The trust which runs Redbridge’s mental health services is celebrating the success of its first ever social media week over half term.

Running from October 24-28, the North East London Foundation Trust (Nelft), which is based at Goodmayes Hospital in Barley Lane, Goodmayes, held a week of events covering everything from how to use Facebook properly to how nurses could use social media as a learning tool.

The week featured a number of workshops, discussions and talks all aimed at raising awareness of the social media platforms that Nelft uses, and to give training and advice on how best to utilise those channels to help patients.

Special guest speakers included Jane Appleton, NHS England’s director of communications, and Antony Tiernan, director of engagement and communications for the NHS’ five year forward view.

The event also showed how staff and patients can engage with one another and the trust online, and the Recorder was able to attend Friday’s lecture on the good, the bad and the ugly of social media in the NHS.

The events were held at Nelft’s Care City centre in Barking, and also featured “tweetchats” for staff members across the trust and members of the public to ask questions about training and other Nelft services that are available.

Speaking at the end of busy workshops and talks, Kyle Grieve, Nelft’s social media officer, revealed he was thrilled that all the trust’s hard work in putting together the week had paid off.

He said: “Our aim for the week was to empower staff and stakeholders to utilise digital platforms, both as an educational tool and a platform to raise awareness of our services to a wider audience.

“Throughout the week, with the help of our staff and local partners – we were able to achieve this and so much more.

“The interaction that we saw online was even greater than we ever expected and it has been inspiring to see so many staff members approach me, wanting to learn more about setting up their own social media account.”

The trust was also delighted to announce that, as a result of the week’s activities and the runaway success of their hashtag, #NelftSoMeWeek, which trended nationally, its own twitter account gained more than 200 followers.