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Our Trust is working to make mental health care in emergency departments more compassionate, purposeful and timely. As part of that commitment, a new pilot has launched at St George’s Emergency Department (ED) to provide immediate support to people arriving with mental health needs.

A project is aiming to make the care of our inpatients more purposeful and recovery focused. The Purposeful Admission project, part of the Adult Patient Journey programme, has created a new way to make the reasons a patient has been admitted really clear. This helps staff to provide great care and help patients work towards their recovery.

Our Trust is working towards ensuring patients are seen in the most timely way possible – and supporting those who need to wait to be seen. To address this, our Community Service Line is launching a pilot project aimed at service users who have been waiting 90 days or more for treatment in the community. The project, Staying Connected While You Wait, is part of a Quality Improvement collaborative designed to ensure that people waiting for treatment feel connected to our services.

Tony Garcia has been named as the March 2025 winner of the Trust’s Exceptional People Award. Tony , Store Keeper in the Portering Team at Springfield, has been at the Trust for over 30 years, and is well known for always going the extra mile to help teams with last minute deliveries and various tasks.

Dr Ilenia Pampaloni, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead for the National OCD Service, is a finalist in the BBC All in the Mind Award’s. Dr Pampaloni was nominated by Duncan, a patient previously on an inpatient ward at Springfield University Hospital. The awards recognise the unsung heroes that support people who are struggling with their mental health.

The bank holiday can be a welcome break for many, but for others, it may feel isolating, overwhelming, or emotionally challenging, especially when usual routines are disrupted, and many services are closed. If you’re struggling with your mental health this Easter bank holiday, you are not alone. Here’s how to find help and support during the long weekend.

Having a relative or friend as an inpatient at a psychiatric ward can be an incredibly challenging time.  To address this, our Trust’s Recovery College, Acute and Urgent Service Line staff, and carers, have co-developed a new course called ‘Friendly Wards’. Designed to tackle some of the immediate needs of carers, the course is open to anyone caring for an individual who has been admitted onto a ward within the Trust. 

We celebrated a major milestone in our mental health awareness programme, having now trained 200 people in Mental Health First Aid courses. The achievement was marked with a special training session delivered for Healthwatch colleagues, and office staff working for Members of Parliament representing constituencies across South West London.

This Mental Health Awareness Week we took the opportunity to meet some of our amazing staff providing a range of professional support within the community through our Integrated Recovery Hubs.

The theme for Mental Health Awareness Week this year is community, and what better way to celebrate than by showcasing our 32-acre community asset located at the heart of Springfield Village in Tooting.

Today, over 150 mental health leaders, clinicians, community partners, and people with lived experience of mental ill health gathered at Everyday Church in Wimbledon for the annual South West London Mental Health Conference.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, and in recognition of this year’s theme of community, we are proud to share R-I-S-E: From Pain to Purpose, a powerful short film created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police. The film explores resilience, recovery, and the reality of living with mental health and substance use challenges.

ForInternational Nurses Day we spoke to mental health nurse Dr. Rosemary Jambert-Gray, who is marking an incredible 50 years in nursing.

In honour of International Nurses Day, our Chief Nurse, Sharon Spain, shares a heartfelt message of thanks and recognition for the incredible dedication of our nursing teams across the Trust.

We are proud to support Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, which runs from 12–18 May. Led by the Mental Health Foundation, their chosen theme for this year “Community” offers a powerful reminder that connection, belonging, and mutual support are fundamental to our mental wellbeing.

Patients and staff at Ellis Ward, Tolworth Hospital, recently celebrated the opening of a brand-new garden space. It provides a calm, welcoming area designed to support wellbeing and recovery.

As our Trust marked the start of Tolworth Hospital’s £110m redevelopment, voices from those at the heart of mental health care took centre stage. Among the speakers at our groundbreaking ceremony last month were Ava and Howard Mintz, long-standing members of the Trust’s Lived Experience Network. Their presence reflected the Trust’s commitment to co-production and the vital role that patients and carers continue to play in shaping compassionate, patient-centred care in South West London.

This Patient Experience Week is a chance to recognise the strength and hope that personal journeys bring to mental health care. At our Trust, we know that shared experiences with someone who understands helps many in their journey to recovery. 

Our colleagues are working in lots of different ways to provide better care for our patients. To do this, we all need to make sure we are working towards the four principles of the Adult Patient Journey. Burntwood Villas rehabilitation service cares for people who may have spent a long time in inpatient services. It is designed to empower people to live as independently as possible before they rejoin the community.

In order to provide better care to our patients, clinicians are working in lots of different ways to tackle our challenges and working in line with the four principles of the Adult Patient Journey – that care:

• Is purposeful
• Avoids crisis
• Is timely and least restrictive
• I s recovery focused