Patient therapies and education

Wathwood Hospital offers excellent facilities for both patients and staff. These include a gym, swimming pool, staff canteen, horticulture & Wathwood Farm Shop, Courtyard Café, patient library and staff library, and free car parking on site.

 

In this section

 Occupational and vocational opportunities

 Woody’s Shop

 Social activities and engagement

 Spiritual and cultural needs

 Sports and fitness facilities

 Horticulture

 Education

 

 

Occupational and vocational opportunities

At Wathwood Hospital we offer our patients a variety of opportunities including Section 17 Restaurant, Woody’s shop, arts and crafts and practical skills.

 

 

 

Woody’s Shop

In 2008 Wathwood Hospital established a Hospital based shop, ‘Woody’s’, for patients to further promote recovery and increase work skills. Woody’s Shop is open most days of the week. Woody’s shop has a variety of self-catering food items and healthy snacks. It also sells clothes, gifts and cards.

 

 

 

Social activities and engagement

The Central Activities area gives patients the opportunity to interact with others from different ward areas. There is a full-size snooker table, pool table, table tennis, and games consoles. The hospital also provides themed events such as movie nights, Caribbean nights, hog roasts and BBQs. Central Activities is available Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. 

 

 

Spiritual and cultural needs

Wathwood recognises the spiritual and cultural needs of patients. There is a chaplaincy and Imam who visit weekly. We have access to the Trust’s spiritual service who can provide support from other religions when required.

 

 

Sports and fitness facilities

All sessions are offered daily and wards can mix for activities to include the gym, swimming, sports hall activities: badminton, football, softball tennis, basketball, circuit training. Patients who do not have group leave can be catered for in individual sessions.

Staff hours are provided where dedicated times are set aside for the health and wellbeing of staff and yoga provided for both staff and patients on a weekly basis. An outside agency uses the pool on a weekly basis, which helps promote the hospital in the wider community.

External community walks are well attended by patients and at times are focused on raising sponsorship monies for agreed charities. The charitable theme continues inside the hospital with patients and staff undertaking sponsored gym days.

The sports areas offer a friendly, creative environment to cater for large groups and more complex individuals, giving people the space to exercise in a safe manner to build healthier lives. We aim to help people realise their full potential through physical exercise.

  

 

 

Horticulture

Horticulture at Wathwood Hospital offers a therapeutic outdoor space for patients who have approved leave and to staff visiting this area on dinner breaks. Horticulture can offer rehabilitation to many patients for different reasons. 

Below are some of the opportunities for our patients at the horticulture area. 

• Animal welfare
• Greenhouse management
• In-house training
• Woodwork
• Greenland maintenance
• Vocational work in café

There is a wide range of different animals at horticulture which include pigs, goats, alpacas and donkeys. There is also a lot of wildlife to be seen whilst at horticulture including squirrels, pheasants, ducks, rabbits and a variety of different birds. Our animals offer a therapeutic and rehabilitative source for patients receiving treatment at Wathwood Hospital.

 

 

 

 

Education at Wathwood

Find out more about education at Wathwood here:  Education at Wathwood leaflet.pdf [pdf] 1MB

“I have learnt new skills i.e. volunteering in the shop and patient library.  I enjoy doing this” – Rehab Ward

The Patient Newsletter is planned and executed by the patients with support from the education team. Patients can apply for a vocational role as either editor, photographer or reporter. This commits them to a minimum of 3 editions. Any patient can contribute to the newsletter and all things are considered by the planning team (Education Team Leader, an OT, the editor). Nothing is written by staff, it is all patient’s work, but support is given with preparation, proofreading and formatting.

  

 

We asked our patients 'What do you enjoy doing at Wathwood Hospital?'. Below are some of their responses:

Seeing the animals at Horticulture

Horticulture leave

Self-catering on ward

OT groups

Coffee morning, smoothie group, craft groups

Farm shop

Sports – gym and swimming pool

1:1 time with staff

Community leave

Talking to staff

Watching movies in my own space

I like the craft room