A FENLAND health worker has received an award for her revolutionary work rehabilitating offenders with mental health problems.

Jacqui Saradjian received a Butler Trust Award, as well as the prize for outstanding achievement, from the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The awards are highly regarded by people working in correctional settings nationwide.

Jacqui is the Head of the Fens Unit run by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) at HMP Whitemoor.

She helps to support men with dangerous and severe personality disorders within the high-secure prison setting. Her commitment to helping a group of offenders normally considered untreatable combined with her skill and creativity as a clinician and leader, have put the unit and her pioneering approach at the forefront of this work.

Jacqui said: “I feel delighted and very honoured to receive this award, but I couldn’t have done this work alone. I appreciate the hard work that everyone on the unit - clinical, operational and admin - puts in on a daily basis to ensure that the service delivers such a high standard of assessment and treatment to a group of men previously considered “incurable”.”

The Butler Trust Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding practice by people working in prisons, youth justice, probation and criminal justice social work, throughout the UK. It receives more than 300 nominations each year.