Project of the Year 2022

"Recovery Road is a day program to promote holistic recovery for co-existing mental ill health and substance misuse in adults.

"We believe that addiction and poor mental health go together hand-in-hand. Mental health and drug and alcohol services are separate which is often confusing to the individual trying to seek help.Our vision is to bring recovery services together to promote long term recovery.

"The Day Program will offer the opportunity for adults to engage in a program of recovery that recognizes personal experience, alongside specialist support. Recovery from mental ill health and addiction is not a one hour a month appointment it requires a life time of change. This program offers an achievable and realistic journey of recovery.

"The provision would include:

• Assessment, recovery planning and risk management
• Opening hours- 10am to 3.30pm 7 days per week
• Additional activities and visits to fellowship meetings at a weekend
• Support for anyone referred from the hospital liaison team, crisis team and inpatients
• Peer Support
• Relapse Prevention utilising CBT approaches
• Strength based and/or 12 step programmes
• Art Therapy
• Life Skills
• Motivational Interventions
• Managing Emotions
• Mindfulness
• Promoting Physical Activity
• Educational Interventions

"Delivery would be in conjunction with the local recovery community, utilising Grimsby Mind for groups, NAViGO buildings, peer support, and links to The Fellowship and The ComeBack recovery hubs."

Project proposal from Lizzi Lamming

"This proposal suggests setting up a nursery for children of NAViGO staff. This is necessary for a number of reasons:

• The cost of childcare is extortionate with staff only working to pay for childcare fees – the NAViGO nursery would be a lower cost option
• The cost of childcare means that some staff are not returning to work after maternity leave. Having the benefit of an on-site, lower cost childcare option could help with our retention and recruitment targets
• A NAViGO on site nursey means staff can be on time to work and can visit children during lunch breaks.
• DPOW has an on-site nursery and the author has spoken to colleagues from DPOW who report they are so confident and much happier knowing their child is on site and being cared for close by.
• The offer would improve staff morale and offer a better work life balance being very quick and easy to drop off and collect their child at nursery before work.
• The suggestion has been made that a nursery could operate from the ground floor of The Grange building once the current temporary unit has been moved into the Manor and would provide an income stream to offset the cost of running the buildings on this site."

Project proposal from Lara Kitson

*Please note: if this project wins, the money allocated will be for a feasability study and not to create a nursery from day one, as this project is extremely complex.

"The Bridge is a two-pronged approach to bridging gaps.

"The use of Virtual Reality headsets will give service users an increase in choice and variety of psychological interventions.This will reduce wait times, access and DNA's (Did Not Attend). The VR does not replace the need for a psychotherapist but enables the therapist to address barriers to engagement.

"Anxious avoidance is a highly debilitating feature of mental illness, causing individuals to experience extreme distress in public situations such as being outside. This can severely disrupt relationships with family and friends, impact education and work opportunities alongside mental and physical health. This therefore has an impact on the wider community as well as those using our services.

"The VR will help people to re-engage with day-to-day activities, that they deemed impossible or unthinkable. In all the trials, patients who benefitted most were those with severe agoraphobia and those with the severe psychiatric symptoms, such as severe anxiety, depression, delusions, and hallucinations. Follow up in the trials showed the benefits were maintained after the six-month follow-up.

"Virtual reality offers a safe and controlled environment where they can try out new things without any risk of harm and increase confidence and control by completing tasks. The person learns that they can cope in these situations and behavioural changes can be transferred to the real world. We need to become more innovative to engage the younger population, as well as the hard-to-engage individuals. Speak their language and offer the impossible – recovery and wellness!

"We will underpin the additional choice around clinical interaction with some additions to our page on the NAViGO site. Working with our comms team we will develop the Early Intervention Team (EIP) area on the NAViGO website, incorporating the MARS service (under 25s provision) to create a platform for those who are under our care to be able to access specific resources on psychosis all in one place."

Project proposal from Vickie Nielsen

"This proposal is being submitted to accommodate the needs of both the staff and individuals who frequent the adult inpatient service at Harrison House.

"The Harrison House site are requesting funding for a gym and an additional space for a break out and quiet room, in the form of two storage containers.

"Following a cross-site discussion with staffing teams, the staff felt that a designated space for them to have time away from their working area would add great benefit to their mental and physical wellbeing. This would also create a space for staff to talk to each other about their working areas, develop positive relationships and reduce stigma. It would also be multi-purpose and allow for individuals who use our service to have time off the ward in a positive environment.

"The proposal of the gym has also been discussed in the Expert by Experience and staff rehabilitation forum, where individuals who are currently inpatients on Brockelsby Lodge have voiced they would like to see a gym area to use to improve their physical wellbeing. This was also supported by a discharged individual who sits on the forum and stated a gym would have enhanced his stay on Brockelsby Lodge.

"This proposal for a gym and break out room supports and enhances the holistic care being offered to individuals across the Harrison House site:

• promoting inclusion and interaction with others
• reducing social isolation through friendship and activity
• increasing physical activity and action on physical wellbeing positively impacting on individuals’ mental health
• supporting staff and service users to engage in different environments outside the ‘formal’ ward areas promoting positive interaction and shared interests
• supporting staff in accessing a gym area could potentially reduce on outgoings during the cost-of-living crisis."

Project proposal from Laura Cook

"We would like a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) to be installed in the garden area outside Konar Suite.

"Older People’s services are currently unable to access the facility at Harrison House due to inability to transport service users safely.

"The MUGA would offer an opportunity for both service users and staff to get involved in sporting activities with all the health benefits associated with exercise. The area would be open to Konar, the Janine Smith Suite and those within Grange and Manor, as well as other teams across NAViGO and could be booked out for evenings, weekends and weekdays around employee working hours.

"For service users, this not only gives another opportunity to get involved in regular exercise but would also be used to help with family relationships. MUGA could become a meeting place for families with their loved ones – Grandads and Nannas having a kick around with their grand kids or shooting some netball/basketball. Whatever sport best suits their abilities and choices."

Project proposal from Peter Ayangbile and Freedom Nwokedi

"The proposal is to update Harrison House café to create a welcoming and modern space both inside and out with a carvery and updated service offer and a new visitors area.

"Meal prices will be semi-subsidised to make them the affordable choice for everyone, a request identified in staff health and wellbeing meetings. Tukes catering service will have a dietitian, enabling us to educate our workplace, ensuring we are proactive and innovative, whilst meeting all necessary standards for CQC. Menu planning, taster sessions and NVQ’s would be available for service users and members, coordinated by a dedicated peer support worker within the catering team to assist.

"We are aware that the café at Harrison is due a makeover. Not just the front counter and appliances but menu choice and furnishings too. Staff often eat at their desks rather than in the café. The ‘lounge’ area for our visitors and service users is not a welcoming space and does not reflect NAViGO’s quality of service and standards.

"There is a need for a dietician within Tukes as the Catering Lead now oversees six sites, all with varying dietary requirements. The Catering Lead is also responsible for communicating any new legislation to the team and ensuring best practice guidelines. Having this accreditation will allow us to not only meet these targets but show that as an organisation we are not only developing our staff as individuals but have utilised this for this development of our service for everyone to enjoy.

"A new front counter at Harrison will include a carvery used for Sunday and mid-week events, a barista machine and a salad bar to include healthy options all at affordable prices. The dining area needs a replacing with flooring suitable for food, new tables and chairs, a seating area for visitors and somewhere that external training can take place for staff.

"A peer support worker will free up the cooks who have difficulty overseeing members and service users while cooking in an environment where health and safety is paramount. This person would be involved in preparation, training and supporting members with table service, helping to coordinate and encourage attendees to taster days and menu planning.

"The current structure does not allow for external training or the development of members for table service. In the kitchen, it is not possible to supervise while cooking and it is sometimes difficult to allow us to have more members. It is a popular choice for people to request to attend meaningful occupation of time in the kitchen and numbers are currently around 15. My suggestion is that this dedicated support worker in the kitchen environment would liaise with the navigators in One Front Door and staff and members in all the kitchens and would help front of house service in their training plan."

Project proposal from Di Clark