Scottish Government

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
A newsletter for AHPs

October 2004 Issue 4

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Awards, CPD and chillouts!

Welcome to the latest edition of Future Directions, our regular newsletter for AHPs in Scotland.

I had great pleasure in meeting many of you at our annual conference on 23-24 June. This was a really inspiring conference which provided a platform for key speakers to get their message across to a large and lively audience, and which showcased many of the innovative projects being taken forward by AHPs in Scotland. You can see a fuller conference report below.

The Minister for Health and Community Care, Malcolm Chisholm, introduced the winners of our annual Innovations Awards to the conference. These colleagues have developed exciting projects in a variety of services in Scotland, and it was a delight to honour their work. Each of the winners will have a chance to present their projects in greater detail to the Minister at an event on November 15. Read more about the projects.

Mr Chisholm also gave delegates the great news that he has made 200,000 available to support CPD for the AHPs. This is a real fillip for professional development, and the money is most welcome.

But it wasn't all serious business. We organised a 'Chillout Zone' at the conference venue where delegates could put their feet up and enjoy all the benefits of relaxing massages and complementary therapies. This is definitely something we will want to repeat at next year's event!

Speaking of which, I am already enormously excited by the prospect of the 2005 conference, which will have an international theme. We are lining up a fantastic set of speakers and one or two social events to keep delegates entertained during their down time. The first announcement can be found later.

I'm delighted to report that Janet Garcia has joined us full time as AHP programme manager with particular responsibility for role development, workforce, skill mix and recruitment and retention. Many of you will have got to know Janet over the last eighteen months since she came to the department on secondment to support the implementation of Future Directions. I'm looking forward to working with her even more closely as we progress the AHP agenda.

We have lots to do as we move towards the close of 2004, with new projects to set up and current ones to complete. Future Directions will keep you posted on progress through 2005.

Best wishes
Jacqui Lunday
AHP Officer, SEHD

AHPs from all the professions met at the annual conference on 23-24 June. The focus for this year's event was Putting the Learning into Practice. Future Directions reports...

Minister announces big boost for CPD

AHPs in Scotland are to receive a 200,000 boost to support continuing professional development, the Health Minister told the conference.

Malcolm Chisholm said the money would be used to develop local learning plans for AHPs, with national support from NHS Education for Scotland for training needs analysis.

'Identified leads for CPD development will work in partnership with lead AHPs now emerging in NHS Board areas and also within community health partnerships', he said.

The funds are being used to support CPD for all members of AHP teams, including support staff.

The announcement follows a number of recent Scottish Executive initiatives for AHPs in Scotland. 100,000 was awarded in April to set up clinical leadership programmes, and an 8m initiative for research and development for AHPs, nurses and midwives was launched in May to coincide with the publication of the Allied Health Professions Research and Development Action Plan.

The Scottish Executive Partnership Agreement, launched in May 2003, pledged to put 1500 new AHPs in place in Scotland, and a total of 400,000 was made available last year to support recruitment and retention and set up eight specialist posts in priority areas throughout the country. Work in this area is ongoing through the continued implementation of the AHP strategy.

AHP Awards for Innovation presented

The winners of the 2004 AHP Awards for Innovation received their awards from the Minister at the conference.

The overall winner was the Compass Team from NHS Greater Glasgow Mental Health Services. This multidisciplinary team, consisting of art therapy, occupational therapy, clinical psychology and nursing works with asylum seekers and refugees as part of the wider mental health service. Art therapist Tracy Noble took the lead in designing and delivering group therapy for women needing treatment options other than those currently available.

This successful project increased treatment options for those who had suffered trauma and for whom interpretation and language barriers existed, Mr Chisholm said. 'The innovative approach to improving the health and well-being of vulnerable groups that this project captures, maximising the effectiveness of interventions and skills within the team, have earned it its recognition today.'

Mr Chisholm paid tribute to all the award winners, saying their projects encapsulated the essence of the conference's theme - professional development and learning to enhance practice and the patient journey.

Award Winners and Minister for Health & Community Care, Malcolm Chisholm

'Key to this is listening to patients and finding out what works for them, and then ensuring that best practice then becomes common practice', he said. 'The AHP Awards for Innovation have helped us to capture some wonderful examples of how this is being done.'

A list of the projects honoured in the awards is shown in Box 1, and full details are available on the AHP website: www.show.scot.nhs/sehd/ahp. Each team will present their project to the Minister at a special event on November 15.

Conference highlights

Patients are our best teachers, according to Dr David Reilly, consultant physician at the Centre for Integrative Care at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital.

Dr Reilly told delegates that patients had 'taught him profoundly' over the years. 'When I ask patients about their care, they tell me that they feel rushed and not listened to. They see a different person every time they visit, they feel that they are treated as a disease, not as a person', he said. 'All that would be permissible if as a system it worked, but it doesn't'.

Dr Reilly said that patients are best placed to tell us how to design better services. 'We don't need PhDs', he said. 'We need to ask patients what works and what doesn't, and how'. Dr Reilly inspired delegates and asked them to make a real impact on their patients by listening and engaging with them about what mattered to them as people. 'Empathy,' he said - 'is evidence based'.

The patient's perspective was provided by Olivia Giles, a successful lawyer who lost the extremities of all four limbs through complications of meningitis.

'I saw the best the NHS has to offer during my eight-month rehabilitation process, and, I hope, the worst', she said.

Ms Giles described the excellent care she had received from her physiotherapy team. 'The physios helped me claw back some human dignity', she said. 'They saw me as me, not just "patient 45".'

However, her experience in another clinical setting was in complete contrast. 'There was no communication and no eye contact from the staff', she said. 'As an amputee you are very vulnerable and good communication and support are essential in promoting and aiding recovery.'

Ms Giles implored delegates to look at things from the patient's point of view. 'Put yourself in their shoes', she said. 'Empathy and compassion cost little but impact greatly - it's a matter of attitude.'

The techniques for change outlined by June Andrews, Director of the Centre for Change and Innovation, built on what Olivia Giles had described. 'Those of us who work in the NHS often feel we have no power', she said. 'But from the patient point of view, we are very powerful and controlling. It's time to change the way we work.'

A show of hands indicated that delegates didn't feel they were always able to control their work environment and lead change.

'You need a few simple tools', Ms Andrews explained. 'You need to make sure you are recognised for your integrity and your knowledge, and you need to develop high impact communication skills. Most of all, you need stamina. Nothing is going to change if people give up when they are rejected.'

Some tools and techniques are available free on www.cci.scot.nhs.uk to all NHS staff, Ms Andrews said.

Changing the way services are delivered means changing the workforce and developing new roles for people, Derek Feeley, head of national planning at SEHD, told delegates.

'It has been estimated that 20% of doctors' work could be done by others without loss of quality', he said. 'We need ways of cascading care responsibilities through the workforce.'

Mr Feeley's department aims to create a strategic national focus for the reconfiguration and redesign of services. An expert advisory group on service change has been set up under the chairmanship of Professor David Kerr of the University of Oxford to take a hard look at how the NHS can plan and deliver better health services in Scotland for the longer term. The group is due to report next year.

Mr Feeley urged delegates to be active in the change process. 'We can't do it on our own', he said. 'We need your help and your thinking about what the NHS will look like in the future.'

A range of 'plausible' improvements in health behaviours among people in Scotland could lead to a reduction in coronary heart disease of almost a third, Dr Matt Lowther from NHS Health Scotland reported.

'If we could reduce cholesterol to less than 6.5mmol/l, increase moderate physical activity, reduce smoking to less than 10 a day and bring obesity levels down to 6% of men and 8% of women, it would add up to reducing the risk of CHD by 30%', he said. 'These are all plausible and achievable changes.'

Primary care health professionals were in an excellent position to offer opportunistic health improvement messages and recognise when referral to specialist services was needed, he said.

Ros Taylor, a leading psychologist and media presenter, told delegates more than half of the messages we give out about ourselves to others are conveyed by non-verbal means.

'Fifty-five per cent of the clues and signals we give are non-verbal', she said. 'Thirty-eight per cent are vocal, including the tone of voice, and only 7% are transmitted through words.' There were clear implications for the way AHPs communicate with patients and within teams, Ms Taylor said.

She offered a light hearted introduction to psycho geometrics showing delegates how different types of people work in different ways. Recognising and valuing this diversity underpins successful teams.

You can view PowerPoint presentations from the conference by accessing: http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/ahp/conferences.htm

New face in the team...

Morag Dorward joined the AHP team on October 1 as development officer for children's services.

Morag is speech and language therapy manager in NHS Tayside (Angus LHCC). Her clinical background is firmly rooted in children's services, with special interest in children with autistic spectrum disorders and those with mental health problems.

She has a one-year secondment to work with the additional support needs team in the education department, supporting the implementation of the Additional Support for Learning Act, and will also be working with the health department on implementing the recommendations in the Review of Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy for Children (see: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/health/rsltm-00.asp) .

First AHP consultant in Scotland

We are delighted to announce the recent appointment of Joyce Thompson as consultant dietician in public health nutrition in NHS Tayside.

Joyce will take up her post, the first of its kind in Scotland, on November 1 2004. AHP officer Jacqui Lunday welcomed the appointment as a great step forward for the AHPs in Scotland. 'We are now looking forward to the development of more AHP consultant posts across a range of professions and care groups', she said.

Postdoctoral fellowship

Dr Eddie Duncan, a clinical specialist occupational therapist has become the first person to secure a two-year postdoctoral fellowship as part of the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions (NMAHP) research training scheme. Dr Duncan will be seconded from the State Hospital, Carstairs, to the NMAHP research unit at the University of Stirling, where he will be supervised by Professor Kate Niven.

Role development workshops on way...

A series of five regional workshops on role development will be launched in October.

AHP programme manager Janet Garcia explains that the aim is to develop a framework for supporting role development in Scotland.

'AHP expertise and the benefits it brings to patients and communities needs to be better communicated', she says. 'The success of last year's initiative to create eight new specialist posts and the development of the first AHP consultant role in Scotland demonstrate the importance of AHP role development to the NHSScotland workforce.'

The regional workshops will focus on the development of new roles and the extension of existing ones within the context of the changing NHS.

Dates for your diary...

AHP International Conference 2005

The annual AHP conference will be held on 9-10 June 2005 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The conference will have an international theme, and the AHP Awards for Innovation 2005 will be presented on the opening day.

Clinical effectiveness conference

The next clinical effectiveness/practice development conference for AHPs will be held on 18 March 2005 at the Inchyra Grange Hotel, Polmont.

AHP Awards for Innovation 2005

Now's the time to start planning your submission for the AHP Awards for Innovation 2005!

The overall winner is presented with 10,000, with prizes of 1,000 each for five runners-up.

The awards give AHPs from all professions the opportunity to show how their creative, innovative thinking and practice has resulted in developments that enhance patient/client care.

Projects and initiatives can be uni- or multi-professional and should have health improvement or improving health services at their core.

The awards will be presented at the annual AHP conference on 9 June. Further information and application forms will be circulated in January 2005.