Kit and Equipment for Inpatients during lockdown

Using NHS Charities Together funding, we were able to send kit and equipment to the Hellingly Centre and Amberstone Rehabilitation Unit in Hellingly, Woodlands Centre for Acute Care and St. Raphael Ward in Hastings, the Partnership Domiciliary Care Agency (PDCA) in Eastbourne, Iris Ward at Horsham Hospital, and Shepherd House Rehabilitation Unit and the Selden Centre in Worthing. We also used this funding to fund special sensory equipment to the Havens, which are 24/7 mental health crisis assessment facilities used as an alternative to A+E in Worthing and Brighton.

We also used this money to supplement funding we acquired from local League of Friends or Rotary groups for kit and equipment at their local inpatient sites. These sites included Meadowfield Hospital in Worthing, Millview Hospital and Rutland Gardens Community Wards in Brighton, the Department of Psychiatry at Eastbourne District General Hospital, Langley Green Hospital in Crawley, and Connolly House Rehabilitation Unit, Oaklands Centre for Acute Care and the Chichester Centre in Chichester.

Equipment supplied included electrical items such as personal DVD players, radios and MP3 players, to keep patients entertained in isolation, and Amazon Fire tablets to enable patients to stay connected with loved ones during the lockdown. Arts and crafts materials were also supplied, along with gardening equipment for the ward gardens and outdoor spaces.

Sensory equipment provided for the Havens included weighted blankets and vests, along with sensory toys such as fidget spinners and stress balls. This equipment is reported to help to reduce stress by making service users feel grounded and safe. The Havens reported a sharp increase in attendance from service users with learning disabilities, hence the need for this specialist equipment.

The Hellingly Centre

The Hellingly Centre is a medium-secure unit for patients with mental health problems who have become involved with the criminal justice system. It has four wards; three male wards and one female ward. Inpatients received personal DVD players, DVDs, MP3 players, and music equipment; colouring books, paint and other craft materials. The feedback we had from Hellingly was heart-warming. Staff were very grateful, and the patients on Ash Ward wrote a personal thank you letter, which you can read here.

Langley Green Hospital

Staff at Langley Green shared their thanks for inpatient equipment which included DVD players, MP3 players, notebooks, colouring books and bead-making sets via Twitter (see carousel images top right).

You can visit our Twitter page here to see Langley Green's feedback.

Selden Centre

The Selden Centre is a 10-bed inpatient facility for patients with learning difficulties, and is the only service of its kind in West Sussex. They received tablets, craft materials and outdoor toys and games. They also requested salad spinners - for making art!

The ward manager said "Just wanted to say a huge thank you from the Selden Centre for yesterday's delivery. The activity box is fantastic and will give us some new activities to do in the garden with service users. This will be really important as our service users are having to spend so much time on the ward."

An occupational therapist further added this: "Stuff just keeps coming, it's wonderful. Thank you so much. Watercolour paper is amazing and clay!! We haven’t had clay for a while and that is a treat - we have a couple of clients that will love this!"

The Chichester Centre

The Chichester Centre is a secure and forensic unit with three low-secure wards. As well as requesting individual DVD players and DVDs for their patients, OTs requested arts and crafts materials, including wood paint to be used in the ward garden. See the carousel image on the top right for a photo of the newly-painted raised beds.