News

Maeve Hoey, a registered nurse degree apprentice at the Trust, has scooped the Health, Care and Public Services Apprentice of the Year award at the Cornwall Apprenticeship Awards.

The award ceremony, held at Truro and Penwith College on Friday 18 November, saw apprentices from across Cornwall’s business community celebrated at a glamorous black-tie gala dinner with the awards presented by Holly Day and Neil Caddy from Pirate FM.

Maeve became the first apprentice at her university to become a student representative and was nominated for Rep of the Year. This led to her becoming an Apprenticeship Advocate for Health Education England and part of the National Apprentice Week Build the Future campaign, where she spoke about how lucky she is to study her nursing degree as an apprentice.

“Maeve is such a deserving winner of this award, and I was really pleased to be able to nominate her for this category. She has been a real advocate for apprenticeships, within the Trust, the University and with her advocacy work for Health Education England.” Becky McSorley, the Trust's Lead Practice Educator who nominated Maeve for the award.

The Trust was also announced as highly commended in the Apprentice Employer of the Year (large employer) category.

“Even just to have the recognition from Becky alone was great, let alone be nominated and win the award. I was quite emotional on the night. In general, I feel like I’ve been through a massive personal and professional development to get to this point in my career, so to have my mum there with me, all excited and jumping up and down as my name was read out was lovely. Especially as she was the one who encouraged me to apply a couple of years ago.” Maeve Hoey

The awards are open to all apprentices and apprenticeship employers across Cornwall and cover a range of professional categories including construction, engineering, management, marketing, healthcare, and business.

Read Nurse Degree Apprentice Award 2022…

We are seeking 5 people to join its Council of Governors. We run community hospitals and a range of community-based care including nursing and therapy services. As well as providing mental health and learning disability services in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Elections open this week for 5 new governors to join us in March 2023. The 5 seats represent constituencies in the east (2 seats), west (1 seat), and our staff (2 seats).

The Governors form the Council of Governors, a committee that helps to shape our services and future plans. Anyone aged 16 and over who is a member of the Trust is eligible to apply.

“Governors represent our members and the wider public. They are a vital part of the Trust. We began working with governors in 2010. They are a crucial part of the Trust; helping us to improve people's experience of our services.

“They also help set the direction of the Trust and oversee how the board of directors manage the Trust. Governors have a particular focus on the work of non-executive directors. Members of the public and the Trust's staff elect most of our governors.," explains Margaret Schwarz, Chair.

19 people make up our Council of Governors. 11 public governors, 4 staff governors and 4 appointed governors. Our appointed governors represent Cornwall Council, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, Truro and Penwith College, and Volunteer Cornwall.

The council of governors meets 4 times a year. We pay governors' travel expenses for face to face meetings and site visits. More information on the role is available on the Governors webpage. If you are not already a member you can join online.

To discuss the role in more detail, email Margaret Schwarz, Chair.

An application pack is available from Civca who run the election on our behalf.

Contact them in the following ways:

• visit the Civica website
• call: 0208 889 9203
• send Civica an email
• text 2FT and your name and address to 88802
• write to: Civica Election Services, The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, London, N8 0NW.

We will announce its new governors on 7 February 2023.

Read We are looking for volunteers to help shape the future of our services…

Working in the profession with Elysia Merenda, Clinical Associate Psychologist

What does a clinical associate psychologist do?

Generally, we work with people with mental health difficulties in a variety of ways. This is mainly around assessment and interventions for their difficulties to help:

• patients, families, carers, professionals
• services better understand someone’s difficulties
• consider psychological theories and wider systemic issues

We work with people using a specific set of skills and knowledge gained from our training as clinical associate psychologists. This is under the supervision of a clinical psychologist.

We’re also trained in research, evaluation, and supervision. Some clinical associate psychologists, since qualifying, have gone onto managerial, research or academic areas still within their role. Some are at the fore in terms of the development of the clinical associate psychologist role. All of which I think demonstrates the potential of the role for someone to make their own.

What motivated you work in this profession?

I have always been interested in psychology and mental health. There are limited opportunities from pre-existing roles and pathways to develop. The clinical associate psychologist role was something new that enabled me to progress and learn more. As well as continuing to work in the field of mental health and help those with a wide range of, or at times severe, difficulties.

How did you get into the role?

I got a psychology degree and volunteered at a local Mind charity, alongside part-time hospitality work. I then gained employment at Mind. I also worked at a trauma counselling service as a triage worker within a small team. I delivered psychoeducation to individuals within the service and front-line mental health advice as part of a service and phoneline. I also gained additional experience as a support worker for a psychologist within a community mental health team. The psychologist was visually impaired. This meant I worked closely with him, as well as working within a multi-disciplinary team. I then applied for the clinical associate psychologist role and interviewed in Cornwall before moving here.

What are the best bits and challenges?

Being able to work (although under supervision within scope of practice) quite autonomously. Our team and manager are wonderful. Given the newness of the role, we’re luckily able to work in our own way. I feel really supported when needed. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue working in this way, which allows us individually, and in the clinical associate psychologist role, to develop further. We’re also part of the development of a new crisis service which aims to support those who unfortunately present in acute distress. This can be as result in a whole range of factors, including mental health difficulties. We’re trying to intervene as early as possible in their journey. We work in a trauma-informed way alongside our multi-disciplinary team colleagues.

The newness of the clinical associate psychologist positions is exciting. I suppose there are times when working in a more established role, where there is perhaps a blueprint, would be more assuring or containing. Especially given the pressures of the systems we’re working in where there is such high demand and need. But we’re learning a lot and it’s allowing us to grow.

What are your career plans?

I’ve been qualified now for a few months and having just moved into the team, I’m starting to settle in. This also means we’re still developing the roles. There are exciting potentials for what clinical associate psychologists will be able to do. This includes within our specific team but also more widely in the Trust. In some instances, this has been further training, management roles and prioritising research within roles. This is often neglected post-training in psychology. It seems very promising.

What advice would you have for anyone considering a similar career pathway?

It would be to get as much experience as possible in different areas of healthcare. Working in multi-disciplinary teams allows you to see the various skills from those across the professions. Having spent time in different work environments, would allow me greater understanding of the pressures, strains and contexts in which people work. After all, it’s those systems in which patients spend their lives, which impact them greatly.

Read Psychological Professions Week…

On the morning of Armistice Day, 11 November, Trust chief executive, Debbie Richards, placed a poppy wreath on the early train to London. The wreath will join over 100 others at the Paddington War Memorial for a poignant 11am service.

“I was honoured to place our poppy wreath on this morning’s train in memory of our fallen heroes. I am most grateful to the Trust colleagues, who are themselves veterans, who joined me

“The NHS and armed forces share the same ‘service before self’ attitude. There are military bases across our county and we proudly employ a number of military personnel in our services. I hope to see the number of veterans we employ grow over the next year as we begin to embed our Veteran Aware status.

“We also recognise the importance of supporting all veterans’ physical and mental health and well-being.” 

This is the second year the Trust has taken part in Routes to Remembrance which is co-ordinated by The Veterans Charity. Train operators including Great Western Railway support the transportation of the wreaths.

Danny Greeno, Chief Executive Officer of The Veterans Charity, said: “We are so pleased the train operators and so many enthusiastic supporters are joining us on this journey once again.

“The world remains a very uncertain place and with so much recent turmoil, it is events such this that help to bring people together and to remember those who sacrificed so much. If we needed such a reminder, we only have to look at the war in Ukraine, which is raging as we speak.”

Read Trust joins Routes of Remembrance 2022…

Stroke patients at Camborne Redruth Community Hospital are benefiting from a new project, which looks to provide a new variety of food options for those with swallowing difficulties.

A specialist team from the Trust are behind the project. Together they started the project to respond to the limited variety of food options for patients who are on texture-modified diets due to dysphagia, the medical term for swallowing difficulties.

The team includes:

• Lanyon Stroke Rehabilitation Ward speech and language therapists and dietitians
• hotel services manager
• facilities manager

Dysphagia occurs in 30 to 50% of people following a stroke. Minor abnormalities in swallowing may occur in nearly everyone who experiences an acute stroke.

Previously, patients with dysphagia have been limited to yogurts, custards, and mousses. Now, there are a range of hot, cold, sweet, and savoury options. This creates a positive change for the patients on the ward.

“We have implemented a range of snack options for our level 4, 5 and 6 patients, which have a range of requirements. Such as only having puréed foods, to a moist diet and soft, bite-sized diet. Examples of these options include puréed biscuits, puréed beans on toast and even puréed cheese toasties.” Rebekah Inkster, Speech and Language Therapist

The project has not only improved patient choice, it has also provided more opportunities for swallow rehabilitation, whilst optimising nutritional intake.

“The new puréed range of foods creates additional snack opportunities for our patients. This also provides extra options for patients who are declining main meals.” Rebekah

Since the project has started, the team has received positive feedback from patients. They have commented on how it is good to have different choices whilst on a modified diet. They have also said that the options taste exactly like how they’d expect.

“This is helping to reduce requirements for feeding tubes, including gastrostomies, as patients can meet their nutritional requirements orally.

“We have also developed communication charts covering these snack options to support patients with communication difficulties. This includes making their own choices. We believe that providing patients with these additional snack options will increase positive mental wellbeing and improve rehabilitation outcomes.”

Read Stroke patients benefit from new snack project…

The Trust will launch the new service in December following a successful pilot during the pandemic.

Thriving Together is a new mental health service. The service supports infants and children aged 0 to 5 years of age, along with their parents or guardian.

The service works to support parent and infant mental health by strengthening the parent’s confidence, and their capacity to understand and enjoy their early relationship with their child. Thriving Together reaches out to the most vulnerable families and builds upon existing positives within their child-parent relationship.

Thriving Together is 1 of just 40 specialist parent and infant teams in the country. With an aim to provide seamless mental health care, it works alongside:

• perinatal mental health
• maternal mental health
• community midwives
• health visiting
• the local council
• Best Start in Life
• community groups and programmes, such as Wild and Dad Pad

The Parent-Infant Foundation states that every baby needs a stable start in life to develop physically and emotionally. Early relationships between babies and their parents are incredibly important for building healthy brains. The first 1,001 days of life, from conception to age 2, is a time of unique opportunity and vulnerability. It is a period of particularly rapid growth when the foundations for later development are laid.

“From my role and experience within child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) I know that many mental health issues could be prevented with early intervention during infancy. If we can support and help with bonding and attachment during this critical phase of brain development, we can directly influence the promotion of emotional security, relational stability, and growth.

“Secure attachment is highly predicative of improved life chances. Including stable and loving relationships in later life, health, and opportunity. All families struggle from time to time. By getting help early and limiting the impact of adversity when times are difficult, we will see improved mental health outcomes. We can also prevent problems cascading from one developmental phase to the next.”

“Learning from neuroscience has taught us the importance of early intervention. Significant adversity can have a lasting impact on the infant’s brain architecture. Promoting the development of a secure parent and infant relationship is at the heart of Thriving Together.” Wendy Shallcross, a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, and Early Clinical Project Lead for Thriving Together

Wendy put together a business case and successfully set up Thriving Together in 2019 as a pilot in east Cornwall. Wendy worked closely with the Trust's Perinatal Team. The team supports mothers from conception until the child is 2 years of age. They work in partnership with maternal mental health services, health visiting, and early years specialists. The aim was to develop a specialist service where the focus was improved parent and infant relationships and mental health.

Shortly after being set up, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Wendy and her colleague, Christine Volney, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, knew that they needed to switch to online support to reach further afield and to help families in lockdown.

“We launched ‘Watch Me Play’, which was developed by Dr Jenifer Wakelyn at the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. We used it as an online manual for parents in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies show that early relationships shape babies' social and emotional development. As well as influencing lifelong health, behaviour, and learning. So it was essential that we made our service available to everyone through periods of isolation during the pandemic, not just those in the east of the county.” Wendy

Since the pandemic, Thriving Together has successfully recruited a service lead, David Pike. They have also developed a multi-disciplinary team which includes, health visiting, psychology and educational psychology, and parent and infant psychotherapy.

The team continues to offer a consultation service to all new referrals. They have also moved to face-to-face appointments to support parents and their children. Online support continues to be available for those that require it.

You can be referred to the service by your GP, maternal mental health services, health visiting, and early years specialists involved in your child’s care. You can also self-refer through the Cornwall Council's Early Help Hub online.

Alongside direct therapeutic help to families, Thriving Together also provides consultation and teaching workshops to any professional working in the early years.

“Thriving Together now means that there is a pathway right through from conception to infancy and to 18 years of age within CAMHS in Cornwall. Our next step is to boost engagement with fathers and extend our support to helping them feel connected with their young children.” Wendy

Read Thriving Together: New parent-child mental health team…

Local NHS leaders are calling on the public to heed advice and stay at home if they have norovirus to avoid passing it on to others.

The request comes as both acute and community hospitals across the county have been forced to close several beds this week due to outbreaks of the highly infectious bug.

“We want the public to be aware that norovirus, commonly known as the winter vomiting bug, is circulating in some healthcare settings and within the community right now. People can play a part in helping to reduce its spread though. I urge anyone who’s picked up this virus that causes diarrhoea and vomiting, not to go back to work or school until at least 48 hours after symptoms pass, said Louise Dickinson, Director of Infection Prevention and Control for both Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Although norovirus is an unpleasant illness, for most people it usually passes in a couple of days and the advice from the NHS is to treat symptoms at home, stay hydrated and prevent onward spread by washing hands regularly and cleaning surfaces in affected areas.

Louise added: “Many people might not realise, but the virus is often brought into hospital buildings by well-meaning visitors. We want people to be aware of norovirus so they don't accidently give it to loved ones they may be visiting in our hospitals. The same applies to any setting, including GP surgeries. Unless symptoms persist for more than a few days, it’s best to reduce contact with others, stay home, drink plenty of water and take paracetamol. If symptoms go on for longer, call 111 for advice.”

Read Winter vomiting bug closes hospital beds across Cornwall…

A national organisation has recognised the end-of-life care provided at 3 community hospitals.

The Gold Standard Framework helps frontline staff put national end-of-life policies into practice. They help staff deliver national standards to help people to die well.

The community hospitals in Launceston, Helston and Stratton all provide gold-standard care. Run by the Trust, each has achieved the highest standards and having maintained these for 3 years has enabled them to be awarded platinum status.

“This is a massive achievement for the 3 hospitals. This status shows the high-quality end-of-life care both hospitals give." Keziah Lagor, End-of-Life Care Facilitator, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Julie Armstrong-Wilson, Lead Nurse for the Gold Standard Framework said: “Congratulations to all organisations that have achieved accreditation and reaccreditation.

“The last 2 years have been an incredibly difficult time for all health and social care providers. Taking the time to complete the Gold Standard Framework accreditation is to be commended.

“Good quality end-of-life care has never been more important, especially due to the impact of the pandemic. Witnessing so many centres signing up to learn more and gain accreditation so they too can support people at the end of life is fantastic to see.”

Staff from each hospital received their reaccreditation awards at a ceremony in London.

Read Community hospitals recognised for their end-of-life care…