An innovative project by Sirona’s Learning Disabilities Nursing team and Healthy Lifestyle Service has won a prestigious national award.
Sarah Button, Healthy Lifestyle Service Manager; Dee Buchanan, Community & Primary Care Liaison Nurse and Emma Evans, Primary Care Liaison Nurse both with the Bath Locality Learning Disability Service, scooped the top prize in the Learning Disabilities Nursing category of the Nursing Times Awards – dubbed the “Oscars” of nursing.
Sirona specialises in providing high quality community health and social care services in South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset.
The trio’s Journey to Wellbeing project impressed the judges for offering joined-up support across services and the involvement of service users in its production.
The initiative is a fun, accessible and interactive toolkit which has been developed in partnership with Creativity Works and helps to support communication, change lifestyles, empower service users to participate and make decisions as well as raising awareness of learning disability services.
Sarah said: “The aim of the toolkit is it enables individuals to understand of the consequences of personal actions associated with health and wellbeing in a fun, accessible and interactive manner. We were so pleased and so shocked to win.”
The toolkit was created with the help of the Sirona Foundation, Sirona’s charitable arm, which aims to support the health and wellbeing communities served by Sirona.
Dusty Walker, a Trustee of the Sirona Foundation, said: “We had no hesitation when we were originally approached in approving this request for funding.
“The enthusiasm of the staff and the innovative nature of the proposal shone through and we are so glad that this has been recognised in this way.”
Jenny Theed, Director of Operations and Nursing for Sirona, said: “This was a fabulous achievement and I am enormously proud of everyone involved.
“For our staff, working across teams to ensure joined up services for people is the norm and they are always seeking new and innovative ways to meet the needs of all individuals ensuring that those who know best – the individuals themselves – are at the heart of the design and delivery processes.
“It is fantastic to have this recognised on a national stage.”
