Cygnet Bierley – Social Hub

By Javaid Razzaq, Involvement Lead

In Cygnet Brierley we had a room which was boring, the room wasn’t used much at all, 1 or 2 hours it was being used a day and it was called a Tuckshop. This was where service users would come to buy snacks or any charity clothes they wanted and return back to the ward. Not much activity was going on and it was a room lacking energy and was in need of a makeover. Service users would spend time in the room, it had a few computers and service users didn’t really use them much, a TV screen which wasn’t getting used either.  

Here are some pictures of the room as it was…

Then one day Myself Javaid Razzaq and Parveen Hussain had a meeting with an expert by experience from Cygnet named Raf. When he came and sat in the room and we started discussing about how to develop the space and increase engagement and activities for service users, we decided to make a Social Hub, we would put lighting along the ceiling and floor, get a PlayStation 5 with loads of games, have some arcade machines in and put service users favourite posters on a wall as a theme. We turned the room around in a couple of days with the help of service users and now it is a room service users come in relax and enjoy themselves. It’s a room known as the ultimate off ward experience it was called by one of the service users, It has become a room service users go to when the wards are getting too much or when service users just want to wind down and relax, it has changed the way hospitals work and has increased engagement to another level.

Here are some pictures of the room now…

Thank you for reading Jav…