Introducing our BAFDA!

We are happy to introduce you the ‘BAFDA’!

The ‘Brighterway Annual Fundraising Divisional Award’ ✨🏆✨

This trophy will be awarded to the division that raises the most funds for brighterway in 2022/23 through fundraising and regular giving.

The money raised will not just go into the brighterway general funding pot. All moneys raised by your division will go towards supporting projects for your area- the more you raise, the more projects can be funded.

One quick and easy way to kick off your campaign and get a step up on the other divisions is to sign up to regular giving. You can sign up to either ‘Pennies from Heaven’ where you make monthly donations to brighterway by donating pennies from your salary -you’ll never donate more than £12 a year but all the pennies add up!

We will upload a league table onto our website each month which will also be available in the Trust bulletin, this will show where each division is in the league every month 🥇🥈🥉

RITA System at Parklands Hospital

Elmwood ward, Parkland’s hospital at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is an Older Persons Mental Health Acute 14 bedded unit for patients with dementia where Support is provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Elmwood was fortunately funded by Brighterway charity to part funding of RITA (Reminiscence Interactive Therapy Activities) system.

What is RITA? Reminiscence Interactive Therapy Activity

Navigating RITA you can find many different categories, each category contains multiple apps which can be scrolled through and accessed with a single tap, this can be a shared activity or patients can have their own named files and tap to preview their personal tile.

User accounts on the RITA are easy for patients to access, there is a default ‘Guest’ account which can be used for just everyday access, or a more personal account where a patient can create their own account with a password where any favourite games, films, pictures etc will be saved, (these can easily be deleted when a patient moves on from the ward).

There are many films and different kinds of music stored on the RITA with a wide variety for all.

Julie Bowles, Activity Coordinator involved in the project, said “Seeing the patients, along with some family members and staff have fun together enjoying the RITA made me feel really proud! The RITA is being used to try and bring all together especially with the bingo game and the karaoke brings fun and smiles to the ward, Patients appear to be generally enjoying themselves and this has proven really beneficial for their wellbeing.”

The Team have also commented,

Rosa Rodrigues senior HCSW commented “what a difference the RITA makes to calm patients’ mood”

student nurse Emily Blades commented “how nice to see a patient interact with the games/apps on the system”,

Justin Chesterman HCSW commented “nice to see patients smile and enjoying an activity”

Cathy Roberts Modern Matron commented “Moments to treasure seeing a dementia patient utilise the system and having a big smile with meaning and full engagement”

Christmas fun and bonding day at Parklands

We love hearing that our staff and patients are benefitting from your donations. We recently received this email from the Senior HSCA Development Lead at Parklands Hospital.

‘Parklands is a Southern Health Hospital for people with mental health issues and elderly with Dementia. We have 5 wards all together one is a PICU ward then a male and a female ward for mental health problems, one for elderly with health problems and another for elderly with dementia. We supply care and support 24/7 365 days of the year.

Some people come here with severe mental health issues and need to stay long term some just need to get back on track. When Patients come in, they can have all sorts of issues and one of them can be trust with people especially people in authority which they see staff at Parklands as.

To support them this Christmas which I think we will all agree is not a time that anyone would like to come into hospital let alone with mental health.

This year I reached out to brighterway for some help with obtaining items for and bonding and fun day on the wards. They gave us the financial support to buy T-Shirts, fabric pens and some prizes for the patients. The patients had to design their own T-Shirt and received prizes for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place.

brighterway also gave us money for Hot chocolate, marshmallows and mince pies to say thank you and merry Christmas to everyone which went down very well. Everyone had a lovely time and both staff and patients said how nice it was to do something like that and they really did appreciate it.’

We think the T-Shirts look fabulous and we are glad we were able to help spread some festive cheer! If you would like to apply for funding for a project or get involve with fundraising, please click here brighterway | Get involved

brighterway brings festive cheer to patients!

brighterway has brought festive cheer this Christmas by gifting patients across the Trust, gift boxes and Christmas trees to help their health and wellbeing.

We have donated 52 boxes that have helped approximately 491 patients across Southern Health’s inpatient wards! The boxes included a wide variety of items including craft sets, Christmas trees and decorations, health and wellbeing items as well as the odd festive treat.

Costing nearly £22,000 in total, the boxes have been a big hit with their recipients.

Hazel Harris, Berrywood Ward Administrator from the Western Community Hospital commented:

‘We are overjoyed to receive such generous donations. After such a difficult 18 months, it means the world to patients and staff to be able to decorate our wards and get into the festive spirit. It’s always a difficult time for our patients to be away from their loved ones, but these boxes make it a little easier. Thank you Brighterway!’

Here at brighterway, we aim to improve and enhance service user and staff experience and provides support for projects that goes above and beyond NHS funding.

“We are delighted to be providing our patients and our staff with the gift boxes and decorations. It’s been a tough year, and it really is the small things that make the difference. I want to thank everyone who has donated, volunteered, and fundraised for Brighterway this year, without your generosity projects such as this would not be possible. Thank you.”

Daren Evans, our Fundraising and Marketing Manager

If you are interested in donating this Christmas to brighterway, please click here: Donate – Donation amount – JustGiving

Merry Christmas from the brighterway team!

brighterway Christmas Jumper Day

Congratulations to the team from Austen House for winning our Christmas Jumper Day competition!

A massive thank you to everyone who got involved, all of the funds raised will help support projects around the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of our staff, patients and community

We’d also like to thank everyone who purchased tickets for our Christmas Draw which took place on Wednesday 15th December, in total we raised £1146.80 across our Christmas fundraising, we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do without your support and involvement!

If you’d like to find other ways you can get involved, whether it be through fundraising or regular giving, head over to our ‘Get Involved’ page!

Christmas Tree for Leigh House Hospital

Last year Brighterway kindly funded a new Christmas Tree for Leigh House Hospital Reception. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions they were not allowed to put it up. However, they have made up for it this year with this fantastic looking tree! We hope that all the patients, staff and visitors to Leigh House Hospital enjoy this festive addition to Reception.

brighterway is here to help fund projects that support the mental health and wellbeing of staff and patients across the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. We understand how difficult the festive season can be when you are away from your loved ones, so we want to help. Doing something small such as gifting a Christmas Tree can help spread some joy in what can be a difficult time for some.

Thank you to everyone who supports brighterway, whether it be through regular giving or fundraising, we wouldn’t be able to support the projects we do without your help!

To help us continue to spread some festive joy, don’t forget to get involved with our Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 10^th December. We are asking for a £1 minimum donation but feel free to donate as much as you like! You can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/brighterwaychristmasjumperdayAll you need to do is wear your best Christmas jumper, get together with your team (either virtually or in person) and take a picture. Send your picture to charity@southernhealth.nhs.uk or tweet us @SHFTbrighterway to be in with a chance to win free tickets to our Grand brighterway Christmas Draw on Wednesday 15^th December. You can also buy tickets to our Draw here to be in with a chance to win some fantastic prizes! www.trybooking.co.uk/BIFF

brighterway October 2021

October was a fantastic month for brighterway!

We support projects that aren’t covered by NHS funding and we’d love to continue funding these projects for our staff, patients and community. We couldn’t do it without your support and fundraising, so thank you 😁

Here’s a breakdown of the projects we funded last month. In total, brighterway funded 27 projects, of which 3 will benefit staff and 24 will benefit patients of the Trust. These projects consisted of 22 Christmas related projects (this includes sending Christmas presents and decorations to inpatient units) and 5 wellbeing, garden and carer projects.

We received applications across the whole Trust, with applications from all divisions. We love to see how brighterway is helping the mental health and wellbeing of our staff and patients. If you have been involved in of these projects please email daren.evans@southernhealth.nhs.uk to let us know what you think!

If you have any ‘Bright Ideas’ or would like to help us with fundraising, head over to ‘Your Bright Ideas’ page on our website to download an application form Your Bright Ideas – Brighterway. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing what a difference we can make each month!

We’re looking for charity champions!

We’re on the hunt for some ‘charity champions’.

We’re looking for members of staff around the Trust that want to support the charity. It won’t take up hours of your time, you won’t be expected to dedicate a certain number of hours per week, we are just looking for people to be more involved.

As the Trust has over 200 sites, our mission for the next year is to try and hold fundraising events around the whole of Hampshire, meaning staff from all divisions are able to support and attend.

Your job will be pretty simple, you will help to arrange fundraising events in your area (NHS big tea party, cake sales etc) and raise awareness of Brighterway – don’t worry, we will assist you! It will also include smaller tasks, like sending Brighterway news round your team, putting posters up around your area, mentioning Brighterway in meetings and suggesting events in your town that we could support.

Any funds you raise can either be designated for your own place of work, or it can go into the Brighterway general fund.

If you would like to do that little bit extra to provide a good experience for people using our services, then please email megan.plunkett@southernhealth.nhs.uk/ daren.evans@southernhealth.nhs.uk

Congratulations to our runners!

Sunday 5 September saw 7,000 runners take on the famous ABP distance runs, consisting of a full half marathon and a 10k race. The annual event was unfortunately cancelled last year due to the pandemic, but returned for the sixth time with a lot of fanfare and buzz.

Brighterway’s determined team of 18 enthusiastic runners managed to raise a total of £2,310- a fantastic achievement!

We caught up with two of our runners, Peter McCullagh and Sam Burgess to see how they got on.

Peter McCullagh, Locality Manager for West Hampshire Community Learning Disability Team commented;

“My journey to this year’s ABP Half Marathon started in 2019 just after I completed the last run. I said at the time that was it, I have done Southampton half twice now so didn’t want to do it again. Then within a couple of days, my wife said she wanted to do it as she hadn’t completed the Southampton half, so like a fool I agreed to do it again.

Whenever running a race (in the loosest term – snail trundle is more like it!), I like to link with a charity as that gives me the motivation to actually get out there and do some training. This year was the third time I ran for Brighterway and I believe strongly when choosing who to run for

that I should support charities that are either local or I have an interest in.

Those who know me well cannot understand me running. At school I did everything I could to get out of PE and when I was in the army, I spent more time on remedial PT than anyone shoul ever need to! Running, and in fact general fitness regimes are alien to me, I really struggle, and so having something to aim for gives me the incentive to get on with it.

This year’s event was actually the rescheduled 2019 run and I think was probably the fifth date. I have to be honest it was a struggle, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run, I wasn’t sure if it would actually go ahead and my training took a real dive, but my wife and me decided to knuckle down. We found a training regime through our Garmin app (other brands are available  ) and that spurred us on somewhat.

I didn’t actually complete the full training for the half as we started it late and ran out of weeks, but my thought was, I’ve done a few before so I have it in me, speed isn’t what we need, getting round the course is – and we did. It wasn’t fast and it wasn’t pretty, but we got around the course and even managed to run over the finishing line.

I have run half Marathons in the new Forest, Gosport, Birmingham and Bath, along with a fair few 10 Km runs in various places, but I have to say Southampton, whilst a challenging route, is probably my favourite. Not only because it is the local run but the support on the day is fantastic, from arriving in the race village at the Brighterway stand (Thanks Ian, Dom and Daren), to those cheering you along the way and then the run in with people banging boards as you head to the finish line.

I did say that’s it, I’ve done it three times now, not doing it again, but…Watch this space”

Sam Burgess, Library Service Manager added;

“Sunday 5 September 2021 was the date for the much postponed Southampton ABP marathon, half marathon and 10k – all taking routes through Southampton, over the Itchen Bridge (at least twice) and through a few of the parks. Prior to that day I had never run a 10k race, and to be perfectly honest, I still have not run a 10k as I walked more than half the route. That said, I am very proud that I finished the course as it was a hot and muggy day and I have not yet finished my C25K (Couch to 5k running programme for beginners)!

So, you might well ask; why did I do this then!? Well, I needed a goal to aim for otherwise I wasn’t going to stick to my beginner runners programme, so when Brighterway put out a call for volunteers for their marathon, half and 10k spots I saw it as a great way to add some accountability without trying to overreach and attempt more than I could manage (still no plans for a full marathon!) I do not think that I would have considered tackling this challenge if Brighterway hadn’t offered this opportunity. While I did not deliberately choose Brighterway, I do feel that I could not have supported a better charity – one that seeks to find the need within Southern Health and supports our patients and staff in ways that the NHS may not be able to fund and that goes a long way to making a patients stay a better one.

How did it go? Well, a quick train journey from Fareham to Southampton meant that parking was not an issue! Finding the Brighterway tent in Watts Park was easy and I was promptly offered a bottle of water and a banana as well as the obligatory charity t-shirt. A quick change of clothing and I was ready to warm up and generally get myself ready. As 10am approached I positioned myself at the back of the pack in East Park as I know my limits; people seemed to be quite chatty and we could hear the blare of an “encouragement” horn somewhere in the back, and we all set off – some much faster than others! Gently jogging the first kilometre didn’t seem so bad, but as we approached Itchen Bridge quite a few people slowed down to walk up (and then run down the other side!). Then there was a tour of Woolston where a band played and water was offered, there were many people out enjoying the day and cheering us on with some offering jelly sweets or opal fruits for a quick sugary burst of energy.

The only problem was that we had to go back over the bridge to get back to the city centre; roadside encouragement was most welcome at that point even if it is rather disconcerting to hear people call your name (all the racing bibs had our chosen names on them) and shout “well done Sam” or “keep going Sam”! We then turned right and skirted St Mary’s stadium although the half and marathon runners got to run through the stadium, while we had to turn left after the stadium and go through the trading estate! We then ran (or walked) north up through East Park Terrace and eventually back down London Road and into East Park where the crowd was waiting at the finish line. And it was noisy – lots of clapping and cheering and much required encouragement to get us all over the finish line!

Reading that back, it doesn’t seem to be as long a route as it felt on the day! I thoroughly enjoyed taking part even if I can admit that I didn’t quite have the stamina to run all the way (next year perhaps?) I am very grateful to all those that sponsored me and gave me yet more impetus to keep going (my current total is £422 – all of which goes to support Brighterway!)”

A huge thank you to all of our runners, if you are interested in signing up for next year’s event please email daren.evans@southernhealth.nhs.uk for more information.