Podcast about life at Northampton-based mental health charity wins innovation prize

St Andrew’s Healthcare's podcast created by a nurse about life at the Northampton-based mental health charity has won an award for innovation.

On The Ward was named the best student innovation in practice at the Student Nursing Times Awards 2020 during a virtual ceremony on Tuesday night (October 27).

John Barry-Waldron, a staff nurse at the charity's Essex hospital who started the podcast as part of his University of Northampton projects, hopes his creation changes perceptions of mental health and treatments.

"When people think of mental health hospitals they think of straitjackets and padded cells, but that’s such an outdated image of what life is really like here," he said.

"Often when people are sectioned under the mental health act they essentially disappear from society.

"Through this podcast, I wanted to give patients living with complex mental health issues a chance for their voices to be heard.

“Yes, there are dark times for many of our patients. Many have serious and complex mental health conditions, but that’s not to say they can’t have fun as well.

"The patients on our wards are human after all, and so are all the staff who work here.”

To listen to the podcast, visit ontheward.stah.org or subscribe from the usual platforms.