In this issue:
- Welcome from Melanie Walker
- Mental health support for schools
- Spotlight on ...The Junipers
- Strengthened by Storms book launched
- TALKWORKS launches free mental health workshops for organisations
- New audio guide to Royal Albert Memorial Museum
- Support for people with complex emotional needs
- National staff survey results
- Championing inclusion and diversity
- Apprenticeships booming
- Recognition for excellence
- Stunning artwork at new Torbay ward
- Devon Wellbeing Hub thriving
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Welcome to the Spring edition of Mental Health Matters. Over the last few months a huge amount has been going on and I hope you enjoy reading about some of our achievements here. Our staff, as ever, are continuing to respond brilliantly during some challenging times and we are both proud and grateful for the work they do to support people in Devon with mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity needs. Thank you for taking an interest in our organisation and our work.
Melanie Walker,
Chief Executive Officer
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 Mental Health Ambassadors from Paignton Academy
The Mental Health Support Team in Schools (MHST) recently worked alongside Paignton Academy and our communications team to create two short films to raise awareness of how they support young people in schools and colleges.
The films feature staff from MHST, which is part of Children and Family Health Devon's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). The Mental Health Support Team film shows Sam Tomlins, Specialist Practitioner and Supervisor, talking about the support the team can offer and how they work with young people to ease their anxieties. The film also features Ryan, who has been supported by the team and an interview with his mother Nika, as well as an interview with Thomas Young from Paignton Academy, who talks about how the MHST are working with the school.
The Mental Health Support Team Ambassadors film shines a light on young people who have chosen to be Mental Health Ambassadors within the education setting.
View the films below:
In every issue we focus on the work of one particular team or service. In this issue, it's The Junipers in Exeter.
What is the main purpose/function of your team?
Opened in 2019, The Junipers is a ten-bed Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and part of Devon Partnership NHS Trust. We have around 40 staff and serve the whole of Devon. We look after adults with serious mental health needs whose behaviour and level of risk cannot be managed on our general psychiatric wards.
What is the most challenging part of your role?
Many of the people we support can display physical and emotional violence and aggression towards members of our team. We all understand that this is invariably a symptom of their clinical condition – for example psychosis – but it can still be upsetting and occasionally traumatic. We have regular reflective practice sessions and debriefs to ensure that we all feel supported through difficult incidents.
What is the most rewarding/enjoyable part of your role?
Watching people recover as a result of the time they have spent with us. Although people generally only spend around 30 days at The Junipers, they can display significant improvement and recovery within that short time. The feedback we receive from people about the difference we have been able to make to the health of their loved ones is very humbling, and always appreciated.
What are your team’s current priorities?
We are always trying to improve the care and treatment we provide, but we are focusing particularly on reducing the average length of stay at The Junipers. Ideally, we are aiming for a stay of between 21-28 days. Part of our job is to provide the ‘least restrictive’ environment possible for the people in our care. This can create lots of practical challenges – for example how we monitor and restrict the use of mobile phones on the ward – but it is an ongoing priority for us.
What achievement is your team most proud of?
Despite the daily challenges posed by supporting people with extremely high levels of need, we continue to put our patients at the centre of everything we do – we see this as non-negotiable. The people in our team have seemingly inexhaustible levels of compassion and patience and this is a constant source of pride to the whole team. We are also proud of our sense of humour – which can bring a smile and some light relief at even the most difficult of times.
Which other teams do you mainly work with?
We work closely with adult acute psychiatric wards across the county. This includes Plymouth, as Livewell Southwest commissions three of our ten beds. We also work with community forensic services and Langdon Hospital in Dawlish, which provides secure mental health services for the region.
What’s the best bit of feedback you have ever received from a patient or service user?
From a family member – 'Thank you for your endless kindness and support, and please keep doing what you are doing.'
 Junipers staff at reception
In March we supported Recovery Devon with the launch of their new book, Strengthened by Storms, which we also helped to publish. The book is the third in a series of anthologies about people’s personal stories of recovery but this one is dedicated to stories from people working in mental health services in Devon. We believe that it might be the first of its kind in the country. At its heart it shares how mental health professionals may have experienced struggles and been through storms in their own lives, and how such difficult personal experiences can enable and equip us to care for others.
The launch event was a great success and the book is available free of charge with postage and packing to pay. Copies are available from the Recovery Devon online bookshop. Complete the 'Book Order' form at the bottom of the page.
 Strengthened by Storm panel (L to R): Adrian James, Maureen Casey, Cally Hayes, Glenn Roberts
The team at TALKWORKS has launched a range of Wellbeing Workshops to help staff across Devon feel healthier and happier in the workplace. The workshops are available free of charge for businesses and organisations and are delivered by accredited NHS therapists, either face-to-face or online.
The workshops give employees the chance to learn a range of tools and techniques to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. They focus on reducing stress, creating manageable routines, improving sleep and developing healthy habits; both at home and in the workplace. The sessions are run as bespoke workshops so there is flexibility with delivery based on business requirements.
As TALKWORKS is an NHS service, the workshops are available free of charge to businesses, organisations and local community groups across Devon (excluding Plymouth which is covered by Plymouth Options). Each workshop can accommodate a minimum of ten and maximum of 40 participants. For larger organisations, TALKWORKS can offer multiple sessions.
If you are interested in finding out more about booking a session, please email dpt.talkworksworkshop@nhs.net or call 0300 555 3344 and speak to a member of the team.
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Our Devon Recovery Learning Community (DRLC) has collaborated with Exeter City Council’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), to produce a 10-track audio guide to help visitors enjoy a more mindful experience when visiting the museum.
RAMM collaborated with tutors from DRLC to run a series of five sessions with students who have experienced mental health challenges. Through the sessions the tutors and students developed a programme of mindfulness practices inspired by and reacting to RAMM’s spaces and collections. With titles such as ‘arriving’, ‘wandering mindfully’ and ‘pausing’, each track is intended to accompany a different stage of the visit and offers simple and interesting ways of directing awareness to what is happening around the visitor.
Caroline Nicholson, DRLC manager, said: "We were delighted to be asked to collaborate on this project. Museums and their collections hold great potential to help us slow down, reflect, take time and to think about connecting with ourselves, with others, the space we occupy and travel through and, of course, the objects and artefacts themselves.”
 A visitor to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum using the new audio guide and equipment (pictured right) to view the installations
A new way of working to support people with complex emotional needs and personality disorder is providing specialist support in the community, making it easier to get the right help at the right time, closer to home.
The approach is a result of Devon’s implementation of the Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF), a two-year programme to transform how services and organisations work together so that people with serious mental health needs can access care where and when they need it, on their own terms, surrounded by their families, carers and social networks, and supported in their local community.
Improving support for people with complex emotional needs is a key focus of the Framework nationally, alongside eating disorders and recovery and rehabilitation services. In Devon it means that, for the first time, a dedicated team of specialists will be working in the community, enabling quicker access to the right intervention. It will reduce waiting times for treatment and prevent escalation and the need for admissions to hospital in some cases.
As partners in the CMHF, our organisation, Livewell Southwest and the Devon Mental Health Alliance are designing and implementing the new way of working in collaboration, drawing learning from people with lived experience. Eight new clinical posts have been created and successfully recruited to. Scott Duffy, DPT’s Operational Implementation Lead, says: “What the CMHF challenged us to do was to move the expertise to people’s communities, so more people can access meaningful intervention for complex emotional needs and personality disorder much closer to where they live.”
The Occupational Therapy Team at Beech ward in Torbay have been working with patients recently to create some wonderful Spring-themed artwork. Beech ward supports older people with mental health needs. Work has included a large colourful backdrop, papier maché balloons and an Easter-themed poem.
Lewis Powell, Ward Manager, said: "The Occupational Therapy Assistants on Beech do an amazing job at engaging and encouraging our patients in the creation of artwork. In the last few months, patients have been really on-board with creating amazing pieces based on the seasons. It gives them a sense of purpose, achievement and fulfillment in creating a warm, inviting and therapeutic environment. Our patients are extremely proud of their work and it is enjoyed by their families, other patients on the ward, staff, visitors and volunteers. As the Ward Manager, I take great pride in showing off this wonderful display to new visitors when they come in! I could not be more grateful to the fabulous staff who continue to go the extra mile in providing outstanding care to our patients on Beech ward.”
The annual NHS Staff Survey results are an invaluable indicator of how our staff are feeling. This year, we saw a higher than average response rate, with nearly 2,000 colleagues across our organisation sharing their views and experience. We are proud to say that we have some of the best line manager experiences in the NHS and go from strength to strength on our compassionate leadership behaviours and approach to flexible working. We also had the fifth highest score in the south west region for staff recommending us as a place to work – which is very encouraging – and we remained consistent across the large majority of other areas within the survey.
One of our six strategic aims is ‘to promote social justice and tackle discrimination’. We are always working hard to take this agenda forward and we have recently been accredited as a Disability Confident Leader. This is a government initiative which supports employers to take action to improve recruitment, retention and development opportunities for colleagues who are disabled or have impairments. We have been a Disability Confident Employer for a number of years but we have now moved to the highest level, which is great news. We have made some significant advances including the creation of a Supported Internship Programme, enhancing our staff networks offer and commissioning an external provider to survey disabled people’s experiences in our workplace.
We have also completed and passed the RACE Equality Code 2020 assessment, which means we are eligible to use the RACE Equality Code Quality Mark on our stationery and digital media. We are currently working on the development and implementation of our Race Action Plan, which will be aligned to our key workforce, organisational development and inclusion programmes.
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Staff recruitment and retention is arguably the most significant challenge that is currently faced by health and social care providers. Over the last few years, we have stepped-up our work to recruit apprentices, with some great results. We currently have over 220 apprentices undertaking 30 different programmes across the many and varied teams we have. Of our current apprentices, just over 100 are undertaking some kind of nursing programme, whether that's the full nursing degree in learning disability or mental health or the Nurse Associate role that supports registered nurses in practice. An incredible 95% of our apprentices would recommend DPT as a place to work.
We recently celebrated National Apprenticeship Week and featured videos and stories from our staff who are completing non-clinical apprenticeships as well as the Trainee Nursing Associate Apprenticeship.
Jo Horne, Apprenticeship Development Manager, said: "We all know learning doesn’t stop when we leave school, and learning and working at the same time is not an easy option. Our staff undertake apprenticeships at all stages of their career whether it’s their first role or their first qualification since leaving school, but what they do have in common is dedication, motivation and showing a real commitment to lifelong learning. We are immensely proud of all our apprentices past and present.”
We have videos from some of our great apprentices describing their apprenticeship journey and the route and the qualifications they are undertaking on the DPT Jobs microsite. Also keep an eye on our recruitment social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook for information about opportunities. Our team are always keen to talk about apprenticeships. Please do get in touch at dpt.apprenticeships@nhs.net or, for more general advice around career pathways and development opportunities, you can email dpt.careershub@nhs.net.
If you are intersted in working at Devon Partnership NHS Trust, please contact dpt.recruitment@nhs.net
We are incredibly proud of all our staff, but it is particularly rewarding when they are recognised by others for their hard work and dedication.
Katy Welsh, a Learning Disability Senior Manager, has recently been awarded The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Award for Outstanding Service. This Queen’s Nurse Award (QN) is given to community nurses who provide exceptional care to their patients and demonstrate a continuing passion and enthusiasm for nursing. It is not a reward for length of service, but an acknowledgment that a nurse makes a very exceptional individual contribution to patient care and the nursing profession. Congratulations also to Rachel Salloway, Primary Care Liaison Nurse in Torbay, for gaining her Queen’s Nurse award this year, too.
The Langdon Clinical Education Team, which is part of our Secure Services team at Langdon Hospital in Dawlish, has been shortlisted for the Nursing Times ‘Student Placement of the Year’ award. In addition, Hailei Petersen (pictured), one of our apprenticeship nurses who works with older people in east Devon, has made the finals of the ‘Apprentice of the Year’ award in the Our Health Heroes Awards 2023. We wish them good luck.
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Last year, we worked with the mental health charity, Hospital Rooms, to commission artworks for our new ward at Torbay Hospital. Salus ward will provide inpatient care for adults with acute mental health needs in Devon.
Hospital Rooms commission extraordinary artworks for mental health inpatient units across the UK. The charity helps turn clinical rooms in to welcoming, soothing and beautiful spaces. The team works with acclaimed artists from across the UK and internationally, who in turn work with staff and patients to come up with suitable designs for each designated space. Our organisation has been fortunate to work with Hospital Rooms on previous occasions, commissioning artwork for both The Junipers, our Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and Jasmine Lodge, our Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). This latest project received £60,000 from the DPT Charity towards the funding of the work on Salus, as well as for artwork on our neighbouring Beech and Haytor wards on the Torbay Hospital site. The art offers patients and staff scenes of nature and tranquillity, of vibrant organic and vegetational forms. A stained-glass window captures the passing of time and large murals frame richly layered landscapes.
 Students in front of the stained-glass window by Amy McCarthy, Salus Ward, Torbay Hospital
It’s been two years since the Devon Wellbeing Hub was launched to support healthcare, social care and police staff affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its launch the Hub has reached thousands of staff across the Devon system. This year alone, the Hub has received nearly 800 individual referrals and has had 5,760 contacts with colleagues for individual and team support.
The Hub is one of 40 across the country, funded by NHS England in response to the impact of COVID-19. It is designed to be a place where someone concerned about their wellbeing can come, unpick their needs and be supported to get to the right services quickly. The Hub also offers support for teams, giving them the opportunity to think about their collective wellbeing.
Beth Fisher, Clinical and Operational Manager at the Devon Wellbeing Hub, said: “We’re proud to have been able to support thousands of colleagues across Devon since we launched in 2021. Throughout the last two years, our service has developed and become more accessible. We work with colleagues for a wide range of reasons, not all directly related to the pandemic. Alongside our individual assessments and team workshops, we now also run drop-in sessions and host virtual workshops for individuals who would like tools and advice to help support their everyday wellbeing.”
Getting support from the Devon Wellbeing Hub is simple. If you work in healthcare, social care or the police and are struggling with any aspect of your wellbeing, or you lead a team who would benefit from support, the Hub can help you today. Please get in touch by emailing dpt.devonwellbeing@nhs.net or by calling 0300 303 5455. You can also fill out the simple referral form on the Devon Wellbeing Hub website.
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