Emergency Covid-19 support for Les Amis

Media release 20 April 2020

Les Amis has received a donation of £25,000 from the Roy Overland Charitable Trust to go towards emergency support for the charity during the Covid-19 crisis.

The funds will go towards the appointment of a full-time Registered Mental Health Nurse, as well as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which will be distributed to the residents and staff across the organisation.

Les Amis has appointed a Registered Mental Health Nurse with 33 years’ experience and who has worked at a senior level for the past 17 years. She has worked across all areas of mental health with experience in both inpatient and community care, from children to end of life, including learning disability and developmental disorders.

In her new role, she will provide emotional and psychological support for residents and their families, and all staff. Her responsibilities will include ensuring residents receive timely and appropriate clinical care and support, as well as face to face support for residents with mental health issues. Working with the team at Les Amis, the Registered Mental Health Nurse will head up resident wellbeing initiatives, help with training and upskilling staff while enhancing care delivery with the use of evidence-based practice. She will also act as a consultative role for the senior management team at Les Amis to compliment comprehensive care planning and ensure best interest decision making for residents’ care.

The Roy Overland Charitable Trust forms part of the Funders Group that is supporting local charities with regard to funding required as a direct result of the Covid-19 health emergency.

Janet Wilson, Trustee at the Roy Overland Charitable Trust, said: “We are delighted to help Les Amis in these challenging times. We hope that this donation will assist the charity going forward in the valuable work it does.”

Shaun Findlay, Managing Director of Les Amis, said: “We cannot thank the Roy Overland Charitable Trust enough for this very valuable support during this time. The funding will hugely benefit our team during the Covid-19 crisis. We are pleased to have already appointed our Registered Mental Health Nurse who is fully engaged with the relevant health professionals to establish a unit that will assist our residents if they become critically ill in the absence of a hospital bed. We would like to express our sincere gratitude once again for this donation which will really help us through these challenging times.”

For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact Kelci Scanlon on kelci@directinput.je.

Notes to Editors

Les Amis, which opened at Five Oaks in 1975, provides essential services to meet the needs of those with learning disabilities – including Down’s syndrome and autism - and/or associated conditions. In 2015 Les Amis was named Not-for-Profit Organisation of the Year at the Jersey Business Awards for Enterprise and Large Charity of the Year at the Association of Jersey Charities Awards.

For further information on Les Amis go to www.lesamis.org.je or ‘Les Amis Jersey’ on Facebook.