Our new division
I’d like to offer a really warm welcome to colleagues from Liverpool Community Health (LCH), who officially joined us at Mersey Care yesterday. Services including community matrons, community cardiac teams, district nursing, treatment rooms, speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, adult diabetes and adult dietetics, intravenous fluids therapy and community respiratory care will be delivered by Mersey Care and over 400 dedicated NHS staff are now part of our Trust.
It is less than a year since Mersey Care welcomed the former Calderstones into our organisation and then the Ambition Sefton service came on board. I don’t want staff to lose track of these developments - each group of staff are now part of our family and contributing to our great work.
I have made many new contacts and friends in these teams and I’ve been incredibly impressed with the quality of care and patient focus across our divisions. LCH – now our new South Sefton Community Services Division – brings new skills and a real focus on physical health into our Trust.
I hope we have helped to make the transition smooth, with visits and conversations from Trish Bennett, our Director of Integration, online resources, blogs and a comprehensive welcome booklet delivered to you - you’re all a valuable part of our services for the people of Merseyside and beyond.
(Pictured above: New staff from Liverpool Community Health mark their first day with Mersey Care outside the Biz Hub in Bootle.)
If you have any questions, your first port of call will be your manager and we also have a dedicated room on the first floor of V7 where you can pop in or call 0151 471 2498 for advice or queries.
Time to Vote
The next week should be a momentous one for our country and by the time I write next week’s blog, we should know the outcome of this year’s General Election. Many of you will be forgiven for being a little weary at yet another election – it is, after all, our third national vote in as many years – but they do tend to signal a time of change and a bit of a clean slate for all.
I’m delighted that the future of the NHS has been such a major issue for all parties during these last few weeks of electioneering. It will be interesting to see how the new Government addresses the challenges of managing that situation.
Our priority as a Trust will be introducing ourselves to any new MP’s in the area and, of course, to any new Ministers that are appointed. No matter what party wins power, our aims are the same – to champion the work of this Trust and to further the cause of mental health.
Below is a summary, but by no means a comprehensive, guide to what the three main parties are promising for mental health. There are, of course, more than three parties contesting this election and a useful guide to what party has promised what can be found here.
Conservative:
Labour
Liberal Democrats
Volunteers’ Week
This is the week where we celebrate the fantastic contribution of millions of volunteers make across the UK for Volunteers’ Week, which takes place from 1-7 June every year. We’re extremely proud of all our volunteers that support our services, participating in an array of volunteering opportunities across the Trust.
This organisation is extremely lucky to have over 500 registered volunteers with over 60% having direct lived experience of our services or caring for someone using our services. I’m also delighted that over the past two months, four of our volunteers have secured full-time employment - two of which have been employed within the Trust.
We’re also holding our annual volunteer celebration event on Saturday, 10 June in Walton Life Rooms from 11am–1pm. If any of our wards or services would like to develop volunteering roles for their areas please email volunteering@merseycare.nhs.uk
The Next Generation
Great to hear from local division about the student nurse pilot between Mersey Care and Liverpool John Moores University. Our clinical psychologists, Drs Lyndsey Holt and Christy Laganis, have been training second and third year nursing student to deliver psychological interventions.
With 96 per cent satisfaction and relevance ratings from the students, it’s good to know our expertise is supporting the next generation. The comments about how to really listen to patients were valuable to hear and one response really resonated for me: in answer to the question “What were the most important things you learnt today?” someone replied “Don’t ask what’s wrong with me, ask what happened to me”. I can’t think of a better example of a Just and Learning Culture!