This Floats My Boat: Project Report

My two passions are sailing and self-management support, and last year I got the opportunity to run a project that combined the two! It took the most inordinate amount of work and really tested me. But I am really proud of the outcomes of the project and the steep learning curve that I've been on. 

The aim of the project was to extend the opportunity to sail through ‘peer to peer’ support for people with severe disabilities/long term health problems across Dorset, working with Chesil Sailability sailors, health and wellbeing groups and the ‘My Health My Way’ service, so supporting people to develop their confidence and therefore their ability to self-manage and take up and maintain healthy behaviours.

To disclose or not to disclose?

This post isn't about being secretive, but about the boundaries of privacy and thinking about what we expect from patients when they share their experience and insights. So, I've been wondering for a while..

How much of my role as a patient leader is about my conditions? Is disclosing them essential to my story, insights and contributions? 

The who, what, why, when, where and how of PPI in Meded

I recently had the pleasure of giving the plenary session at the BeSST (Behavioural and Social Scientists Teaching in Medicine) one day conference and AGM. With a brief to explore how patients, carers and members of the public can contribute to medical education, I went down the who, what, why, when, where, how route. As promised, here is a blog to summarise the key points of my plenary session.

Getting back on my feet

As I knew I would be, I am paying the price with a relapse, having spend a wonderful few days in Paris. But having had a very active few days and a bit of travelling, this relapse is lasting longer than normal. Still not out of the ordinary, or any cause for concern, but I am sitting here thinking how I can going to keep going through it, get back on my feet and feel recharged at the end...

My NHS Change Day Pledge

The 13th March 2013 is NHS Change Day - a national day where staff, managers and patients collectively improve the NHS through a number of pledges to change little things. I must admit I have only recently realised that patients themselves can be involved in NHS Change Day, but think it is only proper that we are. The NHS is often referred to as "our NHS" and leaders say it "belongs to everyone", which it does. As patients, we are in the privileged position to influence the NHS for the better (patient power!) and both as individuals and together, we have the potential to catalyse the transition to a more effective NHS that delivers better services for us more often.
So what can I do on the 13th March to add my little bit to this great big movement?

The Power of Twitter - Patient Power

This question was posed by Dr Black in her UCLLHL lecture today. These lunch hour lectures from UCL are often fascinating - see my post on Prof Barber's non-compliance lecture and the full schedule of future lectures here. She was talking about the power of Twitter (in lots of different contexts from fundraising to marketing, to socialising and researching), and left me inspired to be more creative with my use of Twitter. She also got me thinking about the power of Twitter and me being me, thought about it in the context of when you are a patient....

WEGO Nominations!

Really proud to have been nominated for the Blog category! I can't believe how much my blog has taken off in the last 12 months, and how much I have enjoyed doing it - I have just passed 3,000 hits as well, so really excited about continuing The Patient Patient in 2013 ... As long as I am continue to be a patient, there is plenty of inspiration for these posts!

Thank you!