The National Service User Awards are designed to celebrate service user led initiatives in inpatient mental health services across the country and service users involved in the shortlisted projects are invited to a black tie gala awards ceremony, where the winners will be announced.
Two projects from Cygnet Hospital Bierley have been shortlisted:
Make Them Smile Project – Nominated in the Outstanding Service User Involvement Award category
HM (Service User, Bowling Ward) created some fantastic bracelets that were sold within the hospital, and at Bierley’s annual music festival with proceeds donated to Make Them Smile, a charity striving to help children with differing life hindering illnesses. Of being nominated for an award, HM said “It’s really nice to be nominated, I’m really looking forward to attending.”
“An End to Stigma” short film – Nominated in the Breaking Down Barriers category for projects designed to tackle stigma.
This project was born out of a Multi-media course at Cygnet Hospital Bierley’s Recovery College. The project enabled service users to tell their story, as well as applying their skills to film production, and editing. About the film, DS (Service User, Bowling Ward) stated, “The film helped me to see that stigma is everywhere, and comes in many forms. It was, and still is, time to challenge stigma. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to attend the NSUA to represent it!”
Click here for details of the film.
Cygnet Hospital Derby has four projects in the final:
Curry Club – Nominated in the Community, Social and Vocational initiatives category
Peter developed a curry club where he shares his skills and knowledge of spices and flavor combinations, teaching a group of service users to cook curries from scratch, which everyone on the ward then eats together. Peter said about the Curry Club Project: “Cooking makes me happy and I want to share this with others… it has helped me improve my communication skills and confidence in teaching others. I have never been nominated for a prize before and I feel proud, happy and honoured.”
Co-produced risk assessment – Nominated in the Health and Wellbeing award category
A group of service users on Wyvern ward co-produced easy to follow traffic light access systems for internet and smart phone access on the ward. This approach was different because everyone starts on green unless there is a specific risk identified, instead of starting on red and having to earn access. The search policy was also reviewed and a new system developed again in a traffic light format, allowing different search levels for different types of leave. Service users involved in developing the new systems said, “It’s working really well on the ward and initial feedback from service users is that it makes us feel trusted.”
Learning to Live with Aspergers Syndrome – Nominated in the Outstanding Service User Involvement award category
Paul works in the Recovery College at Cygnet Hospital Derby and feels that things would have been very different for him had people had more understanding of Asperger’s Syndrome during his earlier years. He is passionate about educating people about Asperger’s and how to work with people with this diagnosis in the most positive way. The course he’s developed has since been delivered at a number of Recovery Colleges including Rampton, Cygnet Hospital Clifton and at the East Midlands Recovery and Outcomes Group.
Autism from a Carers Point of View – Nominated in the Health and Wellbeing award category
Ricky, who has been nominated for this project says “I am really passionate about changing attitudes and reducing ignorance of autism. I was inspired by Paul’s Learning to Live with Asperger’s Syndrome Course and felt it was important for people to know what it is like from a parents point of view. I am proud that someone noticed my work and hope this award creates some more awareness. If I were to win this award I would dedicate it to my daughter.”
Cygnet Health Care would like to congratulate all the service users nominated for the above projects and wish them every success for the final! The awards ceremony is to be held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry on 12th April 2018.