Two members of a specialist mental health team have been highly commended for their innovative work with people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Sarah Power, Senior Psychotherapist and Dramatherapist, and Kayleigh Reardon, Senior Mental Health Occupational Therapist, are part of the Rough Sleepers Mental Health Team (RSMHT) in Southend.
The service is run by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and works with people in places where they feel safe, such as soup kitchens and homeless charities.
Sarah and Kayleigh were highly commended for the creative and innovative practice category in the UK Advancing Healthcare Awards 2025, which were held on Friday 23 May.
The awards recognise the work of allied health professionals and healthcare scientists who lead innovative healthcare practice across the UK and make a real difference to patients’ lives.
Kayleigh helps the people she works with to access meaningful and fulfilling activities that contribute to improved health, well-being, and social inclusion. She works with services to promote stable and appropriate housing, offer mental health support through drop in sessions and provide supportive environments to enable individuals to rebuild their lives.
Sarah facilitates a dramatherapy group with vulnerable women living in supported housing run by charity HARP. She also worked with vulnerable women who are supported by the Aspirations programme to create a wall mural called Tree of Life at the charity’s drop-in centre.
Sarah said: “We were both nominated as Allied Health Professionals but for the creative and innovative work that is done by the team as a whole.
“One of the reasons we were highly commended is due to the fact we are a small multi-disciplinary team with lots of close partnership working.
“RSMHT goes out to meet people where they are to ensure a vulnerable marginalised group has access to services, which couldn’t be done without this wrap around care.”
The team works closely with many organisations and charities who support rough sleepers and people at risk of homelessness, including HARP, St Vincent De Paul, Storehouse, One Love, Off the Streets, Stephen’s Place, Peabody, YMCA, Aspirations, and STARS Forward Trust.
More than 50 individuals, teams and projects were shortlisted across 14 award categories in this year’s UK Advancing Healthcare Awards.
Special guests who gave speeches at Friday’s ceremony included NHS England Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Dame Sue Hill DBE, and Chief Allied Health Professions Officer for England, Professor Suzanne Rastrick OBE.