#leadersforleeds- Civic leadership for our City

December 11, 2012 2 Comments


As many of my readers will know, I’m terrifically interested in what goes on in my City of Leeds. The event held at the Civic Hall to encourage civic leadership across the City was a great chance to meet with people doing interesting things- from small social enterprises and community groups to the CEOs of our major institutions.

Integrating Health and Social Care

I work constantly to attempt to influence health and social care organisations to work more innovatively and to offer a more integrated experience for people using the services. After all, who cares about whether a service they receive is delivered by a local Trust, by the Council, by the Voluntary sector or if it’s delivered within community groups or social enterprises? When experiencing services, what matters is the quality of the experience, not the organisational structure behind it. So I was pleased to be able to meet with so many others who were representing large and small organisations who work for social impact in the City.

Health Inequality=Social Inequality

Rob Webster, who is CEO of one of our Trusts and a great Twitter follow to boot described the situation perfectly;

“For every mile you walk from North West Leeds heading South, the life expectancy of the residents drops by a year. Residents in South Leeds live 10 fewer years than residents in North West Leeds.”

One of the challenges for people interested in healthcare is that so much about health outcomes doesn’t depend on health intervention AT ALL. I know this sounds a bit strange, but we know that social inequality, access to green space, whether or not a parent reads to you as a child, an countless other factors are really important for health (and life) outcomes. So actually, people who care about health care have a responsibility to act on social inequality and to improve health outcomes in this way. This is great because it means that the creative possibilities for collaboration are extended across sectors- whether it’s a youth project, a local church, a small business offering employment, or any number of other possibilities, we can collaborate to drive up health outcomes and reduce social inequality.

Digital Health Centre of Excellence

My goal is to ensure Leeds is seen as a centre of excellence in the development and delivery of digital health and digitally-enabled social care. Many people I met agreed that this forms part of our civic future, because the people of Leeds need to have efficient and effective services despite a financial environment that ensures we have to think radically different. Because people recognise that we have to work together to make an impact on this. Because it’s a great way to develop the City’s economic outlook and provide jobs. Because we have some of the best hospitals and health services in the country. Because we have all the structural advantage of the NHS Information Centre and the NHS Commissioning Board. Because it’s the right thing to do.

Recently, the local Shadow Health and Wellbeing Board have crowd-sourced information about how digital products and social media can support people in the city who  use health and social care services- expect to see more of this as we move forward.

We have a vibrant digital sector, both within health care and in other digital fields (did you know that Grand Theft Auto was written in Leeds?) We already have great initiatives such as GoOn Leeds, Leeds Social Media Surgeries (TONIGHT at the Civic Hall from 6pm, by the way!), and the fabulous Leeds Digital Festival. Let’s make it even better.

Digital Conference and Hack v2

I’m already working towards the Digital Centre of Excellence, as are many other people all over the city. This year, we held the first Digital Health Conference and Hack, and we’re planning another one for next April. This time, we’re going to look at open source solutions in healthcare, described today by Dick Vinegar as “the future of Health IT”. We already have the excellent open source portal developed at Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust by Tony Shannon- there’s a lot more we can do with this agenda.

We also have several totally original digitally enabled health innovations going on locally- and I can’t wait to share more details with you. We’re hoping you’ll join us.

Filed under #sm4hwb, Conference, Leeds, Web 2.0 Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Really Proud

March 29, 2013 Leave a comment

Reblogged from OTalk_Occhat:

All of us at #OTalk/#Occhat are really proud of our fantastic Twitter Community.

Yesterday we heard that #OTalk and #WeNurses were mentioned in a government report relation to the series of Professionalism talks we held in response to Karen Middleton's Big Conversation (which were supported by BAOT/COT).

This report is the Department of Health's 'Patients First and Foremost: The Initial Government Response to the Report of The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry'.

Read more… 52 more words

I have to re-blog this from our #OTalk blog- we're so proud to be mentioned in the Department of Health response to the Francis enquiry... See p.31 Well done to the whole team, and to everyone who has participated in our chats- what we're doing is driving up standards in healthcare- it's official!

Filed under Uncategorized

Thanks for your support

March 19, 2013 Leave a comment

Reblogged from womeninthelabourmovement:

It is great to see so many signatories from across the movement, we are reposting the statement with those who have signed in order of union.

We hope this will help you organise solidarity within your union, please circulate to others in your union/organisation to sign.

If you wish your union added to your name please comment and we will update it.

Read more… 1,434 more words

I added my support to this call for safe spaces for women throughout the labour movement. As an OT and member of BAOT, I'm also a UNISON member. It would be great to see more OTs sign this pledge....

Filed under Uncategorized

Falls Prevention with @clareRCGP on Twitter

February 11, 2013 3 Comments


Holistic care

As regular readers will know, my main practice interest is in mental health, however, all OTs are trained in both mental and physical health. Providing holistic care to the people I’m working with is enhanced by this training. For instance, in mental health services for older people, falls are as relevant as in orthapaedic OT, so it’s always useful to revisit other practice area specialities and share knowledge within the profession. 

Professional Development

With this in mind, it is always a pleasure to get drawn in to chats on Twitter about areas of practice that use knowledge that would otherwise become rusty due to lack of use: and it’s an exciting challenge for me to revisit my knowledge of falls prevention and to participate in #fallschat recently, on Twitter. 

I was excited to be asked by Dr Clare Gerada (who had attended a workshop on falls prevention) to contribute to her weekly RCGP Blog about falls prevention. I sent her my “Ten Top Tips for Falls Prevention”, repeated below. 

My 10 Top Tips for Falls Prevention:

  1. Make sure the hallway and stairs have working lights- if possible, replace with low-energy light bulbs and keep lights on overnight. 
  2. Wear slippers with an appropriate heel, so that they stay firmly on the feet.
  3. Regular, gentle exercise can help reduce risk of falling and also fear of falling. Exercise such as Tai Chi is particularly helpful at improving balance. 
  4. Check out signs that a person is unsure on their feet such as “furniture walking”, or clear dirty marks where walls are used for support. Having grab rails installed at key sites around the home or at the entrance to the home can be arranged by local community OT services.
  5. Fasten any torn bits of carpet or lino down- gaffer tape is ideal for this, if an older person can’t afford to replace floor coverings.
  6. Tripping over the edges of rugs is really common- either remove rugs, or fasten down the edges to reduce this risk.
  7. Medication management- GPs are well placed to review medications and watch for interactions, non-compliance etc.
  8. Check for use of alcohol- which increases falls risk and may  interact  with medications, or even be used to self-medicate undiagnosed depression.
  9. Poor foot care can be a reason for not wearing slippers, and can contribute to falls. GPs can check if a person would like a Chiropody referral, if foot care is difficult for an individual.
  10. Multi-disciplinary teamworking can solve many issues- so don’t be shy about asking for help! Occupational therapists, physiotherapists and chiropodists can be really useful contacts for falls prevention.

A Few Falls Facts: 

  1. A fall at home that leads to a hip fracture costs the state £28,665 on average (726 million a year in total). This is 4.5 times the average cost of a major housing adaptation and over 100 times the cost of fitting hand and grab rails to prevent falls (Heywood et al 2007).
  2. The provision of a home safety programme and exercise programme delivered by occupational therapists was found to reduce falls significantly (Campbell AJ et a, 2005).
  3. A community based occupational therapy based falls prevention service cut the number of falls among older people by half according to evidence published in the BMJ“

(from COT website available at http://www.cot.co.uk/ot-helps-your-client/falls-prevention)

Can I use the “Top 10 Tips” as a resource for my work/ care setting?

The “10 Top Tips and a Few Falls Facts” post is available as a free-to-use PDF that you may print off and use in your care setting (or as a reminder when visiting an older relative?) please see the following link:

http://binscombe.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/10-Top-Tips-for-Falls-Prevention.pdf

Further learning

I was delighted that the post was so warmly received by many health professionals and carers, who said they would be interested in using it. I was also pleased to hear further information from professionals with expertise that I don’t possess- from Optometrists, Pharmacists, Telecare consultants and Cardiac Doctors- who all had further info to share. I bookmarked Tweets that contained further links, so that I could share them with you, here.

8th Feb from @Vision2020UK: Really good stuff from the @CollegeOptomUK re vision and falls well worth talking to them http://bit.ly/m2ZCyx  Top 20!

8th Feb from @helen_whiteside: NECESSARY drugs increase falls risk too- need reg. review/monitor. ref selection 4 ur doc Google scholar search for medications and falls

8th Feb from @ClarkMike: Falls tip -make sure any daily living equipment is well-maintained and meets your needs – secondhand could be poor quality/unsafe

8th Feb from @ClarkMike: Falls tip - #telecare can turn on lights when you get out of bed or raise the alarm if you fall or don’t return to bed

8th Feb from @ClarkMike: “Falls tip- telecare and falls- Exploring the use of Telecare  

10th Feb from @cardiacdoc1: “Don’t forget this… The overlap between syncope and falls in the elderly“ Shaw and Kenny (1997) The overlap between syncope and falls in the elderly. Postgrad Med J. 1997 October; 73(864): 635–639.

Lessons learned

Obviously, no quick “Top 10 Tips” guide can ever be a substitute for good multi-disciplinary assessment and intervention to prevent and manage falls. I thought our experiment in crowd-sourcing tips from the was a big success. It stimulated discussion among healthcare professionals who self-select to collaborate on Twitter, and was widely spread through their networks. It was critiqued as being quite basic, but the point of it was to show how small actions can help to keep someone safer at home- it was never meant to be a piece of post-graduate medical education.

And yes, next time, I’ll be sure to add in tips about how regular sight checks, telecare solutions, and underlying medical explanations can all add to our understanding of falls prevention! Perhaps we could see similar guides produced by others with more education about these areas than I?

Filed under Commons, CPD, Evidence based practice, Interprofessional practice, Physical health, Twitter Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Checking my cissexual privilege #transdocfail

January 27, 2013 2 Comments


The current situation

We’ve recently been faced with our failings, as medical professionals, in the care of people who are LGBT*I. If you do a Twitter search under the #transdocfail, you’ll see how privilege and prejudice are colouring our interactions with people who need our help- and who are more at risk of mental illness and suicide than the general population.

As mental health professionals, its important to take action, but we sometimes feel confused about what that looks like, particularly if we feel we haven’t got anywhere or anyway of discussing it frankly. We often fear doing anything, in case we “get it wrong”, even though we recognise how important the issues are.

In the media, there are frequently blazing rows as some of the oppressive attitudes that people face are brought into the light- it’s been particularly clear of late in respect of trans* people.

Feminisms

There is a lot of current feminist discourse as the second wave feminists are giving way to the newer generation of feminists who approach issues with a mindset focused around intersectional analysis. This produces a tension between feminisms, where some people see their ideas threatened as people “call them out” on their privilege. Western, white, middle-class feminism has been traditionally seen as offering less for minority groups such as Women of Colour, or trans* women, so challenging ideas that hold us back from being a more inclusive movement can only be a good thing. Can’t it?

Privilege

A good definition is found on the geek feminism wiki: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Privilege

Privilege is a concept used in anti-racist, anti-sexist, and similar anti-oppression movements.

Anti-oppressionists use “privilege” to describe a set of perceived advantages (or lack of disadvantages) enjoyed by a majority group, who are usually unaware of the privilege they possess. It is a term of art that may not align particularly well with the general-use word “privilege” or the programming term “privilege”.

A privileged person is not necessarily prejudiced (sexist, racist, etc) as an individual, but may be part of a broader pattern of *-ism even though unaware of it.

…Many people, when asked to check their privilege, respond with “So? Am I meant to feel guilty? I didn’t choose to be white/male/whatever.”

…

Possessing “privilege” in the anti-oppression meaning is not intended to imply that life is objectively easy, just that on that particular axis of experience it is likelier to have been easier than a person similarly situated but without that particular privilege.

A person who experiences lack of privilege on more than one axis is said to experience intersectionality.

I really haven’t got any more to add to that definition I think it explains it all very well.

My recent privilege

One of my privileges is that I’m a cis-woman. This means that I’m happy to identify as the gender that I was assigned at birth: I had genitals that strongly indicated I was a girl: my parents raised me as a girl: I grew up into a woman without ever sensing that perhaps I was a boy and the rest of the world had got my gender identity wrong. This is a privilege, when compared to people who identify outside the gender binary, or strongly with a gender that they have not been assigned. These people are called trans*

Feminists have found it hard to understand the trans* experience, and whilst I am appalled at some of the actions of people describing themselves as feminists, I have always considered myself to be more inclusive in my feminism. As the famous Tiger Beatdown post says,

My feminism is intersectional or it is bulls*it

Recently, I was called out on my privilege and unconscious cis-sexism. I’ve Storified it as an example, so that I remember in future how words that I use (and hashtags!) can hurt, and to be more mindful of my privilege.

The Storify can be found here: http://storify.com/claireOT2/checking-my-privilege-a-recent-example

Filed under CPD, Interprofessional practice, Reflection, Twitter Tagged with , , , ,

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