Staff and patients at Wesham Rehabilitation Centre are celebrating the one year anniversary of the service providing rehabilitation care in the community.
The service provides a mental health pathway that sits between acute care and community living and reopened last year after a £9.4million investment.
The centre has 28 beds and offers people who have been in hospital, often for long periods of time, the support to regain skills and confidence with everyday tasks such as cooking, cleaning and looking after their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
The inpatient mental health rehabilitation service was previously based at Royal Preston Hospital, before relocating to Wesham Rehabilitation Centre in March 2022. To mark one year since the reopening and relocation, the centre hosted a celebration event which included refreshments prepared by residents and staff, welcome speeches, an acoustic performance by a resident and networking opportunities with partner agencies such as Pet Therapy, Grow Your Own, Red Rose Recovery, AFC Fylde and Carers Link.
The event was open to residents, former residents, carers and their families and was attended by leading mental health figures including, Dr Sri Kalidindi CBE, National Clinical Lead for Mental Health Rehabilitation for the NHS England and Improvement Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme. Suzannah Davies, Workstream Delivery Manager at the GIRFT programme and Clair Haydon, Consultant Occupational Therapist and Clinical Director for Mental Health Complex Care for North West England. Leading figures from LSCft were also in attendance and took the opportunity to introduce their peer mentor and volunteer system linked in with #RehabLegends, a charity that started in Plymouth.
During the event residents and former residents had the opportunity to showcase some of their woodwork, artwork, music and share their own personal success stories before a plaque unveiling.
One resident said:
“Being at Wesham has made me realise that I have a life to live and I need to look after myself. I cannot praise this place enough, it has changed my life for the better, more than I could ever have imagined.”
The centre includes treatment rooms, living space, therapy gardens and community café at the entrance. The centre offers service users a holistic approach including learning opportunities that help lead people towards happier and more fulfilling lives.
Emily Kaye, Consultant, commented:
“The last year in Wesham has been very busy but exciting. Our service has developed rapidly, with residents and staff navigating together the challenges of moving location, moving work and meeting many new faces.
Despite the significant pressures that the NHS faces, we have maintained our welcoming, compassionate atmosphere and continue to help patients thrive.”
Since the service began in 2020, 52 patients have worked with the centre, helping them on their recovery journey and allowing them to re-join the community and stay out of a hospital setting.
Emily continued:
“We have multiple success stories and these are reflected in our DIALOG scores. DIALOG is a subjective quality of life and treatment satisfaction score, where patients rate their satisfaction with 8 life domains and 3 treatment aspects out of 7. On discharge their total scores have improved by 14.43%.”
