2017-09-30-annual-report

Trustee Annual Report 2017 Dawson Trust

Dr Dawson Memorial Trust exists to recognise and reward excellent mental health nursing practice both in theory and practice.

This is what our organisation did in 2016 to 2017.

Dr Dawson Memorial Trust provided a bursary of £500 for the mental health nursing student who over the three years of their mental health nursing course at the University of Ulster was identified in academic performance and practical performance of achieving excellence theory and practice in mental health. The award of £500 was provided in November 2017 as specified below:-

Public Benefit

Donald Dawson Memorial Trust Presentation Friday 17[th] November 2017.

The late Dr Dawson was an eminent physician and psychiatrist. He had an outstanding career in medicine and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists . He was chairman of numerous committees including The British Medical Association and the Northern Ireland Council for Nurses & Midwives. He also had many publications in the leading medical and nursing journals of the day and he applied research both in his teaching and medical treatments.

During his years as the medical superintendent at Gransha Hospital from October 1950 until 1971 he was innovative in extending psychiatric services and involving the general community in the care of the mentally ill. He was also an excellent and gifted teacher who devoted a lot of his time to the education of nursing and medical staff.

In the middle fifties and early sixties the community aspect of care was in its infancy. Dr Dawson and the nurses would send patients from the hospital to visit relatives that they hadn’t seen for many years, following this, the number of visits to the geriatric and continuing care wards increased dramatically as the barriers were removed.

The community groups, religious groups, school groups and church groups which were being formed at that time were invited to pre-arranged social meetings at the hospital and these were used as a liaison forum between hospital and community to enlighten the public on mental health issues. The idea of psychiatrists and nurses going out to treat and counsel patients and relatives at home was also initiated around this time. Following his death a trust was set up and the trustees made the first award for excellence in psychiatric care in 1992. The Dawson Prize consists of a bursary and certificate with the winners name inscribed on the memorial plaque in the foyer of Gransha Hospital, (now Grangewood Hospital), Gransha Park, Clooney Road, Londonderry, BT47 1TF. (Tel: [phone])

The criteria, for the Dawson Prize is achievement of excellence in mental health nursing over the 3 years in both theoretical and practical components of the Pre Registration Mental Health Nursing Hons., Degree Course, Magee Campus, Ulster University.

This is the 26[th] year of the award and congratulations to the 2017 winner:-

Catherine McKeever,

Very best wishes on behalf of the Dr Donald Dawson Memorial Trust:Joe Ferris, Retired Nurse Lecturer, Secretary Dr. Dawson Trust, 14 Alanvale Crescent, Kilfennan Estate, L/Derry, BT47 5SJ. Mobile: [phone] Email: [e-mail]