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Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust – Raising aspirations of young people in Gateshead
The raising aspiration project aims to provide young people who live in Gateshead with a professional mentor who will provide them with life changing work experiences within Gateshead NHS Foundation Trust.
The young people will be identified by their headteachers as those who have potential to achieve but may not have the social support or aspiration to do well. The mentor will meet with the young person and his or her family to promote a positive work ethic and make explicit the job prospects that are available within the Trust.
The aim will be that both the young person and his or her family will be exposed to information that they may not usually have presented to them. The mentor will provide academic and social support as well as work experience opportunities throughout their final GCSE year. As the mentor and young person build up a positive relationship, the young person will be influenced by the excellent work ethics of Gateshead staff and gather a greater understanding of careers available within the NHS.
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Gateshead PCT – Promoting the truth for a healthy region using social norms marketing
Since 2007, Gateshead Primary Care Trust’s sexual health service has led the region in piloting social norms marketing approaches to dispel harmful myths about the extent of alcohol misuse and underage sexual activity affecting whole school communities.
Supported by a wealth of North American studies demonstrating long term and community-wide health benefits, the social norms marketing approach to health promotion is increasingly viewed by the regional workforce as a powerful new tool in the strategic aims to reduce health inequalities for young people associated with smoking, drug and alcohol misuse and underage sexual activity.
Drawing on the learning from their innovative and well received four-year 'reality check' programme, Gateshead PCT's sexual health service is set to launch a two-year programme of staff training and capacity building for the regional workforce under the 'promoting the truth for a healthy region' banner. The programme will provide resources, training and accreditation to support frontline practitioners to implement the approach to the highest standards.
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Newcastle and North Tyneside PCTs – Growing our own
This project will develop a pathway for workforce development with a local provider, Barnardos and is aimed at individuals living within the local community, aged between 16 and 18 years. ‘Growing our own’ aims to establish a structured process for offering NHS non-professional career pathways for young people within the local community who would not traditionally have the qualifications or experience or would not consider a work-based placement as an opportunity or route for career development or employment.
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Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Improve quality, improve productivity; a joint project with the North East Cardiovascular Network
The aim of this project is to improve the quality of carotid doppler ultrasound across the region, such that there is accurate diagnosis and thus timely management of patients with transient ischaemic attack (TIA)/stroke. Improving the quality of carotid doppler ultrasound will ensure that there is less need for repeat scans therefore reducing delays, improving productivity and ensuring value for money.
The project will be a partnership between The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the host organisation), The North of England Cardiovascular Network, The Stroke Association and Newcastle University School of Medical Sciences Education Development.
This project intends to implement an innovative web-based educational programme to standardise regional reporting/performance of carotid doppler ultrasound. The programme will be delivered across the North East by a “virtual team” of experts and will provide mentorships and a robust support network to healthcare professionals across the region.
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North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust - The productive prison
The aim of this project is to redesign and streamline the way in which prison healthcare services manage and work within Holme House and Kirk Levington prisons, achieving significant and lasting improvements which will improve the quality of care, mitigate risks and improve productivity.
Lean methodologies and techniques will be the main tools used to deliver measurable productivity improvements alongside a workforce analysis and skill mix exercise. To support the roll out of productive prison, senior healthcare staff will participate in a development programme to explore NHS culture, NHS leadership competencies , roles, responsibilities, business acumen, change management, targets, and key performance indicators to ensure the sustained success of service redesign and productivity improvements.
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North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust –Implementing Speechlink and Languagelink into mainstream primary schools
Implementation of Speechlink and Languagelink within all Primary Schools in Stockton-on-Tees will provide teachers and teaching assistants with increased knowledge and skills to manage the speech and language needs of children within the school environment.
The training will be delivered by a facilitator who will monitor and review the project’s effectiveness. Speechlink and Languagelink are IT systems with automated programmes of interventions. They enable teachers and teaching assistants to screen children’s speech and language skills, identify children who have mild delays and support them in school using specific speech and language programmes with individual children and groups of children in the classroom.
It will also enable them to identify children with more severe and complex difficulties that need to be referred to the speech and language therapy service. The project will also facilitate improved partnership working with colleagues in schools.
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Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust – Belief in recovery
'Belief in Recovery' will explore understandings of spirituality and why it might be avoided in care, establish practice guidelines and develop and deliver training in order to enhance staff competence and the quality of care.
What people believe and the way these beliefs affect their self-worth and social interaction is an area that is often overlooked in mental health care, yet should have a profound effect on health, recovery and wellbeing.
The project rational is that staff lack confidence in exploring issues of a spiritual nature with service users. This may be through illiteracy in 'spiritual language' or a limited knowledge of religions and beliefs. The project team believe that spirituality has an important place within the recovery process. Initially the project will be restricted to the mental health rehabilitation and recovery division, but the aim is to share the training more widely after it has been developed and validated.
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Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (joint project) – Implementing family interventions for psychosis
NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guidance suggests that all people experiencing schizophrenia should be offered family interventions.
Research evidence demonstrates that this intervention reduces distress, prevents relapses and saves money through reduced hospital bed days for service users. However, successfully implementing family interventions is a national problem. his project will systematically overcome the known barriers to implementing psychological therapies.
The Meriden Family Programme will be commissioned to train 100 qualified staff in basic family intervention skills. This will lead to a cultural shift in acknowledging the importance of family work, and increasing staff confidence. The project will also train local staff to be able to provide training, so all staff working with psychosis will have the necessary training.
Moreover, higher trained staff will have potected time to offer clinical leadership, supervision and deliver the NICE recommended interventions. Managers and senior clinicians will receive tailored training, to ensure strong managerial and clinical support. The training, implementation strategies and clinical outcomes will be evaluated and disseminated.
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Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – Multi-disciplinary approach to dementia and delirium care
Two thirds of hospital beds are occupied by older people, of this group half will suffer from cognitive impairment. This project aims to improve the experience of older confused patients through improved training of all healthcare professionals.
The project involves a two day inter-professional taught course that will achieve: a greater understanding of dementia and delirium and the impact upon the patient and family, competence in detection and monitoring of cognitive impairment, an improved ability to practice person centred care, an improved capacity to share patient knowledge to join up care, and application of this new knowledge to the practice setting.
Following on from this, key messages will be reinforced in the clinical setting by old age psychiatry liaison nurses who will support staff with practice developments. Carers are involved in the delivery of the programme to promote greater partnership working and a more person centred care approach.
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Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust – Non-pharmacological interventions for people with dementia
This project aims to improve the quality of life of people with dementia and reduce the over reliance on sedative and antipsychotic medication in care homes by increasing the knowledge and skills of care staff in managing the psycholological, occupational and emotional needs of the individual, which presently may go unmet and are often exhibited as difficult to manage behaviour.
The environment and interactions of each home are observed over time, and the information gathered fed back to home staff. Each home will then be supported, using case studies and formulations for residents of the home, to establish a person-centred philosophy, to introduce systems for planning and implementing therapy programmes, to develop a facilitating physical environment and to support therapeutic relationships.
