Hattie has worked for various charities in different roles before coming to work for The Beacon and was a self-employed massage therapist. Hattie started working for The Beacon as a volunteer massage therapist and had in interest in therapy and long-term health conditions.
From there, Hattie began working as a client support worker in the inpatient unit and was offered to become a support worker within the women’s group and service which just started after Hattie started in 2008.The women’s focused group formed at The Beacon in 2008, after Open Door closed down their women’s group. The Beacon went from providing an informal women’s service to growing a support group and 1:1 women’s support. Hattie developed her skills with her manager to become a case worker and being a 1:1 support worker for women living with HIV.
Today, Hattie is the Community Service Manager and Senior Project Coordinator at The Beacon. She manages, supports and develops the Health Management Team which are the non-clinical, non-inpatient services that are provided at The Beacon. These services include our Day Service, Women’s and Families services, Peer Mentoring and our Mindfulness and Positivity Fitness Classes. She develops and changes these services to what is needed by our service users and has contact with our Fundraising Manager to keep these services running.
Hattie’s day:
Hattie has no typical day as every day is different.
For instance, today Hattie helped set up the day service, checking in the patients and making sure that they are happy and that everything was running smoothly.
Hattie then supported one of our distressed patients on a 1:1 basis to support them emotionally by reassuring them, finding out what their current issues are and how The Beacon can help them with those issues.
Hattie also liaises with the Clinical Team to speak about the patients and any overlaps between our inpatient and outpatient services and to ensure that we are supporting our patients in the best way possible.
In the nature of Hattie’s job, she also completes many risk assessments, especially during COVID-19 to try and get as many service users back in The Beacon as possible, safely.
What Hattie likes most about her job:
Hattie likes that every day is different. She enjoys working with people and seeing patients come in and experience a journey, leaving with a positive result.
‘People love these services and need them, so to be part of that for me is quite special.’
Working for The Beacon in one word:
‘Emotional’
