Arts Boost project recognised at national awards

16 October 2023

Hywel Dda University Health Board is celebrating success at The Patient Experience Network National Awards held at the University of Birmingham.

These national awards are the first and only awards programme to recognise best practice in patient experience across all areas of health and social care in the U.K.

Under the category of Commissioning for Patient Experience, our Art Boost project was awarded a runner-up prize.

Arts Boost is a collaborative project between our Specialist Children & Adolescent Mental Health Service (S-CAMHS) and Arts & Health Team. Arts Boost is designed to improve mental health and reduce feelings of distress in children and young people through the arts.

Katie O’Shea, S-CAMHS Psychological Therapies Lead Specialist said: “We are thrilled that this innovative project has been awarded excellence in care for patient experience.

“Our success is attributed to the exceptional collaboration with our arts in health partners, and the expertise of the commissioned artists in their integral role in creating nurturing and safe spaces for our young people.

“It motivates us to continue striving for excellence and innovation in our S-CAMHS service, always placing children and young people central to what we do.”

Angela Lodwick, Assistant Director, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities added: “It’s wonderful that the work of our Arts Boost team has been recognised at a national level at The Patient Experience Network National Awards.

“I would like to give special thanks to our arts partners People Speak Up, Small World Theatre and Span Arts who work closely with us to deliver our Arts Boost project.”

Also shortlisted at this year’s awards in the Cancer Experience of Care category was the Bevan Exemplar Prostrate Active Care Together (PACT) service.

Led by Helen Harries, Macmillan Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist and Chris Richards, Physiotherapy Assistant Practitioner, the new virtual service empowers people with prostate cancer to self-manage side effects of treatment and improve their health outcomes.

Helen Harries, Macmillan Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist said: “It was a pleasure to be shortlisted for the Cancer Experience Award amongst so many other great projects and to be able to demonstrate the value of the care that we have been able to provide to our prostate cancer patients.”

Photo: (Left to right) Katie O’Shea, S-CAMHS Psychological Therapies Lead Specialist and Kathryn Lambert, Arts in Health Coordinator

Note to editor:

Arts Boost is funded by The Arts Council of Wales and The Baring Foundation.