Cygnet’s Smoke Aware Initiative, in partnership with Venta SVS and the Collaborative Centre for Smoke Cessation, has been shortlisted for Most Impactful Project Addressing Health Inequalities. In addition, Cygnet’s StRaW and TRiM programme, which provides peer support for stress and trauma, has been shortlisted for Workforce and Wellbeing Initiative of the Year.
Despite the demanding circumstances of the past 2 years, over 190 entries have been received for this year’s HSJ Partnership Awards, with 123 projects making it to the final shortlist. The volume and standards of applications has been a true testament to those health and social care staff, who continue to push outstanding work and transformational projects across the sector.
The judging panel was once again made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community, including Dr Matt Aiello (National Programmes Lead, Education Reform, Health Education England); Dr Elena Bechberger (National Programme Director – LVHC Programme, NHS England and NHS Improvement); Claire Igoe (Head of Environmental Sustainability – Manchester University FT) and Vinice Thomas (Director of Nursing and Quality, NHS England and NHS Improvement).
Following the intense and in-depth judging process, Cygnet Health Care was shortlisted, ahead of the official awards ceremony to be held on 24th March. Standing out amongst tough competition from hundreds of other exemplary applicants, Cygnet’s initiatives have been selected based on their ambition, visionary spirit and the demonstrable positive impact that they have had on patient and staff experiences within the health and/or social care sector.
The Smoke Aware Initiative, founded by Cygnet Health Care’s Expert by Experience Team, is a lived experience-led collaboration of health & social care providers and stakeholders committed to reducing inequalities around tobacco harm through supporting meaningful smoking cessation, safe products and awareness within in-patient services. Following successful pilots at Cygnet Hospital Beckton and Cygnet Churchill in London, a bespoke e-cigarette co-designed by service users at Cygnet Health Care is being introduced as an alternative to nicotine replacement therapy across Cygnet services nationwide.
The project was developed in collaboration with service-users, the Collaborative Centre for Smoking Cessation (CCSC) and London-based vending machines specialist Venta SVS. This project is vital for tackling health inequalities as tobacco dependency is the leading cause of death for people experiencing mental distress and the inequalities are even greater for individuals within in-patient mental health services.
Raf Hamaizia, Expert by Experience lead at Cygnet Health Care said: ‘Being shortlisted as finalists for the HSJ partnership awards is testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Cygnet Health Care team on this important agenda. I would like extend the thanks and gratitude to Harrison Carnegie (Physical Health Lead) from Cygnet Churchill for initially rolling this out and passing on the baton for the Experts by Experience team to share this best practice not only within Cygnet but across the sector. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the entire Senior Management Team at Cygnet for creating an environment where meaningful co-production initiatives such as Smoke Aware can take place.’
Cygnet Health Care is also being recognised for its peer-support systems to support staff wellbeing at work, StRaW (Sustaining Resilience at Work) and TRiM (Trauma Risk Management). Recognising the complex nature of working within health and social care, Cygnet started its own in-house programmes of TRiM and StRaW, training practitioners to offer peer support to ensure staff have a separate channel of help, should they need it, focused on resilience within the workplace. They are voluntary programmes and staff can nominate themselves for the specialist training and then be available to support colleagues when required.
Barry Swire, TRiM & StRaW National Lead at Cygnet Health Care said: “I am absolutely delighted that our peer support initiatives for Cygnet staff have been shortlisted. The past two years have been the toughest we have ever experienced across health and social care. Our teams have shown enormous resilience and dedication to consistently provide high quality care to keep our service users safe. I am immensely proud that they also voluntarily step-up to support each other through challenging times. They exemplify the very best of a caring workforce that puts wellbeing at the heart of what we do each and every day.”
The full list of nominees for the HSJ Partnership Awards 2022 can be found on https://partnership.hsj.co.uk/finalists-2022
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Westminster Park Plaza, London on March 24th 2022.