Welcome

And welcome to 2022.

Firstly, thank you for your continued support as we work to keep our patients, their loved ones and all visitors and staff when visiting our buildings safe. Although the government has eased many of the restrictions around COVID-19, as a healthcare setting, our priority is to ensure everyone’s safety.

Below you will read more about the restrictions still in place when visiting KMPT. If you have any questions please ensure you ask a member of staff.

We can’t quite believe it is the end of January 2022 already, can you? So far we have had our first Board meeting of the year and new staff members will be joining our Executive team in the coming months. Andy Cruickshank has been appointed to the role of Chief nurse, and will be joining the Trust in March from his current role as Director of nursing at East London Foundation Trust; and Donna Hayward-Sussex who has been appointed to the role of Chief operating officer, will also be joining in March from her current role as Service director at South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust. We will be catching up with both of them once they're in post, so keep an eye out for more news.

February is filled with days of celebration with Time to Talk Day on 3 February and Mental Health Nurses Day on 21 Februrary. Both are important days which highlight the importance of our industry - the need to talk about mental health and to recognise those that care for us when we are unwell.

With all these changes at KMPT, 2022 looks to be an exciting one! We will keep you in the loop every step of the way as we continue to grow as an organisation.

Thank you for your support and stay safe out there.

Changes to visiting and inpatient leave arrangements

To minimise the spread of COVID-19 and to continue to protect the safety of our patients, their loved ones and our staff, we are following a controlled approach as follows:

If you would like to visit a patient on our wards Visits should be made by appointment only, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

All visits will take place in a dedicated, ventilated room with enough space for safe social distancing.

The maximum visiting time is one hour. 

We would kindly ask that visitors:

Take a lateral flow test before arriving and do not visit if you or any member of your house

have a positive diagnosis of COVID-19

• Wear a face covering at all times, unless medically exempt
• Wash and sanitise your hands before and after your visit
• Bring as few personal belongings with you as possible, including gifts and food for the person you are visiting

If an inpatient tests positive with COVID-19

For inpatients with COVID-19, isolation has been reduced to 10 days after the onset of symptoms or their first positive COVID-19 test if they do not have any symptoms, provided the individual no longer has a fever and has no underlying severe immunosuppression.

If the patient continues to present with a fever, isolation must continue until they are fever free for 48 hours. A cough or a loss of, or change in, normal sense of smell or taste (anosmia), may persist in some individuals for several weeks, and are not considered an indication of ongoing infection when other symptoms have resolved.

If an inpatient comes into contact with someone who tests positive with COVID-19

Inpatients who come into contact with a positive COVID-19 individual will need to isolate and have regular testing. This time has been reduced to 10 days.

We know this is a challenging time and all of us at KMPT thank you for playing your part in keeping our patients, staff and community safe.

The PATH hub is now live!

PATH is an EU-funded project which enables women, families and healthcare professionals to prevent, diagnose and successfully manage mild and moderate perinatal mental health issues.

KMPT is one of the partner organisations in the project and have been working on a whole host of activities including a national campaign, training opportunities and the new resources hub.

The hub contains information, advice and support for families, healthcare professionals and employers.

You can find the hub here

Families' section

In the families' section is aimed at those who are thinking about having a baby, pregnant or have had a child in the last two years. There's check-lists of things to think about if you're planning a family, practical tips for caring for your baby as well as support for your own mental health and wellbeing as a new parent.

Take a look here

Healthcare professionals section

The healthcare professionals' section has been designed to support those caring for expectant and new parents who might be showing signs of mental illness. There's advice and tips for recognising the signs and how to support parents during this period effectively and appropriately. A wide-range of topics are addressed in the resources section.

Take a look here

Employer's section

Communicating with staff who are expecting or have recently had a child can be difficult to navigate and that's where PATH is here to support. The employer's section of the hub contains a wealth of information and best practise for employers so that they can best support their staff.

Take a look here

As well as these sets of resources, the hub has sections for support during pregnancy, who to contact if you need support now and addresses the stigma associated with perinatal mental illnesses. It's so important to work together to encourage new mums and their loved ones to talk about perinatal mental health and that's why we the project wants to provide a space and the tools for people to speak about their experiences.

The first step towards this goal has been working with Sandra Igwe, best-selling children’s author and founder of The Motherhood Group, and Mark Williams, mental health campaigner and founder of Fathers Reaching Out, to tell their stories of PMI and share our collective voice to reach those who might be suffering and unaware of how to seek the help they need.

You can view the animations here

If you have any questions about the project or would like to learn more, please contact kmpt.path@nhs.net

Join KMPT

The National Health Service (NHS) is one of the largest employers in the world, and is the biggest in Europe, with over 1.3 million staff.

KMPT employs over 3,250 staff who are talented, passionate and committed to providing the best care and treatment for users of our services throughout Kent and Medway. We’re also proud of our team of more than 300 volunteers, who provide a range of support including chaplaincy, gardening and befriending services.

As an NHS trust, we’re able to provide our staff with access to one of the most competitive and flexible benefits packages offered by any employer in the UK. We focus on our valued workforce in a number of ways including our provision of a clear and structured progressive pay scale, a generous pension scheme, learning and development opportunities, an active health and wellbeing programme, and we’re working hard to provide further, varied benefits that make a difference to our colleagues’ work-life balance.

We provide mental health, learning disability and specialist services, serving 1.8 million people across the county, and we take pride in our services which are underpinned by our Trust values:

• Respect - We value people as individuals, we treat others as we would like to be treated.
• Openness - Work in a collaborative, transparent way.
• Accountability - We are professional and responsible for our actions.
• Working together - We work together to make a difference for our service users.
• Innovation - We find creative ways to run efficient, high quality services.
• Excellence - We listen and learn to continually improve our knowledge and ways of working.

We’re continuing with our work to create an environment that offers equal opportunities for all; where we can ALL be ourselves.

We have a varied range of roles, with plenty of opportunities to learn, grow and progress within our Trust. If you really want to make a change, enjoy a new challenge or even learn something totally new, we could have just the role for you – or someone you know!

Visit our careers page to view our current vacancies and see why our colleagues are #KMPTProud to work here. 

New ‘Help’ campaign

On 17 January, NHS England and NHS Improvement launched a new mental health campaign to highlight that feelings of anxiety and depression can affect us all - and the NHS is here to help.

The NHS provides a range of talking therapies for common mental health issues such as anxiety and depression which are free, effective and confidential.

The ‘Help’ campaign will encourage anyone experiencing common mental health problems to seek help from these NHS services – either by referring themselves, or by contacting their GP. There are lots of different ways of accessing this support including in-person, by video consultation, telephone and interactive text,

The campaign uses lyrics from the Beatles’ song ‘Help’ to bring to life the message that anyone can experience feelings of anxiety and depression, and that it’s totally normal to ask for help. Sony and Apple Corps have kindly gifted the NHS the rights to the song in support of the NHS and mental health.

Famous faces from across music and radio, including Craig David, Tom Grennan, Laura Mvula, Nicola Roberts, Ella Henderson, Max George, as well as an NHS therapist and real people who have benefited from the NHS mental health Talking Therapy services, are supporting the campaign in a powerful new video, featuring the lyrics of ‘Help!’, which calls on people who are struggling to reach out for support through NHS services.

Visit nhs.uk/help for more information