Ship's Blog

Ship's Blog: Information on our service

28 Oct 2009

For all of you have been kind enough to contact us with words of encouragement about our service, and for those waiting to use our service, good news! We are only a few weeks away from putting Leopard back into the water after a long holiday on dry land- never good for a wooden boat. Please note – we anticipate only one or two sailings this year and this will of course be subject to weather.

Leopard has now been re-fastened (thanks to Rustler Yachts) and we have two very hard working men (Dave & Mike) doing the prep work for varnishing. This is quite a task due to (a) the weather and (b) the amount of wood.

The next job will be to secure the coach-roof is water tight. To me, as its always nice to come in from the rain and not into more rain!

We are now receiving referrals each week (two yesterday) and this is only the beginning.

If you would like to contact us with suggestions about our service, or what you would like to see- please do so.

More soon…..

We have received several calls regarding our price structure and whether funding is available to access our service. As it stands, the NHS will pay for a limited number of places on-board providing specialist support is necessary (e.g. self-harm, anxiety etc) but basic respite care is always available too.

Should you have to pay yourself, the easiest way to obtain an answer is to call the office or drop us an email. Our tariff (or charge) is entirely dependent upon what level of support you require and for how long (one day or five days?) and whether you want to participate in structured activities or simply have some “down time”. I hope this is clear but should you wish for further clarification, please get in touch.

For those of you keeping an eye on our development, I am pleased to report that the fastenings have now been done! This leaves the varnishing and coach roof to be completed, anti-fouling and Leopard will be ready.

More soon…..

The work continues on Leopard, as we try to dodge the heavy rain and winds that make Cornwall the place it is! The fastenings are done, as is the coach roof (thanks to Rustler Yachts for their hard work). Dave and Mike continue to work on her, as we move towards achieving one more sail before the weather completely closes in. Based on today, maybe we will see a few more opportunities than we thought.

We are currently in the process of recruiting more staff. We are looking for Volunteers, Therapists, CPN’s and those people with experience of working in the areas of deliberate self-injury, depression and anxiety. Remember, we also provide a respite service so we would like to hear from Support Workers too!

Would you like a laugh?

What about supporting me on a “Monkey Bike Challenge” from John O Groats to Landsend in June of next year? For those of you who know me, the amusement is already there. I am some 17.5 stone and will be riding on a motorbike more suited to my young daughter! It total, there will be two other members (including me) from the RNLI Lifeboat crew, based in Falmouth. We might have two further riders joining us- to be confirmed.
The proceeds will be jointly divided between Sea Sanctuary and the Lizard Lifeboat Appeal- thus keeping all proceeds local.

Please consider being a sponsor either individually or why not ask your company! Feel free to ask any questions.

May 2010

For those of you wishing for an update of our service; here it is…..

Sea Sanctuary is now fully operational and we have already had a number of sails, supporting our clients mental health needs. We have used a mixture of CBT and Mindfulness techniques which have proved to be excellent. These are both evidence based treatments.

Feedback from people using our service is very important to us. To ensure we are running our service properly, we have an entry and exit questionnaire, followed by a monthly evaluation and this occurs again at six months. For us, we want to establish if the interventions were useful at the time but of equal importance, are they still being used?

The Sea Sanctuary team are very passionate to see change in people and are both friendly and empathic. We are lucky to have such a focused team.

So, for those of you wondering about whether Sea Sanctuary can help you- please get in touch. That is the first step and we will support your journey with us to the best of our ability.

A recent feedback remark demonstrates how effective our service can be “I had a fantastic time and its the best thing I have ever done”.

More soon…..

© 2009 Joe Sabien