Bursary winners to help elderly patients

Wednesday 20 November 2019

Deborah Harris, Moira Norman and Olwen Bain-Brehaut have won the 2019 Insurance Corporation Healthcare Bursary, with £2000 now available to help fund their project, ‘Reminiscence Therapy for Patients with Cognitive Impairment’.

Since 1991, Insurance Corporation have been funding and supporting innovative ideas from Health and Social Care staff to enhance health and social care provision.

Staff have to submit ideas to improve health or social care in the islands, and the judges said 2019 was another year of 'inspiring entries'.

The award was announced at a lunchtime event last week, where the seven judges decided that Ms Harris, Ms Norman and Ms Bain-Brehaut would be awarded the top prize of £2000 to help fund their project.

Pictured: The awards were made last week. 

‘Reminiscence Therapy for Patients with Cognitive Impairment’ is known as RITA, and is an evidence-based digital therapy system which allows patients to use apps, games and other leisure activities as part of their hospital stay. Used primarily for elderly patients with cognitive impairments, such as dementia, it has been shown to be effective in calming distressed or anxious patients.

The runner up award was presented to Zoe Andrews, whose aspirations are to introduce the global charity ‘Harvey’s Gang’ to put the minds of critically ill children at ease via a sample journey of the laboratory to see how pathology works. She was awarded with a prize fund of £1000.

Matt Jones, Director of Operations at HSD said: "The Insurance Corporation Bursary Scheme which has operated since 1991 makes a real difference to our staff and the work they deliver for our community across health and social care. The award drives innovation and directly supports our commitment to continually challenge and transform our services. The greatest challenge we have is choosing a winner from the quality applications we receive each year. All applicants have fully embraced the Partnership of Purpose and I would like to thank both our staff and friends at the Insurance Corporation for their engagement and support of this important initiative."

The Insurance Corporation’s Managing Director Mark Marshall said the continuing popularity of the competition is no surprise: "Since joining Insurance Corporation earlier this year, I have been hugely impressed with the Company’s community support programme. I am really proud that Insurance Corporation have been pioneers amongst the corporate community for recognising the worth of funding positive achievements in this area for nearly three decades and long may it continue. Our thanks go to the staff at HSC for taking the time to complete our bursary applications and take part in our awards to benefit patients and service users. This bursary would not be possible without the hard work and dedication from the entrants themselves."

Pictured: The Bailiff made the announcements last week. 

This year’s other finalists were as follows:

Improving the Service Provided for Mental Health in the Emergency Department - Carly Hearn & Anja Rozema 

Supporting the Journey through Critical Care & Beyond - Suzanne Fallaize

Pictured: All images provided by Chris George.