Patient Information Education Resource (PIER)

Haywood Hospital

Since 2013 the Beth Johnson Foundation has been working in partnership with the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership Trust and The Haywood Rheumatism Research and Development Foundation to design and develop a specialist Patient Information and Education Resource Centre (PIER) based at the Haywood Hospital.

(The PIER information centre has been relocated to Bradwell alongside all other rheumatology outpatient services. This move is temporary while work to update the Haywood Hospital takes place.)

Beth Johnson employee June Brammar was seconded to the Haywood Foundation, based at the Haywood Hospital in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent where she set up and developed the Patient Information Education and Resource Centre (PIER). The PIER is staffed by volunteers and provides patients, their families and carers with access to information on arthritis and related conditions.

Development of the PIER was a long held aim of the local ARMA (Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance) group and has been made possible through grant funding from the Haywood Foundation.

Following the success of the hospital information centre, the PIER is now reaching out to patients and families in local communities, providing them the opportunity to access supportive service without them having to visit the Haywood Hospital.  Plans are afoot to roll out a number of arthritis and related themed events and to develop a new patient telephone service.

PIER volunteers have been trained to ‘guide’ patients and their families using a wide range of available resources.  The aim is to help patients and those supporting them to best manage their diagnosis and its impact on their lives. Volunteer poster