(June 2023) Radio Stations and Podcasts

‘Does anyone have, or know of anywhere that has, an in-house radio station or podcast? It has been brought up by service users to the advocate and we wanted to do some preliminary fact finding.’

 

We don’t have a radio station or podcast here at Moorlands View, though this is a great idea. Moorlands View
Nothing like this at Forest Lodge. Forest Lodge
We have run a few different podcasts in the past. Stockton Hall

 

(May 2023) Swimming

“How do other services support service users to go swimming- in terms of assessing competence/ level of skill/ managing risk etc?”
We have recently employed a swimming instructor at Wathwood so people are having lessons, however we do have a pool on site so we are very lucky. However, if they did go swimming external to the hospital, if they have capacity they can go swimming like the general public and would be advised to only swim where they are comfortable and capable to swim. Wathwood MSU
I been to aquafit classes with a patient recently and accessed the water with the patient. It was more about ensuring the patient felt confident accessing the session rather than anything else, with the idea of the patient eventually going on his own. Clifton House, LSU (1)
I would have thought that a lot of that is down to life guards in the pool.  We assess generic risk as we would on general community access, and leave is agreed through MDT.  Individual patients just need to demonstrate that they will comply with the usual policies procedures of the venue along with general members of the public, or they are whistled out of the pool. I often have a conversation prior to gain people’s previous experience/expectations etc. Also for a first session I book ‘’open to all’’ with the ability to swim widths, get a feel for the water rather than a laned session so if ability is questioned then they do not need to go out of their depth. All based on each individual. Clifton House, LSU (2)

 

(November 2020) Outdoor Gym Equipment

In our service user meeting this week patients raised the possibility of having some outdoor gym equipment. In light of the lockdown it is probable that our gym will close also.  So I was wondering if any other medium secure units have outdoor gym equipment and where they bought it from and how it was installed etc. Any info would be greatly appreciated
We were looking into purchasing Gym equipment for outside earlier this year however this has stalled with the pandemic and our gym has been going throughout. The wards operate in Bubbles and attend daily and then the gym is fully cleaned down after each session. I will speak to the head of sports when he returns, as he was the one looking at the equipment suggested for outside.- Wathwood
We are still running a revised gym programme, more 1:1 with strict ipc regimes. We have previously looked at outdoor gym stuff and not progressed due to medical device classification, need to training and supervised use and reduced access as a result to outdoor space – Newton Lodge
We are purchasing the equipment from a company called Wicksteed. And for the 4 pieces of equipment and installation the cost is £15,476, and to my knowledge this is being funded by capital funding. – Moorlands View
We do not have outdoor gym equipment but we have exercise bikes on some wards and table tennis tables, these proved to be very popular in the lockdown in March, and of course the weather was much better so we could play football, badminton volley ball etc in the ward gardens – Cheswold Park
We looked at outdoor gym equipment for Newhaven but found that it is classed as medical equipment which caused difficulties with health and safety, maintenance contracts and staff training for use etc. In the end we dropped the project. – Newhaven
I understand that each patient is individually risk assessed and in light of that anything put in place has to be inclusive/ risk assessed. Unfortunately we do not have any outdoor gym equipment though we encourage patients to use outdoor spaces for walking/ jogging which is great exercise. We also use the environment around us. We use a bench in the garden for dips and push-ups, we have a forklift tyre that we use for squats, lifts and drags that we had donated by a patients family and we are trying to acquire some battle ropes (Amazon) that can be used for various exercises. We are also in the process of setting up a Unit wide garden circuit with various stations for exercises that don’t necessarily need equipment. We currently run circuits with individual wards in the garden. All I can advise is try and be as creative as you can, the patients seem to enjoy the change. – Humber Centre

(May 2023) Swimming

“How do other services support service users to go swimming- in terms of assessing competence/ level of skill/ managing risk etc?”
We have recently employed a swimming instructor at Wathwood so people are having lessons, however we do have a pool on site so we are very lucky. However, if they did go swimming external to the hospital, if they have capacity they can go swimming like the general public and would be advised to only swim where they are comfortable and capable to swim. Wathwood MSU
I been to aquafit classes with a patient recently and accessed the water with the patient. It was more about ensuring the patient felt confident accessing the session rather than anything else, with the idea of the patient eventually going on his own. Clifton House, LSU

(October 2021) Wards mixing in Covid

A few services in the Network are keen to know what other services are doing in terms of wards being able to mix currently. Our understanding from talking to different services is that some are allowed to mix wards in certain situation and hold meetings such as Recovery College or Involvement Forums face to face perhaps with limited numbers etc, whereas others are still not able to mix wards in any way. We would really appreciate it if you could let us know the current agreements within your services for ward mixing so that we can get an idea of what this is looking like across Y&H.

 

At this time we are not allowing formally cross ward mixing both within the building and without. However we are aware that SUs are meeting up whilst using unescorted S17 leave. Bretton Centre
We are still unable to ward mix and can only do groups outside like walking.  Having a real impact on the delivery of therapy because everything needs to be 1:1 so capacity to see more service users is reduced.  We keep checking with our IPC but nothing has changed. Bretton Centre
We are mixing wards at Wathwood, Maintaining social distancing. Hand hygiene. Weekly individual PCR testing and encouraging the wearing of face coverings. Wathwood
Our situation is in flux, just in the process of seeing whether we have to go back to not mixing. Moorlands View
We are still not doing ward mixing in our service. We have had some wards with positive cases, so are still cautious. Newton Lodge
At Cheswold we are currently allowing mixing of wards other than males/females together however that is not due to covid. If there is a ward with a case of covid this ward is locked down and has no access to the off ward activities and therefore does not mix with other wards to reduce the risk spreading. Cheswold