic pain and management strategies

Week 7: Returning to activities; explaining deconditioning, setting baselines, and returning to exercise

Week 8: Post-Covid and employment. A session discussing work (sickness, reasonable adjustments). Our last session also introduces the peer support programme where you will have the chance to join your fellow peers to continue the recovery journey together!

Next steps

An administrator will be in touch with you via e-mail. The e-mail will have the information about the course, along with a short questionnaire and consent form (both Word documents). These forms need to be completed and returned by the deadline stated in the e-mail. Note: Please look out for this e-mail in junk boxes – this is a common problem our patients experience! Once you have completed and returned the forms, you will then be offered a start date for the course. Please reply promptly accepting or asking for an alternative date.

Peer support programme

The peer support team is here to manage a community space for you to come together, share your experiences and support each other along your recovery journeys. The peer support workers are here to witness, acknowledge and recognise what you are going through and support you along this journey in a way that you would like to be supported. We offer a peer-led six-week peer support group once a fortnight for three months. We are also able to offer one-to-one support around working towards goals.

Do you need to print this information?

A leaflet version of the information above is available here to print out:  Post Covid Service virtual programme June 2022.pdf 1MB