The Brambles - Patient Choice Award
We're continuing our spotlight on our amazing NHFT Quality Award winners who picked up awards at the event in November.
Over the coming weeks, we're asking them to tell us more about their role and find out why they were nominated.
"Winning a Quality Award is the closest thing to becoming a celebrity!"
That's how Lisa-Marie Waples described her team's success at the awards ceremony in November.
The Brambles won the coveted Patient Choice Award, an award nominated by NHFT patients, service users or carers.
"Everyone gives their all," said Lisa, "When we sit back and think about the work that we've done and the impact we've had, it's incredible."
The eating disorders service, based in Northampton with clinics in Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough, provides support for children and young people from 5 years old up to the age of 18.
Lisa, team lead at The Brambles (pictured holding the certificate with colleagues), said: "Being nominated for a Quality Award was great; everybody was thrilled. It came at a very busy time, but it just gave everyone a minute to stop and think we all do a really good job here, and we're really, really proud."
In fact, the two young people that nominated The Brambles for the Patient Choice Award have just been discharged in the last couple of weeks following successful treatment.
Lisa said: "When they were discharged, we had a wonderful card with a lengthy statement on the impact the clinicians had made on their lives and thanking them for what they had done."
The Brambles is made up of around 25 staff, including physical health nurses, mental health nurses, occupational therapist, doctors, dietitians, family therapists, administrators, and psychologists, who care for approximately 300, or more, patients at any one time. The team offers assessment, formulation and treatment to young people and their families with challenges such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) and binge eating disorder. Lisa said children can arrive at the service for a number of reasons including additional mental health presentations.
Once a patient is referred to The Brambles, they are allocated a care coordinator who is their main point of contact, and they'll have regular sessions, how often depends on the needs and severity of the presentation. Dietitians will carry out a review, and patients will be offered meal plans, and physical health monitoring. The service will also offer therapy which looks at family systems to support the young person in their recovery. Lisa said the involvement of the family is crucial, with specialists there to guide them to recovery.
Group therapy sessions are offered if appropriate, where patients and their families meet and eat together are also proving successful. The team work closely with the Intensive Outreach Team to support children in the home to prevent hospital admission.
Lisa said: "We're always learning by experience working with young people, which we share with wider eating disorder services and also learn from others to improve what we do."
The team at The Brambles have worked hard to create a welcoming environment for young patients when they arrive. That includes the introduction of Sipho the therapy dog (pictured) who belongs to one of the team and who helps make the children feel relaxed and able to open up.
"We feel like a family," said Lisa, "We're a very close-knit team. We've got Sipho here who has made such a difference. We have children who are emotionally dysregulated, and we say 'I think you need to see Sipho', and in he comes and completely de-escalates the situation."
The Quality Award recognised that The Brambles is helping young people at a critical time.
Lisa said: We received a wonderful card from a young person who was recently discharged from our service which read, "To the Brambles, Thanks you for all the work you put into leading me to recovery. A great team that has made my road a lot easier, we appreciate it a lot."
"It's the best feeling in the world when you can make such a positive difference. When families embrace the treatment and parents understand they're the most important players in their child's recovery, it is amazing. You watch them grow; you see the parent's confidence build. We've got lots of thank you cards which is lovely."
Lisa added: "We always say, when children arrive, this is rock bottom; there's only one way up and we're going to make sure we get you there."
Find out more about The Brambles at www.nhft.nhs.uk/cyped