The Guts Cafe was the idea of one of our therapists, Joel Oliver. We run a residential unit for people with severe anxiety disorders. Many of those people are unable to work due to the severity of their condition. He also identified that fact that people’s nutrition and relationship with food was often quite poor. Finally he recognised the strong and growing evidence that there is a clear link between gut health and mental health.
There is a small garage outside the front of the unit which over the years has been used for various activities like art and ping pong. It has a small hatch that looks out on to the unit’s garden.
Joel’s vision was to turn the space into a cafe where our residents could learn vocational skills like barista and baking sourdough. The objective being threefold:
– to promote gut health among residents by making all products we sell gut healthy
– to give patients key vocational skills to increase confidence and likelihood of accessing the job market when they leave
– to allow patients with OCD to face there anxiety and contamination fears by working in food preparation
The team put together a successful proposal to the Trust and the Maudsley charity and received funding to build a fully functional commercial kitchen in the outside space and convert the whole structure into a public cafe. The cafe is now an established feature of the Bethlem site and well knowne for its delicious organic coffee and gut healthy food and snacks.
The cafe has transformed the outside space at ADRU and as we are a charity we have been able to use the income to buy furniture, plants and flowers. We have also had a pizza oven donated which stands alongside the cafe. We host pizzas events there.
I believe this project should win because:
– It is an example to teams across the NHS that an ambitious and inspirational vision can be realised with determination and team work
– The cafe has transformed the lives of ADRU patients already and continues to increase its impact
– The cafe has transform the space outside the unit, it has become a beautiful and welcoming location for staff and patients from across the Bethlem Hospital and a source of great pride to the staff and resdients of ADRU
