Patients and staff from The Ayr Clinic organise and participate in many events throughout the year. These vary from national awareness programmes such as Mental Health Awareness Week, and Sock It To Stigma, to help reduce the stigma attached to mental health conditions, to national charity events such as Comic Relief and the MacMillan Coffee Morning. Patients also regularly help to raise money for the local charity Islay Dog Rescue, where patients attend as volunteers on a weekly basis.

Patients play a huge role in the organisation of any events that take place, through participation in the events groups that are run in each ward. This is also discussed at the fortnightly patient forums to ensure maximum participation. Each ward or unit can then decide if they would like their event to be inter-ward so they involved the full clinic, or have an event that is specific to their own ward. This method of planning events is patient-centred, promotes problem solving skills and can also help to increase self-esteem.

As the summer is approaching, patients are currently planning their summer trips and the walking group participants are starting to plan their all-day walking group. This involves deciding on location and what goodies they would like to take for the BBQ, as one of the chefs attends each year to make sure the group don’t go hungry!

Some of our recent events have been:

• February - Sock It To Stigma. Patients and staff marked ‘Sock It To Stigma’ by wearing colourful socks and discussing what stigma means to them
• March - Comic Relief. Patients across all of The Ayr Clinic units participated in fundraising for Comic Relief. Fundraising included coffee mornings, dress in red, raffles, and of course, wearing red noses. Patients and staff enjoyed the day’s events and also raised money for a good cause.
• May – International Nurses Day and Mental Health Awareness Week. Staff and patients alike enjoyed celebrating International Nurses Day, which of course, involved cake and goodie bags for all! Throughout Mental Health Awareness Week, everyone took part in activities to encourage people to talk openly about mental health.

For more information on any of our events or latest news, please access our dedicated leaflet, contact us on 01292 886 666 or send us an email.