Hello Lovely Members Welcome to the latest issue of our new snazzy, funky newsletter, thanks to our great designer Tim. This corker of an issue is bursting with news and pictures of magnificent developments in our members’ wards. Many thanks to all of you who have contributed these details of your exciting work and thanks […]

I hope you’re all thriving. A mate of mine has just texted me that his painfully slow mental health recovery seems to be in tandem with the nation’s fractional progress out of recession. But Star Wards is going full blast! We’ve got a gorgeous new website, thanks to our designer Tim – www.starwards.org.uk. The old […]

  For example, we’ve recently heard about two really exciting initiatives that OT departments have developed. Nick McMaster, Lead Activities Facilitator/ Star Wards Lead, Mill View Hospital in Sussex wrote to me: “The Hats We Wear/ Blank Versing the Past is an anthology of mental health service user writing from the city of Brighton. The […]

  Website We know that despite the rich contents of the website, the navigation is a little ‘quirky’ even for an unconventional organisation. So we’re creating a whole new, hyper-beautiful and useful website which even I will be able to find my way around. (And for those of you who are wondering if this is […]

  I was already impressed by the report that Branwen ward sent to us outlining what had been done to introducing all 75 of the Star Wards ideas. I was even more impressed that Bethan Young, the ward manager, and her staff had managed to achieve all this in just seven months. So, a little […]

  You might notice as you read on, that this newsletter is a bit different from the usual. I think you might already be missing the dulcet tones, great jokes and unique style of Marion’s newsletters. I’m the newest member of the Star Ward’s team and it falls to me to write this newsletter to […]

  his determination to remain emotionally and spiritually independent  “Nothing they do can humiliate me. I alone can humiliate myself. Once I had absorbed that idea, nothing — not searches, not punishments . . . not even several attempts to force-feed me through the rectum during an extended hunger strike — could deprive me of […]

  Royal Edinburgh Hospital It’s a real privilege to finish the year with an account of a fantastic visit I had to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Susan Tennyson, the Commissioning Nurse, had invited me and has since become a greatly appreciated ambassador and in demand speaker about Star Wards. It was way back in August […]

  Welcome to the Star Wards’ newsletter and a warm welcome to the new members of the Star Wards’ community. The last newsletter raised considerable interest about great practice in elderly people’s wards, and we hope that this fortnight’s newsletter about some of Kent’s working age adults wards will similarly stimulate discussion and replication. Arundel […]

  Welcome to the Star Wards’ newsletter and a warm welcome to the new members of the Star Wards’ community. It’s episode two of the legendary Kent Trilogy, which would be the legendary Kent Decimology were I to restrict each episode to the newsletters’ usual length. So a nice long version this time, including photos […]