What are the Health and Social Care needs of Students studying in Portsmouth?

Being trendy, pretty, smart, a good student, sporty, a party animal, cool, special, always online (facebook), experienced in work and travelling and so on... These are all things which a student has to be today.

There are lots of students who lose themselves by doing things which “people just do today”. They forget their own preferences and don’t know what they really want to do in their life. It is often very difficult to know limits and boundaries especially when a person is in a new environment.

With all these social expectations to achieve, students may be driven to search for “non-thinking-times” maybe by being tempted to drink alcohol or even worse being tempted to experiment with drugs. Family, friends, self-doubts or unachievable goals can be a compelling reason to escape in what can be addictive pastimes.

The question is, how can we get students to speak about their health and social care concerns? It takes a lot of courage to speak about uncomfortable topics. So there should be a way to encourage students to say what they’re thinking. This might also be an opportunity to find other people who struggle with similar problems.

The Portsmouth LINk Blog is an internet resource which provides students (and all residents of Portsmouth) with a forum to discuss health and social care issues they face. This gives students the opportunity to influence health and social care services which in turn might improve those services which support students.

Students need a forum where they can speak about their health and social care concerns without being judged. They need people to help them make the best of their situation by listening, empathizing and taking forward the issues which are important to students. The Local Involvement Network (LINk) is such a forum and will provide for as much participation and involvement as a student has time for.

But you should never forget: Change is only possible if you want to change something in your own right. Article written by Lucia Pescatore.

Freshers Fayre

The Community Engagement Team spent two days at the University of Portsmouth’s Freshers Fayre event held last week (Wednesday 21/09/2011 and Thursday 22/09/2011). This event always involves hundreds of students and is always a good opportunity to promote the Local Involvement Network. It has to be said that getting students interested in Health and Social Care during one of the most exhilarating points in their life can be difficult. Despite this, many students were interested in the LINk and took away contact details with a keen interest to become involved. An idea was hit upon that a student might be interested in contributing an article to the LINk Blog which put forward a “Student’s View” about Health and Social Care interests. This formed the basis of an engagement approach and attracted a fair number of promises. One Student, Lucia Pescatore, took the offer very seriously, and has produced a short and very relevant article putting across her view of the way a Student might regard Health and Social Care when embarking upon a university degree with all the dramatic changes in circumstances that is demanded by such a commitment. This article is reproduced as a separate Blog Article (view article by Lucia Pescatore).

Your Chance to Influence End of Life Care at QAH

This is a very important issue on which patients and the public now have an opportunity to influence the way the Queen Alexandra Hospital looks after people who die while in their care. Please give us your comments. The Portsmouth LINk has two members on panels who are reviewing this topic over the next weeks and months. Other groups involved are the Portsmouth Pensioners, Faith Groups, Carers Together, the Hampshire LINk, a Cancer Patient Representative, the Rowans Hospice and a Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust Governor. All of these people are truly independent and many have first hand knowledge of End of Life Care. But we need your views.

Please help us make sure this is done right!

LINk Survey

With all the changes that are occurring in the NHS and other health & social care services at the moment it is even more important that your opinion and voice is heard!

We want to give you the opportunity to continue to have your say on the future of the health & social care services in Portsmouth.

We also wish to continue to include as many people as possible in the work of the LINk as it develops into Local Healthwatch and so we have created a brief survey and invite you to take part.

LINk members should have received the survey via email by now, so please complete the survey as soon as you can and tell us what you think!

If you have not received the LINk survey, or are not a LINk member but want to get involved, please contact Steven Taylor of the Communities Engagement Team at steven.taylor@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

LINk Work Plan prioritisation continues

The “weighting system” which is being used to prioritise the issues the Portsmouth LINk is working on was discussed at the Steering Group Meeting held on the 14/09/2011. Due to the combination of a very full agenda (reducing the time the LINk needed to discuss the system) and the detailed nature of the system itself (which demanded a high degree of concentration from everyone) the Steering Group decided to postpone working through the system until the next Development & Investigation Sub-Group Meeting (scheduled for Tuesday 27/09/2011). The Chair of the Development & Investigation Sub-Group requested that the Agenda for this meeting is re-issued with new timings placing the weighting system as the first item on the agenda and allocating up to two hours for completion.

A Blog familiarisation session has recently been held at Portsmouth Central Library. The session was facilitated because LINk participants were very keen to use the Blog and wanted to find out more about how the Blog worked and how they could contribute. The session lasted for 2 hours with participants staying as long as they felt their personal needs demanded. If you have any questions about the Blog please email the Community Engagement Team (via the Contacts Page).

2 more issues to consider on LINk Work Plan

The list of issues which the Portsmouth LINk will be prioritising has increased by 2. Recent interest in End of Life Care has added this important topic to the list. Additionally, concerns voiced by the Portsea Action Group (see Portsea Action Group expresses concern over proposals for Vascular Surgery Services) has meant that Vascular Surgery Services are now included on the list of issues the LINk will be prioritising. To view the revised Work Plan and to see a list of archived Work Plans, please go to the Work Plan section of the Documents Page (Click here for Work Plans).

Portsea Action Group expresses concern over proposals for Vascular Surgery Services

On the 07/09/2011 the Portsmouth LINk delivered a short presentation about its purpose to the Portsea Action Group (PAG). The presentation was well received and there are plans to maintain contact with this important community group. During the presentation the overwhelming majority of the group expressed concern over the proposed plans for Vascular Surgery Services in the Portsmouth area. PAG were informed that the concerns they had expressed would be put to the LINk Steering Group. Since the presentation the LINk Steering Group have been briefed about PAG's concern and have agreed to include Vascular Surgery Services as an item to be prioritsed in the forthcoming prioritisation of LINk work stream issues. This means that should Vascular Surgery Services be placed at the top of the LINk's list of priorities the LINk will be conducting a structured community engagement programme to consolidate the information from PAG and the other groups who are concerned about this issue.

End of Life Care

The Portsmouth LINk wishes to gather comments about the Report produced by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (Queen Alexandra Hospital) about End of Life Care. This Report was produced by the Hospital following the recommendations made by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel and was originally posted on the LINk Blog Notice Board on the 02/08/2011. Your comments about this topic will be very welcomed. Please click on the following hyperlink to read the Report : View Presentation.

Agreeing the priorities of the Portsmouth LINk

The LINk Steering Group Meeting scheduled for Wednesday 14/09/2011 will include a discussion about how the LINk prioritises the issues on its Work Plan. You are very welcomed to contribute any comments that you might have on how this prioritisation should be carried out and what should be a priority.

The guidance information provided to LINks from the NCI Guide No. 10 is very useful when assessing what a LINk Work Plan is and how it should be formulated (View Guidance Document Number 10).

Recently, the Portsmouth LINk reduced the number of items which appeared on its Work Plan, from 22 to 10, and then informally prioritised the remaining 10 issues (View prioritised list). The next step to be taken by the LINk is a formal prioritisation exercise involving all members of the Steering Group working to an agreed model of prioritisation.

Three options for Vascular Surgery

The local debate about Vascular Surgery has been further enriched by a Letter written by the Chief Executive of the SHIP PCT Cluster, Mrs Debbie Fleming. The Letter provides an outline of three options being explored to meet required standards. Please click on the following hyperlink to read the Letter by Mrs Fleming View Letter written by Mrs Fleming.

DoH Consultation Document - Local Healthwatch Funding

The Department of Health recently published a consultation document to all Local Authorities, LINks and Volunteering groups, regarding the funding arrangements for Local Healthwatch and its additional functions (advocacy etc). The document includes some very useful information about what Local Healthwatch will involve and some detail about funding amounts. It also asks for responses to some proposals it makes about how funding should be allocated and how this should be calculated. Can you please read the document and let me have your views as soon as possible please? Thank you. Click here to view the Consultation Document.

PHT Board Meeting in Public

As Chair of the Portsmouth LINk Steering Group, I attended the PHT Board Meeting in Public at QAH today. This is always a good opportunity to hear what the top decision-makers running our Acute Hospital are doing and discussing. There is also an agenda item towards the end of the meeting for members of the public to ask questions. This is an opportunity once a month for LINk matters to be brought directly to the Board's attention.

The meeting agenda and minutes of the last meeting are available through the PHT website.

Today, I raised three LINk issues in response to discussion by Board members.