Many weeks of hard work and dedication by the service users and staff went into preparing for the big event. The services users across the acute, older adult and learning disability wards worked with the Occupational Therapy team to plan, construct and sell items for the Christmas Fayre. Some of these included edible gifts, tree decorations, Christmas cards, sausage rolls and mince pies.
The day was cold, but this was quickly remedied by some non-alcoholic mulled wine or marshmallow and whipped cream infused hot chocolate. The buzz of the tombola stall and the crafted sweet station also assisted in keeping the cold out.
Participation in the planning as well as attending the Christmas Fayre, was able to meet several therapeutic goals of the service users such as promoting deinstitutionalisation, engagement in productivity tasks and engagement in leisure and social participation.
The day was a great success and was enjoyed by all with one attendee commenting that the event succeeded in “truly encapsulating the Cygnet Values.”