Themes
- Volunteer-led volunteering
- Arts for mental health
Background
The Friends of Fulbourn Hospital and the Community is a registered charity established in 1952. It is a group of people who support sufferers of mental illness, and also their carers, providing care, welfare, rehabilitation and advice. They also aim to increase understanding of mental illness amongst people outside the hospital. Funding comes through a subscribing membership and charitable donations. The group is run by a management committee, with no paid staff. They work in the hospital, and its wider related community, through the following projects
- The Social Group supports patients, particularly those who may be in hospital for some time often over holiday periods and birthdays. They organise regular ward parties and an annual barbecue, provide Christmas cards and presents, and place flower arrangements on wards. They also prepare home-cooked lunches for the monthly Forum Club (below).
- The Forum Lunch Club is for retired people with cultural and intellectual interests, who now have a mental health problem leading to social and intellectual isolation. They come from a range of backgrounds such as teaching, medicine, the church, business, law, the arts etc. Forum meets on the last Wednesday of each month, providing an opportunity for social and intellectual stimulation. It has run for 12 years without a break and is very popular. Following lunch, a volunteer speaker is invited to give a talk, and a wide variety of subjects is covered, ranging from poetry, music, and Victorian paintings of rural life, to medical work in Nepal and flying small planes in Africa. The talks stimulate lively discussion and interesting questions.
- The Millennium Arts Project (MAP) started in 2000 and is funded through charitable donations. It places Artists-in-Residence on the Fulbourn Hospital wards, in day-centres and related community settings. The workshops aim to offer pleasurable activities and intellectual stimulation, and include pottery, textiles, music and dance, professional storytelling and creative writing, landscape design and gardening. The work with young-onset dementia patients serves as a blue print for other PCTs and Mental Health Trusts, and in 2004 won a Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mental Health Trust ‘Good Practice Award’. MAP has proved very successful and it is hoped that in due course similar work can be developed and expanded, making it available to patients across the whole Mental Health Trust.
Role of Volunteers
The Friends of Fulbourn Hospital is run by a 17-strong management committee, all volunteers, some of them being carers of somebody with a mental health problem. At present the Friends have 70 volunteers overall, involved in the various projects. They are recruited from the local volunteer centre in Cambridge, Volunteers Plus, or by word of mouth. The projects are all different, but the organisation and running is entirely dependent on the help of volunteers.
The Forum Lunch Club is run by several members of the management committee with the help of a further 10 volunteers. They are themselves people with cultural or intellectual interests, and greet, socialise and generally looking after the members. The speakers are also volunteers recruited through contacts and word of mouth. As the club has run for many years and has a good reputation, this encourages speakers to come forward.
The Millennium Arts Project is totally dependent on volunteers, except for the Artists themselves who are paid on a sessional basis. They are highly professional artists with experience of working with mentally ill people, and each one has the help of one or two volunteer helpers. These volunteers are often young people needing work experience in mental health settings before pursuing a career in social work or hospital work or in arts therapies. This volunteering experience becomes a valuable step on the career ladder. Service users are particularly welcome. They regain previous skills, or learn new ones, which it is hoped will help them return to mainstream work.
Volunteer Recruitment Procedure
All prospective volunteers who take part in MAP must have a formal interview, an induction procedure covering risk, health and safety, and they are registered as a Friend’s volunteer for insurance purposes. They have to provide a GP note confirming good health and if they are to take part in any one-to-one work an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check is required. Such procedures are necessary when volunteers are working with vulnerable people. New Volunteers are always welcome.
For further information on The Friends of Fulbourn Hospital and the Community please contact:
Christina Rowland-Jones
Chairman
01223 881267
acr-j@tiscali.co.uk
Have a look at the website: www.fofhc.org.uk
