Finding out more about Wernham House
Chris Bennett-Taylor, our Interim Chief Executive
I’ve worked for Aberdeen Cyrenians for just over two years and whilst I’d like to think that I know a fair bit about what happens across our organisation day to day in the here and now, we are a 53-year-old organisation with a rich history. It is sometimes easy to forget that in that time, there are many, many Cyrenians who have gone before me.
We recently hired a new Fundraising and Communications Manager (welcome, Sam!) and as part of her induction, I took her to visit all our projects to give her an overview of what each of them do.
It’s the first time that I have been able to visit Wernham House in more than 18 months and it was lovely to see some of the residents and staff team face to face again; as Wernham House is a residential Care Home, we have had to have very strict entry protocols in place to ensure the risk of COVID transmission was minimised.
Visiting Wernham House can at times be difficult because of the nature of our work there, supporting service users with multiple complex needs can be challenging and if it’s busy, it’s usually best just to stay out of the way and let our amazing staff team get on with the work at hand. Having phoned ahead, Paula, our service manager advised that we’d timed it well as it was a quiet morning.
We set off and I attempted to give Sam an overview of the work that we do at Wernham on the way, finding it quite difficult to put it in a nutshell. The service provides residential and respite care accommodation for adults over 18 who:
· have alcohol related issues and may have mental health, challenging behaviour and health issues
· may be experiencing difficulties in maintaining accommodation due to alcohol related issues and require a short period of respite care
· may be unable to maintain a mainstream tenancy with the level of support available in the community.
Wernham House really is an amazing place. It was the first ‘wet hostel’ in the UK, allowing people to come as they are and working with them to put in place an alcohol management and harm reduction plan. The concept was ground-breaking at the time and still forms part of 2021 practice in this area.
What does that look like? At times when people come to stay with us, their behaviour can be chaotic and challenging. They can be very unwell. Our staff team support service users by building relationships based on trust, acceptance and personal value. Every person is unique with their own story and lived experience, and so the support provided must be tailored to their individual needs and circumstances. It was lovely on this particular visit to see one service user who’s been there a long time looking very well and to hear from another who was happy to show us his bedroom and has recently found a new passion upcycling furniture through workshops being run by an artist who works on our staff team.
Mrs Hilda Wernham (1919-2002)
The tour got me thinking to the history of Wernham House and where it all began, so I set about doing some digging and uncovered some things that I didn’t know. Wernham House is named after the late Mrs Hilda Wernham (1919-2002), who was one of the founding members of Aberdeen Cyrenians. I found some audio recordings in the Silver City Vault (the project was delivered by Aberdeen Women's Alliance partnered with Aberdeen City Library) with two ladies who knew her talking about what she was like and their experiences of her work. One described her as someone who was humble, full of energy and someone who inspired her, who was someone to look up to. She said of Hilda, “she was someone who saw a need and just got on with it and did it. She didn’t hang about or wait for someone else to do it. She was a hero that you never heard of. She had nae time for falderals (trivial or nonsensical fuss).” This is something I’ve found to be true of the Cyrenians I work with – focused on truly seeing the person and their practical and emotional needs, rolling up their sleeves and removing obstacles to meet those needs, at times underestimating the impact that they have on the people that they support.
Another woman gave a lovely account of Hilda being ready to go to a ball with her husband (a professor at University of Aberdeen) and receiving a phone call from the Police in relation to a service user that she regularly supported, the police knowing that when Jocky was taken in, they had to call Mrs Wernham! She went to the Police station in her ballgown and took off his socks and shoes and his socks were stuck to his feet. As he was crying in pain, she got them to bring her a bowl of water and washed his feet… in a ballgown!
Hilda was also described as someone who raised money in lots of ways, she found the people who knew how to help her, approached those she felt could support. Perhaps she was the original Sam, fundraising on our behalf so the organisation can support the most vulnerable.
It was difficult to find out more online, but I did find out that she was brought up in Deeside, trained as a nurse and was one of the first on the scene when the Zoology Building collapsed in 1966, holding the hands of the injured and comforting trapped workmen. She was also a Justice of the Peace. Hilda was someone who saw a need and stepped up to support, without any reward or payment. She’s just one example of the sort of people who founded our organisation and indeed the Cyrenians movement.
Wernham House was established in 1986 and in its 35 years in operation, it has supported hundreds - if not thousands - of people, some of whose circumstances were greatly improved through our input and sadly, others who are no longer with us due to the chronic and debilitating nature of their illnesses and addictions. I would like to think that Hilda would be proud of the work of her namesake service, in particular the fact that it has endured for so long and helped so many people. You can find out more about Hilda here and here.
Our volunteer Archive Group is pulling together a collection of memories that people have of Aberdeen Cyrenians. If you have any experiences, information or photos that you’d like to share, you can contact them at memories@weareac.org.
It’s been really lovely to find out more about a strong Aberdeen woman who believed in supporting people who were less fortunate than her and who inspired those around her. I am immensely proud to be a Cyrenian, and that the Aberdeen Cyrenians of 2021 work with the same ethos as those who founded our organisation when it comes to supporting the most vulnerable in our society.
Chris Bennett-Taylor | Interim Chief Executive