Making moves: First team and patients move into New Douglas Bennett House
The fourth floor of New Douglas Bennett House is welcoming its first team, and all hands are on deck to ensure a smooth transition for both staff and service users.
Throughout the floor, staff from the Eating Disorders team are cheering “it’s happening” as they get ready for their first patients to move into the state-of-the-art facilities.
Jo Osimuwa, Clinical & Operational Workstream Lead: “We’ve patiently waited for this moment for a while, and I am beyond excited because this feels like a long time coming for us as a team. Within a couple of hours, we will have our first patient moving in and the team are working hard to prepare. We have beds, we have curtains, we have food, we have everything – it’s really happening!”
New Douglas Bennett House is replacing the outdated buildings at Lambeth to ensure our service users have a positive experience and the best support within their recovery.
Ian Ssenyonga, Ward Manager said: “We’re all so excited – we’re going to be here for a while on our own but that gives us some time to get used to the space and really settle. We have such beautiful views, especially from the garden making it such a nice place to deliver care.”
This is the largest and most ambitious modernisation project in our history and is enabling us to transform our facilities at a time of constrained funding in mental health services.
Alex Christofides, Building Manager said: “We’re busy, we’re so busy but we’re all excited to see this come together. I’ve been working as a communicator between estates and the clinical teams, and I know the teams can’t wait to be in a building with such great facilities to help our patients.”
Earlier this month, some of our other teams began to move into the Pears Maudsley Centre, paving the way toward better understanding and treating young people’s mental health.
Good luck to the teams moving in today and the teams that will following in the coming months!
