Being responsive

For teams or individuals who respond to service users’ and others’ needs quickly, for example to eliminate unnecessary delays in providing treatment, care and advice.

Winner: Cathy Karia and Marie Bundhoo, Camden and Leyton Ward managers

Cathy and Marie won this award for reducing the number of delayed discharges from the Bexley Older Adults’ Service from a peak of 50 percent to just 4.4 percent.

They worked with staff to develop plans to enable people to be discharged in a timely and appropriate manner when their needs could best be met in their own home or in a care home. This has resulted in an improvement of patients’ experiences on the wards as they can now be prepared for discharge.

The wards are also able to admit people who need to be in hospital which reduces pressure on community teams.

Runner up: Bromley mental health in learning disabilities team

The team provides highly specialised services to vulnerable people with a learning disability who also have mental health problems. They have worked closely with service users, carers and adult mental health services to ensure access to mainstream services and developed comprehensive mental health care plans for staff in the private/voluntary sector.

Their innovative approach to high quality and responsive service provision has led to the development of a rapid response rota which delivers advice in a crisis within 30 minutes of the team being contacted.

Commended: Barefoot Lodge, Goldie Leigh

Barefoot Lodge is a 15 bed open rehabilitation unit providing a therapeutic environment in which people with complex mental health problems are supported towards greater independence. Part of the Greenwich Complex Needs Recovery Service (CNRS), the unit provides care based on the concept of recovery.

Barefoot has worked consistently to provide throughput which frees beds in acute and forensic sites and saves money that would otherwise be spent on external placements. The staff actively involve service users in planning their own care and encourage and assist them to access local amenities, for example attending leisure centres and registering with GPs and dentists. They also run a health promotion programme based around service users’ wellbeing.

Commended: Breakfast Club – Roy Norris

The Breakfast Club is a monthly social event for service users, their friends and carers held at Stepping Stones in Bromley. Organised by Roy Norris since the mid 1990s, the group has been a model for social inclusion, and as well as providing a supportive social environment it facilitates the involvement of its members in community social activities.

The club aims to support people with mental ill-health who are also isolated to achieve a measure of social inclusion and provides an opportunity to monitor clients for signs of relapse and wellbeing issues.