The Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust announced the formation of its new charity, ‘Hope and Mind’, on Friday, October 10.
The agenda of ‘Hope and Mind’ is to ‘complement and transform’ regional NHS services, working to improve care for patients, their families, and the wider community.
A spokesperson on behalf of the trust commented: “Hope and Mind will support the trust to deliver outstanding mental health, learning disability, autism and community services across our region.
“Our vision is to achieve excellence in care, reduce health inequalities and challenge the stigma surrounding mental health and enrich every experience of support.
“Together, we can bring hope and create brighter futures for our communities.”
‘Hope and Mind’ will follow five key areas of focus in the effort of improving regional health services:
Creating welcoming, calming spaces that promote healing and comfort.
Enabling development and learning for patients and colleagues alike.
Supporting therapeutic and creative activities to improve physical and mental wellbeing.
Providing tools and resources that make care more effective and personalised.
Driving forward understanding, treatments, and breakthroughs in care.
The charity will endeavour to create ‘healing environments’ by transforming spaces into more comfortable settings.
This will be done through games and equipment for wards and community teams, sensory rooms, new furniture, or outdoor and green space improvements.
The spokesperson continued: “We’re also championing health and wellbeing – from music and art to nature and animal therapy, we provide vital resources for therapeutic activities that uplift patients.
“We also support physical and mental wellbeing through sports activities and resources.
“You also help us to support education and innovation through funding educational opportunities for both patients and colleagues – charitable support also enables us to focus on research and drive innovation to help shape the care of tomorrow.”
More details about the charity’s plans and how to support it going forward can be found at the website here.