The team were over the moon to be shortlisted for three awards from the local NHS trust. They were overjoyed and slightly overwhelmed when they all went on to win and receive their awards, at the AWP awards ceremony on Friday, from Frank Bruno MBE.

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The annual Avon and Wiltshire Mental health Partnership Trust (AWP) Staff Awards is now in its 8th year and celebrates the vital role our staff play in providing treatment and support to those with mental health conditions. More than 470 nominations were received for this year's awards in 14 categories.

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Frank Bruno, presented the awards and answered questions about his own mental health and experience of being diagnosed and living with bipolar along with a couple of boxing stories.

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Recovery and hope was won by Pearl Bartlett, volunteer Peer Mentor, “Pearl works tireless with people, she never gives up and her understanding nature means that she gets the very best out of even the most complex situations.” (Helen Brian). “Pearl is totally invested in the mentoring project and is always keen to promote what we do and the benefits for all those involved. Pearl is now supporting the administration of the project, helping to improve the training and looking at ways we can expand the project and link with other organisations. (Claire Lawrence, Mentoring Coordinator)

 

Behind the scenes award was won by Helen Brian and Maisie Clark who are Move On Workers on the inpatient ward in Bath. “They both make such a difference to people’s lives and allow the ward not to keep patients in hospital beyond what is needed, as they resolve their issues with finance, housing and provide a lot of creative input… It’s a great innovation for psychiatric inpatient units, which should be nominated for a national award as part of NHS70innovations .” (Dr Naveen, Consultant Psychiatrist)

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Leading by example was won by Claire Lawrence, mentoring Coordinator “15 Peer Mentors working alongside AWP providing Hope to service users in the BaNES locality. In the face of great challenges and difficulties and on very tight resources, Claire has provided a shining example of the very best in modern mental health care. Using tested models whilst at the same time constantly innovating and improving, Claire has exceeded all expectations in creating a new service which has had a major impact on the speed of step-down for service users, facilitated early discharges from inpatient units and has been, in at least some instances, possibly literally lifesaving.” (Jimmy Lowther, AWP’s Service Manager and Pathways Lead)

 

"The team is rightly proud of its achievements and would like to thank AWP for acknowledging this with three awards. We look forward to continuing to work alongside our AWP colleagues and volunteers in building bridges between statutory mental health and the community." 

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Ralph Lillywhite St Mungo’s Building Bridges manager