Reviewing ground rules and planning teaching

TRAC met in January and we agreed that this blog would summarise what we talked about in our meeting.
At the meeting we trialled a new way of making sure that everybody is heard.  This was because at our last meeting some people felt that there were people taking over and not everybody was getting time to talk.  Meaningful inclusion and communication is so important to us and revisiting ground rules has helped us to think about this.

We had a new member Andrew with us who chaired the meeting and we used a number of A4 size easy read symbols 'I want to be heard' on the desk in front of members. 

One of our group members explained that there are some sound boxes that we could use to trial being heard.  We decided that next time we meet we will use these and then vote about which TRAC members prefer.

Professor Ruth Northway came to talk to the group about being involved in a piece of research, we talked about exercise and how people with learning disabilities might be motivated to exercise but might not have the knowledge about how or where they can exercise.

Or they may want to exercise and know how important it is but might not have the equipment and money to get involved.  TRAC are really excited about this piece of work.

In the meeting Ben Pitcher came to talk to us about being involved in teaching advanced practitioners, Ben would like TRAC to come and talk about what is important for other people to know when communicating and assessing people with learning disabilities.  We talked a lot about medication, consultations and how important it is to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act (2010), something that was really important was having extra time and having a key person who can be there to explain and help to ask more questions.

Learning Disability Awareness Week and the Lived Experience Network

It's been a little while since we have managed to post on the blog.  TRAC have met twice since May and have been busy preparing for attendance at conferences and presentations, as well as the summer.

What did we do in June?

It was great that Philip, one of our most established members of TRAC and I were able to present at the Lived Experience Network (LEN) in Swansea as part of the All Wales Supporting Community Engagement group, where all the universities in Wales work together to showcased patient and pubic engagement.  

This is Julia Terry and Vaughan Gething with the Patient Experience and Evaluation in Research (PEER) group.

Vaughan Gething Minister for Health, Well-being and Sport was there and spent some time hearing about the work TRAC does.  He asked Philip and I a few questions about the way we train nurses at USW. 

It was great for us to hear about the role of patients, families and carers and how they influence education in Health sciences throughout the UK.

The experience was extra special for me as it was the first time I had presented at a conference and the support I received from Philip was invaluable.  It was also Learning disability awareness week 19th-25th June and so I wrote a blog for learningdisabilitynurse.com about the experience. 

It was great to have some feedback about the blog from Peter Bates from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) who has a fantastic website dedicated to involving people with learning disabilities in research and the community, there are a range of how to guides, which you can find here.  The thing that struck me the most was how calm and relaxed Philip was about the experience, in stark comparison to me!

One of our first year student nurses Caitlin was also there and she was lucky enough to win a prize for the  poster presentation that she submitted, all about TRAC and the work we do, she also made the poster easy read which is so important.

Well done Caitlin and thanks to Julia and Philip