25/10/2021
Sustainability at Fromeside & Wickham Secure Services
With climate change high on the global agenda, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership has declared a climate emergency and is committing to make changes to lower its Co2 equivalent by 2030. Here at the Fromeside and Wickham, staff with a passion for this cause have formed a sustainability working party to tackle the issue head on. The sustainability group consists of 12 members from a variety of professions and has been meeting once a month since 2019 to promote a ‘realistic sustainability culture’ among staff and service users. The group has actioned several goals within this time, including food waste and composting, recycling, fuel consumption and awareness events.
We have introduced small changes to habits within the Malago therapies department, such as switching off lights, radios and computers when not in use and at the end of the day. Despite initial concerns over infection control, a reduction in laminating has led to our use of plastic being reduced substantially. The unit’s training café has made a switch to reusable plates and cutlery; research suggests good quality reusable plastic has less of a footprint than paper plates because – once dirty – paper plates are only suitable for compost and not recycling. Most recently, staff have been encouraged to consider pencils as an alternative to single-use pens.
As a therapies team, we are promoting good habits relating to activities of daily living (ADL); ‘soft plastic’, such as, plastic food bags are collected during sessions in the ADL kitchen and are then returned to collection points at Morrison’s on a regular basis. On the wards, service users are collecting clean, empty crisp packets for a project to help the homeless; encouraging pro-social behaviours whilst reducing waste sent to landfill. The packets are turned into waterproof ‘bivi bags’ which keep sleeping bags dry. More information on this can be found at www.crisppacketproject.com.
But it’s not only staff who believe this is an important issue: service users have voiced their concerns regarding environmental issues; art groups have worked on displays to promote recycling and raise awareness of environmental issues. The Recycled Sea Creatures and Recycled Owls displays even gained recognition from the 2020 Koestler Awards for arts in criminal justice. The same service users also designed the sustainability group logo and, as restrictions begin to lift, the sustainability group will be welcoming service users to help tackle issues in the unit.
Having learnt that 24 million slices of bread are wasted in the UK each day, we are looking at ways to reduce food waste in the therapies department. Initially, raw fruit and vegetable waste is being collected and, along with old office paper, composted in a recently purchased hot bin; a receptacle that is sealed and rodent proof! This compost can then be used in gardening sessions. If the trial is a success, we may be able to roll this out across the unit.
A cooking intervention called Waste Not, Want Not, involves service users taking leftover foodstuffs to make delicious dishes on a Friday afternoon. This not only encourages creativity in the kitchen but also develops skills for independent living; budgeting, problem-solving and making the most of their resources. After the initial trial period, we have almost halved the amount of food waste generated each week. It is fair to say that this group has been a resounding success; feedback from two of the participants goes a long way in confirming this:
'It’s such a shame to let all this food go to waste, this way it’s good to use and makes a lot of sense.'
'I was shocked to learn how many slices of bread is wasted, and how much healthy food you can make from leftovers'.
Ward-based sustainability interventions have also been taking place across the unit with many wards starting their own mini veg gardens. One acute ward has started a sustainability group of their own to explore different aspects of the topic and how they can implement a more sustainable culture on the ward.
Looking to the future, we hope to build on our current successes. Another awareness event is planned for late September 2021 and we aim to continue to utilise the garden space, allowing everyone to connect with the outdoors. There will be fresh produce grown in the garden to taste, sustainable crafts for people to try and ‘Off the Peg,’ a second-hand clothes project run by the service users to promote sustainable fashion.
Below are 2 of the projects produced for the Koestler awards.
