Thanks to a grant from NHS Charities together received earlier in the year, Brighterway allocated funds to update a staff room at Elmwood Ward, Parklands Hospital.

Elmwood Ward is a 14-bed ward providing care for older people who have organic mental health needs and are unable to look after themselves or be looked after at home. Some patients have early onset dementia.

Following a meeting with the ward manager, it was highlighted that the staff required new items in their staff room to enhance and improve well-being. With a lot of the staff doing long days and having an hour lunch break, it was pivotal that there was an area they could go to relax during that time.

Items included a new toaster, chairs, kettle, coffee machine, mugs and plates.

Julie Bowles, Activity Co-ordinator for Elmwood commented ‘The staff in the ward are very happy with the new facilities that enable them to relax in comfy chairs and make nice food in their breaks.’

Brighterway have also provided further funding to buy shelving units for the ward. Allowing staff to access activity items quicker and easier, giving them more time to spend with the patients and removing the need to lift up boxes.

If you would like to donate towards Brighterway’s future projects, please click here.

Brighterway are proud to be working alongside No Limits to provide Christmas stockings to young carers.

No Limits is an award-winning, local, independent charity that was founded in 1993 by a group of young people and local organisations who realised that young people needed somewhere to go for information, advice and counselling. In 27 years, It’s gone on to support thousands of young people in Southampton and across Hampshire through their advice centre, specialist projects and drop in sessions for schools / colleges.

The charity also provide respite and support to 50 young carers. Prior to Covid-19, they were holding regular meetings, 1:1 chats and various group activities such as bowling and Paultons Park. However, as a result of the pandemic a lot of the face to face and group activities have been moved over to Skype.

Brighterway had been successful in obtaining a grant from NHS charities together, and this has enabled the charity to support local community organisations that focus on combating isolation and loneliness.

The £2,000 donation will allow No Limits to buy the young carers a Christmas gift. Carers can often feel alone and isolated, this will be a way of lifting their spirits and saying thank you for all the time they give in the year caring for others, often being their own parents or family members. It’s vital to maintain contact with them and let them know that people do care, even though the group activities have stopped.

Alice Mooney, Service Manager at No Limits, said “2020 has been a really difficult year for children and young people; we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of young people facing loneliness, anxiety and mental health issues.

We know from research conducted by Action for Children last year, half of Young Carers miss out on Christmas social activities due to their caring role, this year it’s further exacerbated by the Covid-19 restrictions.

For many of the Young Carers we support, they don’t get the opportunity to fully experience the magic of Christmas, which is why we’re so grateful to Brighterway for bringing some Christmas joy to the Young Carers we support.”

Brighterway recently provided funding for 3 members of the Specialist Palliative Care Team to attend a virtual study day.

Metastatic Spinal Cord Compression (MSCC) is a complication for palliative patients with cancer diagnoses and considered an oncological emergency. Recognising the signs and symptoms of MSCC along with how to manage it is crucial in ensuring patients have the best possible outcome and optimal quality of life for the remainder of their life.

Kerry Newman, Specialist Physiotherapist in Palliative care, attended the training ‘The course itself was incredibly useful for us in the Specialist Palliative Care Team as it provided both up to date knowledge about MSCC but also about how other teams communicate across services.

Following the course, we’ve provided a training update to the rest of our team with a second planned in January. We’ve also reached out to QA Hospital in Portsmouth to create a better link between Trusts, as many of our patients with this condition are referred there.

The course has given us a better insight into what should be included in the patient information leaflets and have ordered some that are more suitable based on what we learnt from the training day. Along with learning resources for our own team that were provided from the course.

Overall, this day has provided us with an update of MSCC, a review of the current guidelines available for assessment purposes, a method for us to improve our assessment skills and enabled us to establish better links with other trusts locally.

Thank you to Brighterway for funding this opportunity to support the development of our team.’

Back in April, Brighterway were successful in receiving a £35,000 grant from NHS Charities Together. The money has been allocated to go towards projects that support the health and well-being of staff at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust in the ongoing pandemic.

Southampton Older People’s Mental Health (OPMH) team were one of the teams to benefit from the grant. The team of doctors, nurses and administrators are currently working on a two week rota between home and the office to help adhere to social distancing.

Throughout the pandemic, feelings of anxiety and isolation from working from home have been highlighted within the team. The senior management team wanted to find a way to combat those feelings and decided on ‘staff morale and well-being check in’ sessions.

The lunch-time sessions were designed to give staff time to catch up with colleagues, relax and take some time out for themselves.

Thanks to the grant from NHS Charities together, Brighterway have been able to allocate money to provide food and drink at the sessions, ranging from chocolate to tea.

Sammie Duer, team leader for Southampton OPMH commented ‘The staff have been so supportive of one another during such a difficult time and always put their patients first. It’s a nice way to show staff they are valued, appreciated and all their hard work has been acknowledged.

It is important to preserve staffs wellbeing and mental health, so doing sessions like this will really help and give them something to enjoy’

Brighterway were recently successful in receiving a further £50,000 from NHS Charities together to help staff and patients during the second lockdown. If you would like to contribute to our COVID-19 appeal, please visit our Justgiving page.

Did you know that you can support Brighterway when doing your Amazon shop?

Brighterway have recently signed up to Amazon Smile, which allows you to contribute to the charity without it costing you a penny. We’ve provided the link to sign up below.

It’s the same shopping experience for you, but Amazon donate 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to the charity of your choice – no fees, no extra cost.

So next time you shop on Amazon, please consider choosing Brighterway as your charity and help us to make a difference.

Please remember you must use smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com when purchasing your items for the donation to be made.

To pick Brighterway as your chosen charity, please click the link below or search ‘Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust General Fund’ in the charity search bar.

To sign up, visit – https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1089307-0

Please note: If you use the Amazon app, please make sure Amazon smile is turned ON.

On the app go to Settings > Amazon Smile > Generating donations ON

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Brighterway have recently supported a new project within the specialist palliative care team, following on from a generous donation they received.  The donation had a specific request to be used for education in the team and enhancing the care they provide to palliative care patients across South East Hampshire.

The team were keen to enhance the bereavement support they offer. For many years they have sent a card to the patient’s families and carers a few weeks after their bereavement, just to say they are still thinking of them and to enclose information regarding local bereavement support available to them.

This is often at a point when the rawness of emotions are still present but the initial intense emotional support from family and friends may have waned, and we have found that many benefit from this contact and the offer of bereavement signposting.

The donated money held within the Brighterway fund has enabled them to purchase some lovely quality cards. Previously the team had to ‘create their own’ cards which were printed on paper and didn’t always reflect the quality of what they wanted to offer in a bereavement card. Feedback received so far from families and carers has been very positive.

Juliet McCormack, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, was delighted to receive the donation, she says ‘We remain hugely appreciative of the generosity of individuals donating into the Brighterway Charity and hope that examples such as this enhance and improve our patient’s families and carers experiences and their care.’