Each year, Berkshire Healthcare Charity helps staff turn ideas into real projects. These projects help patients, families, and communities.
The charity funds projects to make healthcare kinder, more personal, and easier to access. They do this through the annual Better Together grant programme.
This year, the charity awarded 17 grants. Each idea came from staff who work in our services. They show that sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest difference.
These projects are all focused on improving the experience of healthcare for local people. They can do this in various ways, such as:
- helping a child feel less anxious about a vaccination
- creating a more welcoming therapy space
- supporting people living with dementia
- providing new equipment that improves patient care
What is Better Together?
Better Together gives services small grants to try ideas that improve care in Berkshire. The ideas come from staff as we believe they often know exactly what could make patients' experience better.
The charity has given £40,000 each year for the last 3 years. The grants help thousands of people across Berkshire.
Any staff member can apply for a grant from £500 to £5,000. Grants can pay for work that improves wellbeing, makes care easier to access, or makes spaces more welcoming.
This year, another 17 inspiring ideas will become reality.
Helping children and young people feel safer and more confident
Several of this year's projects focus on supporting children and young people during appointments.
Sensory and calming equipment will be bought to reduce anxiety during appointments. Both the School Nursing Service and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) will benefit.
The Immunisation Service will develop its existing sensory room at Wokingham Hospital. They will get additional equipment, specialist seating, and calming resources. The improved environment will help children and young people feel more comfortable when attending vaccination appointments.
The team has also secured funding for Collect and Protect. This programme for secondary school pupils will help build awareness, confidence, and understanding about vaccinations through interactive learning activities.
Creating more inclusive healthcare environments
Many funded projects focus on making healthcare environments feel calmer, more welcoming, and more accessible.
At Erlegh House, the Intensive Management of Personality Disorders and Clinical Therapies Team (IMPACTT) will create a dedicated sensory room. This will support people accessing services across multiple clinical teams. The space has been designed to reduce sensory overload and help people feel more comfortable engaging with support and treatment.
Community Mental Health Services in Bracknell will turn some consulting rooms into sensory-friendly spaces. They will make thoughtful improvements, such as calming colours, sensory resources, and more inclusive furnishings.
Talking Therapies teams across Berkshire will introduce sensory boxes into clinical rooms. There will help to make therapy spaces work better for neurodivergent people and others who may experience anxiety or sensory overwhelm.
The Integrated Pain and Spinal Service (IPASS) will also create a dedicated wellbeing and quiet space, offering a calm retreat for patients who may need privacy, reassurance, or time away from busy clinic environments.
Supporting people living with dementia
Several successful projects will help for people living with dementia, cognitive impairment, and age-related health conditions.
At Wokingham Inpatient Unit, funding will provide an interactive projector for memory therapy and activities to help people remember happy times. The equipment encourages engagement, stimulation, and meaningful interaction for people experiencing dementia, delirium, or cognitive difficulties.
The unit will also receive specialist rehabilitation resources that help people who are deaf, blind, or visually impaired. This will allow them to take part more fully in therapy and recovery activities which promote independence.
We will also be developing a new Dementia Prevention, Awareness, and Community Outreach Hub. It will take information, advice and support directly into communities across Bracknell Forest, helping people to connect with local services.
Creating spaces that support recovery
Care is about more than treatment. The environment around us can play an important role in how we feel, recover, and connect with others.
The Henry Tudor Ward day room will be changed into a calm group space. Patients, relatives, and carers will be able to spend time there comfortably.
At St Mark's Hospital, improvements to Jubilee Ward's courtyard will create a therapeutic outdoor space featuring accessible seating, sensory planting, and safe walking routes. The area will support rehabilitation, wellbeing, and meaningful time spent outdoors.
At Prospect Park Hospital, patients and staff will work alongside a local artist to create a large mural celebrating kindness, inclusion, care, and belonging. The artwork will form part of a wider initiative promoting respect for everyone.
Strengthening community connections
The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT), a mental health urgent care service, has also secured funding to continue and expand its successful Coffee and Chat Community Wellbeing Programme.
The programme is delivered through Safe Haven and Breathing Space. It offers opportunities for people experiencing mental health difficulties to connect with others through social activities to reduce loneliness and build supportive relationships.
Investing in better care
Several projects focus on providing specialist equipment that can improve diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes.
The Podiatry Service will receive advanced toe-pressure testing equipment that helps identify circulation problems earlier in people living with diabetes, arterial disease, and complex foot conditions.
Funding will also provide new pressure-monitoring technology for the Wound Management Service. This equipment helps healthcare workers be more accurate and consistent when providing compression therapy for people with lower limb ulceration. The improvements should make patients more comfortable and support healing.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who gives time or money. Your support helps fund projects that go beyond what NHS budgets can pay for.
Updates about these projects will be posted on Berkshire Healthcare Charity's LinkedIn page so you can see the difference your support makes.