Better Together e-news Spring 2018

As I’m writing these words to introduce another issue of Better Together it seems that Spring has finally arrived and everyone is in brighter spirits. This follows a tough period of heavy snow only a few weeks ago, during which our staff and volunteers performed amazingly to ensure patients, their families and carers were looked after, despite the disruption.

In this issue of our magazine we showcase a number of LPFT staff who have won national and local awards or were invited to the Buckingham Palace in recognition of their outstanding work. Throughout the last year there has hardly been a month without an LPFT staff member, team or service being up for an award. I am pleased that awards are just one way we can acknowledge and celebrate what our staff and volunteers do well; it shows that the Trust is an organisation worth working for. And young people who have been given an opportunity to complete the apprenticeships with the Trust agree with me, as you’ll be able to read in the article about apprenticeships in the NHS. So if you know of any person, irrespective of their age, who would like to “learn while they earn”, please tell them about numerous possibilities for future career with the healthcare.

The Trust would not be as responsive and welcoming organisation as it is without the input from our Governors. At the last Council of Governors meeting we said our farewells to Carrie Forrester, Lead Governor, who finished her term. Over the last 10 years, Carrie has been an invaluable source of elegant, respectful challenge that helped us improve the services we provide. She mentioned what a long way we have come since 2007 when she first became a Governor. And she spoke about how proud she is to have been a Governor for a Trust that others see as an example of effective cooperation between the Board and its elected members and a model of best practice in involving its Governors.

I’d also like to welcome David Bray as our new Lead Governor. David will be familiar to many of you, as he is an experienced Governor, and his passion for mental health and learning disability services will ensure that Governors continue to represent your views.

If you’d like to join our Council of Governors, please putt your name forward for elections. Go to our website for more details [link to http://www.lpft.nhs.uk/get-involved/membership-and-governors-area/governor-elections]

I hope that you’ll enjoy reading this issue of our e-magazine and learning more about the work we do at LPFT.

Best wishes
Paul Devlin

Organisations and groups that support and help people manage their mental health and wellbeing are being invited to pitch for a share of £300,000 community funding.

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) and Lincolnshire County Council have announced the latest round of their Mental Health Promotion Fund. The fund helps adults of all ages who have experienced mental health problems to participate in a wide range of activities that will help them to recover and maintain as good a quality of life as possible. It also helps local people to play an active role in promoting and maintaining good mental health for themselves and others.

Projects that are successful in receiving funding will join LPFT’s innovative Managed Care Network, a collection of community groups which offer support and various activities to help keep people living well in the community.

For this round of funding the panel welcomes and encourages new projects to come forward with fresh and imaginative activities that support some of the key priorities for local neighbourhood teams, including training for carers, adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), anger management and activities along the East of Lincolnshire.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on 28 June 2018.

For more details about the Mental Health Promotion Fund and how to apply visit: www.lpft.nhs.uk/mental-health-promotion or contact the Community Partnerships Team on 01529 222 223 or via email at mcnapplication@lpft.nhs.uk

Since December 2016 steps2change have been offering computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) which is one of the most flexible ways people can access therapy for mild mental health problems and so far it has been a great success.

Vanessa Randles, Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner said: “Since we started to offer cCBT over 1800 people have accessed therapy in this way. Our online packages include therapy for depression, worry, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and sleep difficulties.”

All of the programmes are designed to teach people self-help techniques and manage physical symptoms.

Although the therapy takes place online, users are supported throughout the programme by a trained practitioner who provides regular reviews. Using a computerised approach means people have flexibility over when they complete the treatment. They can access the modules from a smart phone, laptop or tablet so these ‘on the go’ style therapies can be completed whenever suits you.

cCBT is great for people who:

• Work long hours, work shifts, or work away.
• Have child care issues which make attending appointments difficult.
• Have anxiety which would stop you from being able to come to an appointment.
• Have physical health problems which may make leaving the house difficult.
• Find talking to a therapist face to face difficult.

If you think that this type of therapy could be useful for you then self-refer here

As the summer approaches many young people will be making a decision whether to apply for a university place or look for employment. The NHS offers over 350 career choices within health and care, including a wide range of clinical and non-clinical apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes available to people of any age.

Morgan Ambler and Nathan Titley started with LPFT in October 2017. They are based with our Estates and Facilities Maintenance Team where they get practical experience in plumbing, rendering, brickwork and plastering. They also attend college where they’re studying to achieve their Level 2 Property Maintenance Operative qualification.

Rob Drabble who supervises Morgan and Nathan while they learn on-the-job said:

When they finish their training we want to offer them both an opportunity to move on and specialise in electrical or mechanical maintenance.

The Trust also employs a number of administration apprentices. Lucy Treacy is based in Grantham Learning Disability Team where she arranges patient appointments and types up letters. Lucy said:

I was looking for employment and came across the job I’m doing now. I had no idea that the NHS was offering apprenticeships where you earned and learnt at the same time. I thought it was an amazing opportunity and had to apply.

If you know of anyone who may be interested in apprenticeships with the NHS please tell them to visit the Talent Academy website www.lincstalentacademy.org.uk for current vacancies.

This year the NHS is celebrating its 70^th birthday and the Trust would like to involve as many people as possible in our celebrations.

Summer cycle

Get your celebration wheels rolling by joining our summer cycle on Saturday 7 July; help promote health and wellbeing whilst celebrating 70 years of our NHS. There are two routes; both passing some of our services. We then plan to meet at the Discovery House café in Lincoln for tea and cake. View our poster for more information.

Big 7Tea

Calling all tea-lovers! NHS England has launched the ‘Big7Tea’  as a way of saying thank you to the NHS by holding a Big7Tea party to raise money for an NHS charity. Why not drink tea and give back to a ward, team or service that means a lot to you? You can specify where the money goes, and even what it is used for.

I Am Research

Give the #GiftofResearch! This year the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) ‘I Am Research’ campaign is running in collaboration with NHS70 celebrations. ‘I Am Research’ aims to build awareness of health and care research and celebrate how it has shaped and is continuing to shape the NHS and outcomes for patients. The Research Team will be celebrating I Am Research and NHS70 with Research Week 2018 – a series of events across the NHS and wider county health and social care. They will start with the Nursing Conference on 10 May. Find out more research@lpft.nhs.uk     

To find out more about NHS70 activities, contact communicationslpft@lpft.nhs.uk

Amelia Bailey usually spends her time at the Trust’s Learning & Development Centre training staff but in March she went back to clinical work and completed a shift on an acute mental health ward in Lincoln.

She said:

I did a shift on Conolly Ward starting at 6.55am. I really wanted to experience the day in the same way as ward staff do, so it meant rolling out of bed at a time which I would normally regard as the middle of the night! It must be 8 years since I’ve done an early shift and 17 years since I’ve been to Peter Hodgkinson Centre (PHC).

At handover I experienced how detailed and compassionate the discussion about each patient’s day had been. The tone and attitude of staff towards the patients in their care was uplifting.

Following a tour of the unit, I spent time doing medication rounds, completing patient’s observations and I also had a chat with the housekeeping team. I was pleased to find that they were as lovely as the cleaners I remember from 17 years ago. Along with admin staff, they really underpin the culture of the team at PHC and the entire Trust for that matter!

I spent my last hour on the ward engaging patients in the dining room, playing games and trying really hard not to take Jenga too seriously.

I left my shift feeling accomplished. But I must admit I was very pleased that I wouldn’t have to get out of bed in the middle of the night again.

The new legislation outlining how people’s personal information is protected and how they can access it comes into force in May 2018. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will replace current legislation.

What is the GDPR?

The GDPR will give more rights back to you, allowing you to control your own data and ensure organisations that process your data do it in a secure and transparent way.

The GDPR requires all health trusts to have in place a Data Protection Officer who will oversee the organisation's compliance.  For LPFT it is Kathryn Scully who can be contacted on dataprotectionofficer@lpft.nhs.uk or 01529 222205.

We are updating our website and engaging with patients to ensure that the content is written with you in mind. The pages will tell you how we use and keep your information and what your rights are: this is known as a privacy notice. We will also provide you with guidance on how you can access the information we hold about you in your medical records – this is known as Subject Access - and how to request it.

Under the new legislation we are required to make accessing your information a free service and ensure that you are provided with your information within one month of making the request. This is already in place from 1 April 2018.

You can learn more about the new legislation and what it means for you via the Information Commissioner’s Office website https://ico.org.uk or watch the below video.