Cygnet Hospital Woking hosts Family, Friends and Caregivers Event

On Friday 3rd May 2019, Cygnet Hospital Woking and Cygnet Lodge Woking co-hosted the first of three “Family, Friends and Caregivers” events for the year. The event was organised by Paréce Bell (Carers Lead for Cygnet Hospital Woking) and Dr Charlotte Keeling (Head of Therapies).

The half day event was a great success with 17 family and friends of our service users across both sites attending. The day’s agenda covered a variety of topics delivered by internal and guest speakers, providing attendees with support, information and resources that they would find useful.

Our guest speakers were able to promote different opportunities for support and guidance available in the local community, as well as give information about agencies that families could access in their local communities. There was lots of discussion and questions throughout the day and received really positive feedback from those who were able to attend.

“A very informative and enjoyable morning.”Family member

Presentations on the day were:

  • ‘Mindful or Mind full: An overview and practice’ presented by Paréce Bell, Assistant Psychologist
  • ‘Information about Action for Carers Surrey’ by Rachel Brennan, Carers Support, Action for Carers Surrey
  • ‘Information about Corner House’ by Lynne Dossetter, Operations Manager, Cornerhouse
  • ‘Benefits of exercise on physical and mental wellbeing’ by Ryan Childs, Gym and Wellbeing instructor
  • ‘Spotlight on: Social Work’ presented by Nicola Medcalf, Head of Social Work and Safeguarding lead

As well as a variety of information leaflets, booklets, posters and brochures from Cygnet Health Care, NHS Carers Toolkit, SLAM, Action for Carers, Cornerhouse, Carers UK and many more were made available.

“The engaging in mindful or mind full was extremely beneficial and is a very useful practice that would be used and introduced to others.”Family member

A massive thank you to all the team for their hard work and support in making the day a success and a special thank you for our speakers on the day – Niki Medcalf, Ryan Childs, Rachel Brennan & Lynne Dossetter for taking time out of their busy schedules to support this forum. We look forward to our next event in the summer, which we hope will bring more families together.

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