NATIONAL SUCCESS FOR LOCAL NHS TRUST
The South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust has received a prestigious national communication award.
The Trust’s annual report, ‘Our Year’, has been named as a runner-up in the Nexus Annual Report and Primary Care Prospectus Awards.
322 NHS organisations, including hospital trusts, ambulance services, primary care trusts, and special health authorities, entered the Nexus awards, which have been a highlight of the NHS calendar for the past 11 years. The Trust was named as runner up in the ‘specialist trust’ category, which included entries from partnership trusts and foundation trusts, and was one of only 5 to be short listed.
The Nexus Awards are designed to recognise best practise and excellence in the production of annual reports and primary care prospectuses and judges reward informative, creative and cost-effective reports that meet legal requirements, but, above all, communicate effectively with patients, staff and the general public.
‘Our Year’ was produced as a magazine and distributed to all GP surgeries across Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale as well as to partner organisations such as social services, Mind and local voluntary organisations.
The Trust is legally obliged to produce an annual report which includes statutory information such as the Trust’s financial activities, management costs, performance targets and progress on waiting times. It also included a broad range of articles, such as why exercising is good for the mind, how older people with dementia are cared for and how Trust services have recently been modernised.
Speaking about the award, Jude Corrigan from the Trust’s communications team said, ‘We’re delighted that our annual report has been recognised by such a prestigious national award. We wanted to encourage people who may not usually pick up an annual report to read ours and discover how our services are constantly improving and developing to meet the needs of local people.
‘One in four people will experience a mental health problem in the course of a year and our report highlights the achievements of our staff and of people with mental health problems and learning disabilities, I am especially grateful to them for telling us their stories.
‘The beautiful front cover shot was taken by a young lady who uses our services and my thanks extend to her for allowing us to use the image. Hopefully our report will go some way to combating the stigma and discrimination that unfortunately still surrounds people with mental health problems and learning disabilities.’