The team has won first prize in the dementia category of the Spotlight on Mental Health competition organised by Health Enterprise East (HEE), the regional NHS partner for innovation.
A TEAM from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating winning a prestigious award for devising an innovative scheme to support dementia carers looking after people at home.
The Dementia Carers’ Support Service (DCSS), which provides hands-on experience of carers to befriend people undergoing the challenge of coping with dementia, has won first prize in the dementia category of the Spotlight on Mental Health competition organised by Health Enterprise East (HEE), the regional NHS partner for innovation.
The service, based at the New Cottages Day Hospital in Ely has been devised by a team from the Older Peoples’ Mental Health Service (OPMH) at the Trust, project co-ordiantors Fe Franklin and Sally Kitchen, team support worker Kaylie Butler and administrator Terry Dellar.
The idea was originally proposed by service manager John Hawkins and consultant psychiatrist Dr Susan Welsh.
Staff were presented with an engraved trophy and a cheque for �2000 towards the next stage in the development of their innovation.
The DCSS volunteers are linked to current dementia carers as a be-friender or buddy. Sharing their time, the volunteers offer emotional, practical and social support, as well as signposting carers to other services.
January 2012
Pic cap: The DCSS team, from left to right: Fe Franklin, Kaylie Butler, Attila Vegh, Chris Armstrong, Sally Kitchin and Terry Dellar.
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