AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH!

An intrepid group of information services staff in Wakefield have raised over £500 pounds for mental health services.

The group of staff who work for the South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust, along with their friends and family completed a gruelling trek to the summit of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside, and Ingleborough – the three highest peaks in Yorkshire.

The group took on the three peaks challenge to raise money to buy exercise equipment for the physiotherapy department, at Fieldhead Hospital, Wakefield. Yvonne Rossiter, clinical practitioner in physiotherapy, established the department a year ago to provide exercise therapy for people with mental health problems. The aim of the initiative is to provide a service that supports patients in an acute mental health setting to improve their health and well-being through physical activity and health education.

‘The initiative has grown from the early days where we had no equipment, limited use of a hall and patients and staff who were unused to this sort of input in a ward environment,’ explained Yvonne. ‘We have now built a service that can offer individual exercise programmes, one-to-one fitness training, weights, hydrotherapy and a walking group.’

‘We are extremely grateful to everybody who took part in the three peaks challenge for raising so much money for the initiative. The money will be used to ensure that we can continue to expand the service and cater for individual service users needs – we will definitely make sure that it goes to good use. I’d like to say a big thank you to everybody that took part in the walk and for everyone that sponsored the group.’

Matthew Driver, IT systems officer, organised the three peaks challenge. He said, ‘We are really proud to have raised over £500 and are glad that the money will be going to such a good cause. On the whole it was a great day out, the walk was around 24 miles long, with the highest peak reaching 2414 ft above sea level, despite this, all members of information services staff did extremely well and everyone managed to complete the challenge.’