World Health Organisation best practice award for health in prisons 2007: Rethink's Swinfen Hall Prison and Young Offenders Institution
A prison project run by Rethink has played a significant role in winning a prestigious award.
The World Health Organisation has awarded Swinfen Hall Prison and Young Offenders Institution (YOI) a best practice award for health in prisons. Only 14 of these awards have been made across Europe this year.
Rethink’s innovative Healthy Living Centre is a major part of the award winning healthcare programme at Swinfen Hall.
The Healthy Living Centre builds mutual respect and understanding between staff and prisoners and is built into the prison’s reducing re-offending action plan. The raised self-esteem and confidence enables the young offenders to assess how their behaviour affects their health and to identify positive changes they can make.
There are nine places on each 12-week programme, which is funded by South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust.
The Healthy Living Centre builds mutual respect and understanding between staff and prisoners and is built into the prison’s reducing re-offending action plan. The raised self-esteem and confidence enables the young offenders to assess how their behaviour affects their health and to identify positive changes they can make. (Read our press release on Rethink's role in winning the WHO award)
Children and Young People’s Services Award 2006: Rethink Safe House Youth Groups
These new national awards recognise and celebrate the best that is being achieved throughout the UK in work aimed at improving the lives of children and young people.
Our Southampton youth groups project won the Wellbeing Award for making the biggest contribution to improving the mental health of children or young people, or improving services available to them.
The Safe House Youth Groups are a Rethink group which meets three times a week for young people aged 13 to 25 with mental health issues. Through projects such as Safe House, Rethink is trying to help young people in the crucial two years after a mental health condition becomes apparent. Without action then, their chances of leading a normal life are slim.
(Please note the Safe House is now not accepting any new members due to it being at full capacity)
Investing in Volunteering Award 2006: Rethink Northern Ireland
This is the UK award that recognises best practice in employer supported volunteering.
Rethink Northern Ireland was given the award for the standards achieved with its volunteer programme.
There are over 40 active volunteers in a variety of roles and the award shows Rethink Northern Ireland meets stringent quality standards governing its recruitment, training, development and management of volunteers.
NHS Live Award for Innovation and Improvement 2005: Rotherham Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Service
This award recognises an individual or team that has made a real difference to delivering healthcare by coming up with a new and original idea or concept that has a positive impact on patients, users, carers or staff; that changes the way care is delivered and that can be applied to other services.
The Rotherham Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Service was commended in 2005 as ‘a shining example of fully integrated multi-agency service provision’.
The service is delivered in a partnership with Doncaster and South Humber Healthcare NHS Trust and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. Rethink manages the crisis accommodation. The service offers access for people in crisis within two hours of referral and the integrated team has substantially cut down on hospital bed occupancy and has improved the standard of care offered to those admitted.
NIMHE Positive Practice Awards 2004: Somerset Floating Support Service
This award recognises and rewards some of the most positive work in mental health happening in England, and is awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health in England (NIMHE).
Our floating support service was highly commended.
The service supports individuals in their own homes on a planned and regular basis for a period of up to two years and for up to ten hours a week.
The service is funded by Supporting People and works closely with local Community Mental Health Teams, who are the main source of referrals. Clients are passed back to the Community Team if they need care rather than support.
People’s Places Awards 2004: The Bungalow
These awards were given by BTCV so that communities could bring about small-scale improvements to their neighbourhood environments. The projects taught new skills and increased employment prospects for those involved as well as promoting community spirit and social interaction.
We were given an award for a gardening project that developed the grounds around a Rethink building in Bristol, involving people who use mental health services and volunteers in the planning and implementation.
The Bungalow was a community-based service providing group support and one-to-one recovery support in Bristol. It is now part of Rethink’s Bristol community support services.
(Please note the Bungalow was reconfigured to be part of Bristol Community support in 2006)
