I started my apprenticeship in 2019 with the Complex Care at Home Team based at Southgate Moorings Gloucester, this was the first job I had that gave me real responsibilities and opportunities to succeed, grow and learn. Before getting my Apprenticeship, I wasn’t sure...
This week's Team of the Week is our Integrated Community Teams. Working across Gloucestershire, our Integrated Community Teams (ICTs) bring together Community Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Social Workers, and Reablement Workers to work as one,...
Nominations are now open to join our Council of Governors. We are looking for seven new public Governors to join our Trust. Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust provides joined up community physical health, mental health and learning disability...
Lots of our hospitals are planning (social distanced!) parties and celebrations to mark VE Day this Friday. The hospitals would love to be able to decorate with banners and bunting, but we are having trouble getting hold of any! If you have any VE Day/Union flag...
The NHS in Gloucestershire has today come together to launch the ‘Every Name a Person’ campaign. The aim is to highlight its commitment to ensuring that nobody who loses their life as a result of the Covid-19 virus is seen as just a number or forgotten. Everyone in...
Female patients at Wotton Lawn hospital added their voices to International Women’s Day by developing a display of inspirational women throughout history. People on the 15-bed Dean Ward spent the weeks leading up to the day on Sunday (March 8) decorating the entrance...
Jessica Blakeman is Clinical Systems Development Lead in the Clinical Systems Team at Gloucestershire Health and Care. When did you start your training? It makes me feel very old when I say 1991! Who has inspired you most in your career? Many people but a few stand...
Wuhan novel coronavirus (WN-CoV) is a new respiratory illness that has not previously been seen in humans. If you are concerned about Coronavirus and feel unwell, call NHS 111 for advice and stay indoors. Do not go straight to a doctor's surgery or hospital. You can...
Expert by Experience, Ed Boait, has turned published author with the release of his first book – an autobiography documenting the first four years of his journey through mental illness. Schizophrenics Dream in Colour: Volume One is 37-year-old Ed’s personal account of...
A volunteer gardener has transformed the garden at Oak House, our 10 bed residential rehabilitation unit, in Hereford. Joe worked alongside staff and service users over a 6 month period, to turn the completely bare garden into an oasis of peace and calm. Joe has...
Every year there are 4,500 suicides in England, and around 13 people end their life every day. Men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women, and it is the leading cause of death in men under 50. It also affects many young people. Gloucestershire’s...
Are you a healthcare assistant looking for a new, highly rewarding challenge? We are recruiting to a number of senior HCA roles at Wotton Lawn Hospital, Charlton Lane Hospital and our Staff Bank. You will be working within highly motivated multi-disciplinary teams,...
A sizeable crowd braved the late afternoon heat to hear about developments at both our Trust and Gloucestershire Care Services (GCS) as the two organisations held their joint Annual General Meeting yesterday (July 23). The event, at the Friendship Café in Tredworth,...
People experiencing serious mental illness in Herefordshire will be helped to find work thanks to NHS-funded Employment Specialists. NHS funding has been award to 2gether NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Landau, a central England-based charity located in...
Are you a parent/caregiver of a child accessing CAMHS? Would you like to help develop an app to support shared decision making in CAMHS? Power Up is a mobile app being designed to help parents become more involved in making decisions about their child’s care and...
Veterans, reservists and serving members of the armed forces, and their families and friends, came together for a picnic in the park to mark Armed Forces Day. The event was organised in part by 2gether and Gloucestershire Care Services, working in partnership with...
Huge congratulations to a team of nurses from 2gether who have been shortlisted as regional winners in the Excellence in Healthcare category for the NHS Parliamentary Awards! People with serious mental illness are 30% more likely to die from cancer than the general...
In a collaboration between the Ministry of Defence, RAFA, 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust, NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we are making the final arrangements...
Package of support will overhaul approach to preventing mental illness, building on record investment in mental health services New measures will equip schools, social workers, local authorities and healthcare services to promote resilience and identify those in need...
There's lots of things going on across Gloucestershire for Learning Disability Week. The theme is sport and inclusion, and there's lots of sport taster sessions for you to get involved with. You can also visit the hospital to meet the staff and talk about your...
2gether NHS Foundation Trust and Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust will be holding a joint Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 23 July. The combined event, which is open to all, takes place from 4pm to 7pm at the Friendship Café, Chequers Bridge Centre,...
Jane Melton appointed to the post of Interim Professional Lead for Allied Health Professionals – One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (ICS) The health and care system is pleased to confirm that Professor Jane Melton has been appointed to the interim role of...
Are you a carer or do you know someone who is? Are you or the person you know accessing support that is available to them? Carers Week (10th – 16th June 2019) is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges unpaid carers face and recognise...
Children from across Herefordshire will be given crucial information about staying safe and happy later this month. Crucial Crew is held each year to educate primary school children on issues such as road, water, fire, cyber safety and emotional wellbeing. This year...
Do you regularly help or support a family member, friend, neighbour or colleague who has mental health difficulties or a learning disability? Do you do this without getting paid? If so, you could be classed as a Carer. Informal Carers make a big difference to the...
The theme of this year's awareness raising week is 'body image' - how we think and feel about our bodies. Just over 34% of people feel down about the way they look according to recent research. Being unhappy about the image we project to the world has a big impact on...
Colin I have been nursing since 1990 and qualified as an Registered Mental Health Nurse in 1996, I am approaching 30 years in the profession and have worked in all areas of mental health and learning disabilities in that time, at all grades up to my...
England’s top doctor has today welcomed extra safety checks that will be introduced by those offering cosmetic procedures to protect people with mental health problems. NHS national medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, recently raised concerns about the links...
An award has been presented to 2gether for our outstanding contribution to Quality Improvement in Mental Health. The Trust has been part of the South of England Mental Health Collaborative for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety since its inception in 2011. Work...
If you need a pharmacy this Easter weekend, here's where you can find opening hours. For Gloucestershire, click here. For Herefordshire, click here. If you need urgent medical help over the weekend, go straight to 111.nhs.uk.
Come along and help us celebrate the launch of Herefordshire's Perinatal Mental Health Service on Wednesday 8th May 2019. This event is aimed at relevant healthcare professionals as well as new and expectant parents. The event will take place at The Kindle...
The Severn and Wye Recovery College has launched two new digital manuals. The manuals were funded by the Health Foundation as a resource to be used both by the college and its students, and by other organisations and groups wishing to set up their own Recovery...
2gether's Clinical Audit Officer, Michelle Allen, will run the London Marathon on Sunday 28th April in aid of the Trust's Charitable Funds. Read her blog to find out how training is going. Five weeks to go!! That was the email I came in to on Monday which is scary but...
The Cheltenham Open Art Therapy Group (OATG) has been running for over two years.The group aims to promote motivation and creativity, routine and structure, social interaction, and expression of thoughts and feelings. Although the group is informal, it is...
Last year it was good, and this year it’s going to be even better! That was the message at the launch of the Hereford Times Health and Social Care Awards 2019. Sponsors gathered for a reception at the Hereford Times office to hear of plans for a new, bigger venue for...
2gether NHS Foundation Trust is holding a careers fair at the Europa Hotel in Belfast on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th March 2019. 2gether provides specialist mental health and learning disability services to the people of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire and we...
I received a phone call to write about my experiences with self-harm, it was ironic because only the night before, in a moment of insanity, I had self-harmed for the first time in 7 months. The first time I started self-harming was at 13 years old, I’m now 23 and in...
This is the story of my recovery from an eating disorder. I don’t pretend to speak for all people with eating disorders. I am sharing my own personal experience in the hope that it will provide some insight into what it can be like to suffer from this illness; also,...
²gether employee Michelle Allen will run the London Marathon on Sunday April 28 to raise money for our Trust charity. Michelle, who is a clinical audit officer, has been desperately trying to win a place in the ballot for six years. Now, after her name was plucked...
I’m a first year student at the University of Gloucestershire training to be a mental health nurse. I’m 6 months in to the course now, and I’m on my second placement. I’ve had the pleasure of working with the research team and I now work on a mixed acute ward which...
Hello, my name is Steve and I am a registered mental health nurse. I have been with 2gether for nearly 11 years. Before I got into nursing, I wanted to be a music and drama teacher, but due to various reasons I didn’t have the confidence to go to university, so...
I am currently studying Mental Health Nursing at the University of Gloucestershire and am in my first year of the course. I became interested in learning more about how physical and psychological conditions may be interlinked when my sister was receiving chemotherapy...
A recruitment fair is taking place to highlight the range of roles available in health and social care across Gloucestershire. The event, at Kingsholm Stadium, in Gloucester, on Thursday 21 February, from 10am until 3.30pm, is being hosted by the county’s health...
In thinking about this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week I have been considering what it is children need to experience good mental health. In a recent publication, the Division of Clinical Psychology set out 10 core needs we have as humans (see reference below):...
²gether NHS Foundation Trust is pleased to welcome new Non-Executive Director, Sumita Hutchison, to the Board. Sumita, who lives in Bristol, is hoping to use both her personal and professional experience to support the work of the Trust. “We are at an exciting point...
This year, young Carer’s awareness day is all about mental health. Nationally there are 800,000 secondary school children with a caring role. That equates to approximately 6 children in every classroom. This can include caring for a parent or a sibling with a mental...
The NHS long-term plan, published on 7 January, will save almost half a million more lives with practical action on major killer conditions and investment in world class, cutting edge treatments including genomic tests for every child with cancer. The blueprint to...
If you try to look up how common dysphagia is, you will probably see a range of statistics, but the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association estimates that more than 560 MILLION people worldwide live with dysphagia. So what exactly is IDDSI? What does it stand for...
Dysphagia is the term used to describe a problem with eating, drinking and/or swallowing. It can be associated with pain (odynophagia), coughing, or with a feeling of something getting stuck (globus), but the person may also be completely unaware of there being a...
Difficulties with swallowing will often have a big impact on the amount and type of foods which a person is able to manage. This can place people at higher risk of not eating enough to meet their needs, or ‘malnutrition’. It is not difficult to see why mealtimes for...
