A project run by Citizens Advice Winchester District, in partnership with the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, has been shortlisted for an NHS Parliamentary Award.
The Citizens Advice Southern Health Project which provides one-to-one advice and support to people who are in mental health crisis has been shortlisted for an Excellence in Mental Health Care Award.
Debt and money worries, insecure housing or other stresses such as a dealing with benefits, can have a profound impact on a person’s mental health and can significantly hinder someone’s recovery.
The Citizens Advice project offers advice and support to in-patients at Melbury Lodge (Adult Acute Mental Health Hospital in Winchester) to help them with their advice needs – with the aim of increasing their chances of recovery and best prepare them for moving on from hospital.
Ling Salter, Mental Health and Advice Caseworker at Citizens Advice Winchester District who has been leading the project since it started in April 2022 says: “I’m so thrilled that this project has been shortlisted for an award. I’m immensely proud to be involved in the delivery of such a forward-thinking project and see first-hand the enormous difference our advice can make in aiding someone’s mental health recovery.”
Jon Prichard, Associate Director of Population Health and Equality for Southern Health said of the shortlisting news: “Having Citizens Advice expertise based on our mental health wards enables service users to start to address the social stressors that so often burden their life. Importantly, we have designed the solution so that the Citizens Advice service follows people from hospital into the community, supporting their sustainable discharge.”
A panel of national judges will now come together to select the winners of this year’s awards, with an awards ceremony taking place on Monday 14 October 2024.
Find out more here: https://www.southernhealth.nhs.uk/about-us/news-and-views/shortlisted-national-nhs-parliamentary-awards
