May blog- our One Day Educational Event was a great success

We did it!

Our One Day Event on Adolescent Health was a great success. With almost 100 delegates, a great array of speakers, excellent organization from our back-up team at RCGP  a good day was had by all.

There was lots of interest on twitter: see below!

Tweets from GP Conf on

Adolescent Health 26/4/13

See http://tinyurl.com/cbfso6v for

programme on a 1 Day Essential

Conference organised by the RCGP on

Adolescent Health and held in London

‘Great speakers at #ODEAH - adolescent health training by RCGP's & good speaking with individual doctors

about wanting 2 do more 4 teen Mental Health’

We are gathering the feedback and I will report  the key themes as we use the comments to inform the planning of future events.

Thanks to  all who contributed and to those who attended the day. Certificates of attendance will be winging their way to you imminently!

April post-stop press- not good news

Data below taken from Youth Mental Health Network Newsletter:

A year ago, the good people over at www.patient.co.uk commissioned researchers to look into the impact of the economic recession on our health.

Their results are stark. Young people are being hit the hardest by the recession. Of those surveyed, 36% of people across all ages felt stressed because of the economic downturn, this rose to 43% in the 18-25 year age range. 24% of under 25's said they were drinking more alcohol since the downturn compared to just 14% of all adults.

Of those surveyed, 57% of 18-25 year olds had lost or gained weight since the financial crisis, 37% had put on weight which was put down to comfort eating, 20% said they had lost weight due to worry. Half of 18-25 year olds said that they have become socially lonely and isolated as they can't afford to go out compared to 34% of the general population.

What this amounts to is a demographic that is storing up all the key and multiple indicators for poor health in the short and long term. 

Data collected is always open to multiple interpretations but  the clear narrative which is emerging is that  economic austerity is disproportionately   impacting on young people and the consequences wil be long acting.

You can subscribe to the newsletter via contacting

Sarah.Amani@sabp.nhs.uk

If you haven’t already booked on our One Day Event on Adolescent Health places are still available but going fast!

http://www.rcgp

Courses and events

Yours

Jane

March 2013

There is much to report as we continue to brace the north easterly winds and long for spring.

The RCGP has acknowledged Youth Mental Health as a clinical priority area and I was appointed the Clinical Champion for this task in late March. Although the post is unfunded I am hoping that with the expertise of CIRC and the networks the Adolescent Health Group has forged we will be able to bid for funding to advance a number of projects.

At our stakeholders group in January it was recognized that responding to self-harm continues to be a major  area of concern for young people, their parents, GPs and teachers

Young Minds, with Cello ( a  health focused insight and strategic marketing group) recently  conducted a very useful piece of work which speaks to us all and indicates the scope of the problem and the paucity of adults often available for young people to talk with.

Please check out the full report:  

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/about/our_campaigns/cello_self-harm

Young people’s mental health, as well as sexual  health, body image and safeguarding will all be addressed at our forthcoming One Day Educational event on April 26^th at the Friends’ Meeting House, London (opposite the new HQ of the College).

We have had an excellent response for registration. Places are still available. For more information please  go to the following link

  http://www.rcgp.org.uk/publications/all-publications/~/media/Files/Publications/RCGP%20News/RCGP-News-March-2013.ashx

or book directly at

www.rcgp.org.uk/courses-and-events/business-development/one-day-essentials/ ode-adolescent-health-26-april-2013.asp

March also saw the annual meeting of the American organization: SAHM celebrate 45 years of adolescent health and medicine in Atlanta.  It was ‘totally awesome’.

http://www.adolescenthealth.org

My report on the amazing array of speakers, workshops, hot topics and clinical updates will be available in next month’s blog.

We visited the Martin Luther King Museum whilst there- a truly  inspirational place to spend time.

Finally, NICE have issued the latest guidelines concerning  common mental health disorders in CYP: Conduct Disorder.

You can read my BMJ rapid response here:

http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1298/rr/639118

Greetings to all

Jane

November's News

With the academic year well under way our focus remains on education and supporting more youth-friendly practice in general practice and community settings.

Building on the nationally delivered series of BMJ Master classes the Adolescent Health Group (AHG) is proposing a tailor made 1d educational event to be held at RCGP new HQ, 30, Euston Sq, London on Friday April 26^th.

We will be covering four areas   which underpin consultations with young people : mental and sexual health; safeguarding issues; body image and living healthily. Delegates will emerge with an armoury of ‘top tips’ and will have the opportunity to bring along difficult (anonymised ) clinical cases for peer discussion and access to topic experts.

Registration will open in December.

The RCGP adolescent heath group is also  involved with delivering an educational event for Paediatricans –SPRs and aspiring consultants and will offer ‘a state of the art’ review of good practice in the  delivery of health care services for young people entitled

‘How to manage the transition between Paediatric and Adult care’. See the RCHCP website-the programme is the featured event of the moment:

http:// www.rcpch.ac.uk/events (04/02/13)

Finally, we are delighted to see the launch of our groundbreaking joint project:

GP Champions for Youth health. This is a collaborative project involving AYPH and Youth Access and RCGP. Ten GPs have been selected to partner with a local youth charity and explore new ways of working

‘Its aim is to transform the delivery of health services for young people by creating new links between GPs and local voluntary organisations. GPs will benefit from getting more options for referring young people and help with commissioning. The project will promote young people’s health needs within the commissioning agenda and support improvements to address these’.

The first learning set take place on December 5^th in London

You can find more on the home page of AYPH:

http://www.youngpeopleshealth.org.uk

keep watching this space!

Best wishes

Jane Roberts

October and the RCGP honours the giants of general practice

THE RCGP Annual conference celebrates the giants of general practice: Ann McPherson is honoured with the first eponymous inaugural lecture facilitated by the RCGP Adolescent Health Group.

I gave a brief introduction reminding the audience of Ann’s breath of interests which traversed the lifespan; from women’s health , to young people’s health, patients’ illness experiences to end of life care; with the common thread being her innovative ideas and challenge of the orthodoxy.

We invited Sir Al Aynsley-Green to give the first lecture and he delivered a thought provoking talk which threw down the gauntlet to the audience asking : what do you do for young people in your practice? He confronted the reality of young people’s health often not being a priority in an adult centric world and invited GPs and practice staff to consider what they might do differently; with a special mention of the impact of losing a parent before adulthood.

The talk was concluded with a reminder of the exciting new direction of travel which is being led by the RCGP Adolescent Health Group: our fantastic new project with AYPH, funded by DH, which will see the creation of 10 regional GP Champions in England; the imminent launch of Youth Mental Health as a clinical priority and the delivery of a One Day Essentials conference  next Spring covering young people’s health and supporting the professional development  of GPs in this important  but often unaddressed area of clinical practice.

Watch the blog for further updates!

Best wishes

Jane Roberts

jane.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk

July: A new exhibition and the GMC

 

I can highly recommend the current exhibition Child Hood –The Real Event,showing at The Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, Piccadilly Circus ; on until July 22^nd.

It is a visual explosion   ,interestingly curated  and involving the work of 1,049  children and young people who have all experienced a dark side to growing up which we would often prefer not to be reminded of. The  children have produced some strikingly original images and visual art which is both disturbing and sad but  ultimately uplifting.

Please spread the word and visit the exhibition if you can.

  http://www.kidsco.org.uk/news-events/2012/child-hood-the-real-event

Another news item to flag up is the launch of the GMC’s new guidelines : Protecting Children and Young People. The document centre stages the well-being of CYP for all doctors –regardless of whether or not they are directly involved in the care of patients 18 years and under and is an important landmark in improving the care of younger patients.

With best wishes

Jane

August post

An early summer break in gorgeous cultural Prague

Almost time for holidays but before we unwind the CYP Health Outcome Forum has just published the report of its consultation process

http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/07/cyp-report/

This is an important document which  I encourage you to read. It is a bold statement on the parlous state of health care for CYP in the UK which builds on the earlier work of Sir Ian Kennedy (2010).

Key points are

• ·         The recognition that no mandatory training for GP registrars has ill-served CYP who are 22% of the population and visit general practice at least 2x pa from aged 10 yrs and upto 4/5 x aged 15-19 yrs

• ·         They state that the current QOF is ‘a completely inadequate reflection of the workload of general practice and the potential quality gains that could be achieved ‘ (p. 15)

• ·         Aggregating data into ages sets of 0-19 years is unhelpful

• ·         Integrated (seamless  care should be the gold standard

• ·         Young people need age appropriate services which should adhere to the You’re Welcome criteria

Recommendations

• ·         Extended and enhanced training in line with the RCGP bid

• ·         NICE and the NHS Commissioning Board to expand and prioritise the Quality Standards work programme as it applies to CYP

• ·         All GPs to be trained to work competently with YP

• ·         All NHS organizations to include CYP feedback in the evaluations of their services

I commend all those who took part in the production of this excellent report. It offers clear direction for our future travel in order to make general practice more youth-friendly

Enjoy your summer break!

Jane