A refreshed Parkview officially opens refurbished wards
Parkview Clinic, our Trust’s mental health facility, officially opened its newly refurbished wards last week.
The ribbon was cut on World Mental Health Day by Matt Boazman, Chief Executive; Daljit Athwal Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer; and former Parkview resident Sophia Badhan.
The Ashfield and Heathlands wards have undergone a complete £4.6 million refurbishment, with new rooms and living areas, providing every young person with a single en-suite room, as well as brighter and more accessible lounge and therapeutic spaces. The inpatient unit cares for children and young people under 18 and provides a specialist eating disorder unit, a general adolescence unit (Heathlands), and an acute adolescent unit (Ashfields).
This is alongside a new garden area, Woodland Walk, created with a huge thanks to our Trust Charity, and a new sustainable heating system which makes Parkview one of the most sustainable mental health clinics in the country.
Matt Boazman said: “I think it’s going to be truly transformational. World Mental Health Day is the perfect day to celebrate what is the culmination of three years’ worth of work, in terms of refurbishing all the inpatient wards but also transforming the outdoor space in the gardens. On a practical level, it’s going to make a huge difference for the children and young people who use the facilities.
“Before the work, we had a situation where people didn’t have much privacy, had to share bathrooms and the communal space wasn’t really fit for purpose, to a space today which is fantastic, calming and really supports dignity, privacy and that healing journey that Parkview is all about.”
This also represents a full circle for Sophia, who invited our then Chief Executive, Sarah-Jane Marsh, to meeting with patients which led to the Trust to make improvements to the clinic while she was a patient there.
Sophia said: “I’m really excited. It’s always a little strange coming back to the place where I was inpatient, but I felt that I needed to be here. I felt that it was really important for me to see the project full circle, having initially raised concerns about the way young people were living here and then seeing the new refurb. I’m so excited to see it and I think genuinely the impact that it will have on young people’s lives and their recovery is huge.
“You can’t heal in an environment that isn’t suited or built for you to be getting better. It genuinely makes all the difference just having places where you can have chats with family and have a little more of normal life is so important, especially in a hospital setting.”
Daljit Athwal said: “It is exciting to be here and see all the improvements that have been made. They’re going to benefit our children and young people, who are often here for a very long time, and also their families will be reassured that they’re in homely environments, that it’s not a hospital, and that they’re getting really great care. For the staff, it makes such a huge difference, and it gives them joy, that they’re working in a really great refurbished environment and that they can give the best care to the children and young people.”