Countdown to Christmas Day 8 - Celebrating our wonderful volunteers

Volunteers play a really important role in supporting our patients and staff and helping us enhance the care we provide.

We have more than 319 volunteers who support us in their spare time and over the last year we have welcomed 92 to our growing team.

Our wonderful volunteers work across our sites, supporting us through a variety of roles, and getting involved with activities such as art, gardening, music and craft groups.

A lot of our volunteers are people with lived experience, who are using or have used our services in the past. Their ideas and experience help us improve our services and support us to deliver therapeutic care to patients staying on our wards.

Feedback from our volunteers is very positive and they tell us how much they really enjoy helping at the Trust as it makes them happy and allows them to feel connected to others.

One said: “I volunteer because it gives me an opportunity to give something back to the community and show appreciation for the care and support I received from the NHS whilst I was recovering from psychosis.

“Another reason I volunteer is to allow existing patients to see first-hand what life can be like after psychosis. I love my life, my job, my partner, my financial situation and all the freedom I have to be able to do the hobbies I like.”

Another volunteer said: “I like volunteering because it’s easier to tell my story with people I don’t know. I like volunteering because I have learnt so much by being around other people and taking on new challenges.

“I'm only here because others have cared for me. It's only natural to care for others while I'm here.”

We are always on the look out for more volunteers and we have lots of opportunities for people to volunteer, either in person or from home.

If you would like to register as a volunteer, or see our volunteering opportunities, please visit our Volunteering information page.