Working in partnership with King’s Health Partners Mind & Body Programme, another dynamic training session was delivered on the 31st October. The training was facilitated by Dr Anto Ingrassia, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and CYPHP Clinical Lead, and Jessie McCulloch, Senior Project Manager at IMPARTS. Both facilitators shared a wealth of expertise about providing integrated care for children with long term conditions, and how to best support their families.
The day was well attended, with 37 attendees from an array of clinical, education, research and social work vocations. With good representation across professions, the exercises and discussions throughout the day proved to be a rich learning environment that promoted inter-professional care of children and young people with health and other complex needs.
With the help of professional role players, attendees practiced clinical skills in a safe and supportive environment. Specifically, professional role players enacted two clinical scenarios, where they portrayed the challenges of living with either asthma or epilepsy as ongoing health conditions. Participants worked with the role players, asking questions to understand how they have experienced navigating through the health, education, and social care system with their different health and socio-economic needs, each impacting on the care and treatment they receive.
Some great insights attendees noted from the exercise included:
- "Helpful not to find solutions straight away. Let's listen, and understand what the problem actually is."
- "You can't solve all the problems, and neither can we. It's about us working together."
- "It's been eye opening hearing about what other people are looking for."
- "We all have our own experience, and we have something to bring to the table."
The simulation work was followed by a number of group discussions, including:
- Examining beliefs about how health outcomes are shaped by physical, emotional/behavioural, and contextual issues
- Learning about the interface between physical and mental health
- Learning how social determinants influence health
- Exploring barriers to accessing help (i.e. stigma about accessing mental health services)
- And together, coming up with a list of local resources specifically for children and young people
"You can do your job so much easier, if you KNOW (resources) your community."
This session again proved to be successful in fostering a culture of inter-professional and cross-organisational working. It was great to see professionals from diverse backgrounds each using their own expertise to contribute to joint learning and development of new skills.
All attendees agreed that they would recommend this course to colleagues. Feedback from them also included:
- “Thought provoking.”
- “Eye opener, new information.”
- “Role plays really interesting and helpful. Good to think about the whole child.”
- “The importance of considering the meaning behind communication – even if feeling challenged.”
- “I think it has been integral to reaffirming my CYP (children and young people) skills, and family integration into care. As well as my understanding of multidisciplinary team working.”
- I learnt about “Different services available, and how to approach difficult conversations.”
- I thought the facilitators were “Excellent! Dynamic, engaging and knowledgeable.”
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