Cygnet Hospital visits Alpaca Encounters, Hexham Northumberland

Cygnet Hospital, which offers mental health services in Hexham, organised a trip to Alpaca Encounters on Hillfield Road on April 26.

Cygnet Hospital organised a trip to Alpaca Encounters (Image: Cygnet Hospital)

Paul and Kathryn Shrimpton, the business owners, celebrated its fifth anniversary this year.

The alpaca herd (Image: Cygnet Hospital)

A spokesperson from the hospital said: "We do a number of groups in the community to support social participation and emotional wellbeing for our service users.

Patients and staff enjoyed their trip (Image: Cygnet Hospital)

"We also have internal pet therapy groups which our service users thoroughly enjoy including small animals such as dogs and rabbits.

Feeding the alpacas (Image: Cygnet Hospital)

"As a result, we chose to go to Alpaca Encounters due to our service users' interests and feedback from internal groups. Engaging in pet therapy can have a positive impact on emotional and physical wellbeing.

Cygnet Hospital staff during the visit (Image: Cygnet Hospital)

"When we arrived, Paul gave us some alpaca feed and gave us a run-through of what we would be experiencing during the day.

"We firstly went into the field with the male alpacas, before meeting the babies and the pregnant alpacas. Paul gave us information about the breed and was able to answer any questions from our service users," they added.