Forward Thinking Birmingham’s STICK team shortlisted for prestigious Nursing Times Award
Our Forward Thinking Birmingham STICK team have been named as finalists in this year’s prestigious Nursing Times Award.
Our colleagues have been shortlisted in the ‘Nursing in Mental Health’ category for their work in delivering early help for children and young people across Birmingham.
When launching last autumn the aim was to work in partnership to provide Screening, Training, Intervention, Consultation and Knowledge (STICK) to young people, parents and professionals to provide timely support in creative and innovative ways not traditionally seen within mental health services.
Since then, a host of work has taken place working alongside teachers and social care staff, who are best placed to provide early help, to improve their knowledge, confidence and skills to support young people in an environment familiar to them; identifying what intervention would be the most effective for the individual.
This is important as often the children and young people who access the service have previously struggled to engage with more mainstream therapy.
A great example of how this has worked was a recent residential weekend attended by 18 young people. It allowed for staff and patients to benefit from talking therapy whilst queuing for a zip slide or sitting round a campfire. Traditional services would not have afforded these opportunities.
Erin Docherty, Senior Lead Nurse with our STICK team said:
“We’re delighted to have received the news of the shortlisting and we hope that the approach to early help we’ve taken in Birmingham can be showcased to others across the country as something to consider.
“I’m hugely proud to be able to lead a team that live out their passion, values and are committed to getting it right for every child and young person.”
Well done and good luck to our STICK team for the awards ceremony tonight (30 October).