Dedicated health and social care workers from across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) area have been recognised at the Health Board’s annual Celebrating Success Staff Awards event on Thursday 30 May.

The overall winner of our Glasgow City HSCP local Staff Awards for Excellence was announced as Martha’s Mammies. The Martha’s Mammies team had won in the category of Team of the Year earlier in March, along with two of the team’s peer support volunteers Sarah Donnelly and Sara Delaney who won Volunteer of the Year. You can read more about the other winners.

Martha’s Mammies is an HSCP service that supports birth mothers who have lost care of their children on either a temporary or permanent basis. Prior to the implementation of Martha’s Mammies, women who had lost the care of their children in Glasgow had limited specialist support to help them with the grief and loss that inevitably followed.

Martha’s Mammies is a multi­disciplinary team who work with small caseloads of women to be able to offer flexible, intensive and adaptive support to respond to the needs of individual women. The team has worked well together to make a difference in a short amount of time and have achieved incredible results.

Team Leader Stacey McLeary accepted the award accompanied by peer volunteer Sara Donnelly, Kirsty Pollock, Social Care Worker), and our HSCP’s Interim Chief Officer Jackie Kerr.

Stacey said: “A recent audit reported very positive feedback from the women who receive a service from Martha’s Mammies. They felt more supported and respected and that they can be mothers without question within the Martha Mammies environment. This offers an isolated group of individuals a non-judgemental place to feel connected and supported. I’m delighted that our team and peer support volunteers have been recognised for the work they do and the results achieved.”

In addition, NHSGGC Excellence Awards were won by our staff at Leverndale Hospital for its ‘Meander for Mental Health’ initiative, and to a team of volunteers at Gartnavel Royal Hospital who established a new Hub Café.

Meander for Mental Health received the Better Health award. The project came from the Design in the Dale project led by the physiotherapy team at Leverndale Hospital. It aims to promote walking as a way of managing mental health, to reduce the stigma of mental illness and to bring the hospital and its local community together.

The project has grown over the past four years and now has two other events, Mambo for Mental Health and Pedal for Progress, and each of the events organised has seen more than 150 participants from the hospital and local community.

The NHSGGC Excellence Volunteer Award went to the Hub Café Volunteers at Gartnavel Royal Hospital. Throughout NHSGGC, the value of safe, sociable, patient-focused spaces where people can meet, relax and spend quality time together, is huge, and the creation of such a space within a psychiatric hospital was of particular importance. The Hub Café volunteer project was set up to establish such a space and, after the team was recruited, they have successfully delivered every aspect of the new cafe.

Jackie Kerr, Interim Chief Officer congratulated all the teams and individuals who had won and were nominated. She said: “Thanks to all of you for all your hard work and effort. Congratulations on receiving these well-deserved awards.”