Vaughan Miles, Gwenda Thomas AM and John Abbott, Hafal Campaign Manager
“I was surprised and shocked that I’d been nominated. You don’t expect to have awards for the work you do, it’s quite humbling to be nominated for something and I actually felt quite emotional when I won.”
Those are the words of Community Psychiatric Nurse, Vaughan Miles, winner of the Service User Nomination for Outstanding Nursing Contribution at the Mental Health and Learning Disability Nursing awards.
The awards, which are now in their fourth year, were recently presented by Gwenda Thomas AM, Deputy Minister for Social Services, at a ceremony held at the All Nations Centre, Cardiff.
The awards recognise the significant contribution nurses make to modernise our mental health and learning disability services, a contribution which, in the words of Rosemary Kennedy, Chief Nursing Officer for Wales, “often gets overlooked”.
This is a view that Vaughan, 49, who works at the Central Clinic in Swansea and has been a registered Mental Health Nurse for 20 years, agrees with. He said: “I think mental health as a speciality has long been overlooked. These awards were new to me, there must be a good few thousand people working in mental health in Wales and the awards should be promoted more.
“Winning the award is like a pat on the back,” said Vaughan, “but although it was me that was nominated the award also reflects well on my colleagues and the organisation as a whole, too. I don’t work single-handedly; it’s a team approach by clients and colleagues.”
Hafal Campaigns Manager John Abbott, representing the Wales Alliance for Mental Health, fully supported the introduction of the new Service User Nominated Award, stating that: “It is really pleasing to see that the views of Service Users have come to the forefront with the introduction of this award.
“There were numerous nominations from right across Wales and it was solely a Service User Judging Panel who elected Vaughan Miles as winner – not an easy task given the number and quality of nominations. Congratulations to Vaughan and all the other award winners”
Below is a full list of winners. This list shows the winner’s name followed by their organisation, the name of the award, what type of award it was and how much prize money was given.
Annual Mental Health & Learning Disability Nursing Awards for Wales 2008/2009 – Mental Health Award Winners
Stuart Jones, Hwyel Dda NHS Trust, Best Nurse-led Project, Organisation, £3,000.00
Nursing Team Ward East 1, Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust, Best Contribution to In-patient Care, Organisation, £1,500.00
Acute Care Service Managers, Cwm Taf NHS Trust, Best Contribution to In-patient Care, Organisation, £1,500.00
Amanda King, Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust, Best Mental Health Nurse (Older Persons’ Care), Personal, £1,000.00
Nicky Kift, Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, Award for Career-long Achievement, Personal, £1,000.00
Denise Robins, Cwm Taf NHS Trust, Best Health Care Assistant, Personal, £1,000.00
Vaughan Miles, ABMU NHS Trust, Service User Nomination for Outstanding Nursing Contribution, Personal, £1,000.00
Annual Mental Health & Learning Disability Nursing Awards for Wales 2008/2009 – CAMHS Award Winners
Julian Edwards, Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, Best Contribution of a CAMH Service by a Nurse working within Tier One Services, Organisation, £1,000.
Chrystelle Walter, ABMU NHS Trust, Best Contribution to Specialist CAMHS In-patient and/or Day Services Care, Organisation, £1,000.
Patricia Osbourne, Cwm Taf NHS Trust, Best Specialist CAMHS Nurse working in a community based service, Organisation, £1,000.
Annual Mental Health & Learning Disability Nursing Awards for Wales 2008/2009 – Learning Disability Award Winners
Donna Ford, ABMU NHS Trust, Best Learning Disability Community Nurse, Organisation, £1,000.
Suzanne Harris, North Wales NHS Trust, Best Nurse-Led Innovation in Learning Disability Services, Organisation, £1,000.