Friends of Chichester Hospitals support
Friends of Chichester Hospitals kindly supported Heads On by providing funding for inpatient equipment and resources for all of the Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust inpatient units in Chichester during the lockdown. These were the Chichester Centre, Oaklands Centre for Acute Care, Harold Kidd Unit and Connolly House.
The Chichester Centre
The Chichester Centre is a purpose built low-secure hospital for adults with mental health difficulties and challenging behaviour. It has two male wards and one female ward, and has 49 beds in total.
When the lockdown came into place, like every other hospital in the country, the Chichester Centre had to change overnight. Visiting was stopped, leave from the hospital was suspended and outside professionals were unable to enter the building to run groups and activities.
Staff at the Chichester Centre provided Heads On with a list of resources for inpatients to use on the ward, in order to overcome challenges such as loneliness and boredom caused by the lockdown restrictions. These included personal DVD players and DVDs, MP3 players and radios, along with books, art and craft supplies and gardening equipment. These resources were particularly useful for a patient who had to shield whilst on the ward, who was given their own supply of kit.
Ellen, an Occupational Therapist (OT) at the Chichester Centre, said that patients were very grateful for the equipment and resources. "Some people have taken colouring books to their rooms, some have read the books that were donated, and some have enjoyed the puzzle books. Some people have engaged in these activities prior to the lockdown but have appreciated having access to new stock when they were unable to access shops themselves. Others have tried new activities, e.g. someone who really enjoys art has taken a colouring book and is giving this a try which they haven't done before. All of these activities have helped to keep people occupied and engaged in some meaningful activities when much of their routine and structure has been suspended due to lack of leave, suspension of therapy groups, etc. We were also kindly donated some personal MP3 players, which in some cases have been loaded with audio books and used by people who find it difficult to focus on reading a book or who don't feel confident in their literacy to read a novel".
It's not just patients who have benefitted from these resources. Ellen said "as we received a large number of colouring books, staff have also been seen using the ones that were left in communal areas. In some instances this has provided a vehicle for conversation with service users, e.g. perhaps about the picture, or the staff's own interest in art, or encouraging the service user to try a colouring book that they may not have tried before. Staff completing the colouring books has also provided opportunity for a few enjoyable, quiet moments whilst the ward was otherwise quiet".
The gardening equipment included colourful garden wood paint. This was used by service users in the women's ward to paint the raised beds in the garden. "The service users on that ward are rather proud of their beautiful space for growing both flowers and vegetables, which they are having success in growing too", says Ellen. See right for a photo of the newly painted raised beds in the garden.
Connolly House
Connolly House is a rehabilitation and recovery unit, which had 14 inpatients during the lockdown. They received personal DVD players, tablet devices, MP3 players and radios, as well as colouring books and craft equipment. Deputy Ward Manager Sarah said "we have found having access to a range of items really helpful in engaging with all our patients. We have continued to offer a range of different art activities, some of which we have tweeted, plus regular 1:1 and socially distanced exercise. Some items have not been used so that if we need to isolate patients they have access to materials".
Harold Kidd Unit
The Harold Kidd Unit is an inpatient unit catering for older people with mental health problems. It has two wards; Orchard Ward and Grove Ward.
Patients received tablets, personal DVD players, DVDs and radios, as well as art materials and books. These items have been used for movie nights on the wards and to keep those self-isolating entertained.
Reetta, a senior OT on Orchard Ward went on to say "patients have been able to use the radios in their rooms to listen to their favourite programmes and have a bit of normality in their days when not being able to go out from the ward. The mindfulness book and poetry book has been a great conversation starter and has created a lot of positive emotions with patients and staff. This equipment has allowed staff to have more conversation starters with patients but also made it nicer for the staff to be able to offer different activities during these unpredictable times. Staff have also engaged in some of the activities with patients on the ward to create a sense of social cohesion".
Oaklands Centre for Acute Care
Oaklands Centre for Acute Care, which is situated at the site of St. Richard's Hospital, also received equipment and resources. These included electrical items such as tablets, radios and DVD players, as well as arts and crafts equipment to keep patients entertained during lockdown.
Staff have been using the resources to make activity packs, which are given to every patient on admission to the ward. They contain colouring pens, colouring pencils, paint pallets, note books, colouring books, puzzles, a writing pen and pencil. Patients are encouraged not to share these for infection control and are invited to keep these on discharge. So far, 62 activity packs have been handed out. Staff have said that this has been a good idea especially for new patients who do not want to engage with staff immediately. "Loved the activity packs, good distraction especially when I first came onto the ward" said a patient. "Great choice of resources" said another.
It is with thanks to Friends of Chichester Hospitals that we were able to order this quantity of resources for all the inpatient units in Chichester. This has been vital to ensure that the effects of lockdown and social distancing, such as loneliness and boredom, have been minimised as much as possible. Thank you!