Skellern Lecture and Lifetime Achievement Award – Psychological Well being / Iechyd Meddwl
Eileen Skellern made a serious contribution to the event of contemporary, interpersonally mediated, psychological well being nursing and following her dying in 1980 a lecture sequence was based in her title. Since 2006 the Skellern Lecture has been delivered on an annual foundation, alongside a Lifetime Achievement Award. This mixed occasion is now the UK’s main celebration of excellence and accomplishment within the psychological well being nursing discipline, and on June 15 the Faculty of Healthcare Sciences in Cardiff College was happy to host the 2023 version. Held within the Glamorgan Constructing, help from the Chief Nursing Officer within the Welsh Authorities enabled the occasion to be livestreamed with the recording now out there to view by way of #mhTV.
Chairing the occasion was Dr Nicola Evans, Reader in Psychological Well being Nursing within the Faculty of Healthcare Sciences, with the night opening with a efficiency from Trudi Petersen. Trudi is a psychological well being nurse, author and efficiency poet and her authentic piece carried the title, ‘We’re the locksmiths’. This spoke to the contribution made by psychological well being nurses by way of the expert, inventive, use of self, and employed metaphors to precise what psychological well being nurses do. Her efficiency was marked by way of the presentation of a commemorative plaque by Dr Alicia Stringfellow, Senior Lecturer in Psychological Well being Nursing within the Faculty of Healthcare Sciences.
Steve Clarke, Psychological Well being Nursing Officer within the Welsh Authorities, welcomed folks with an summary of nursing and psychological well being priorities in Wales. Steve works intently with Sue Tranka, Chief Nursing Officer for Wales, and in his speak highlighted ongoing work specializing in the event of the workforce, affected person security and the creation of a brand new framework for psychological well being care throughout the lifespan.
The Skellern Lecturer for 2023 was Dr Anne Aiyegbusi, who was launched on the opening of her speak by 2022 Skellern Lecturer Dr Gary Winship from the College of Nottingham. Anne combines backgrounds as a registered psychological well being nurse, a psychotherapist and as a bunch analyst and in a 30-year NHS profession has labored in NHS forensic companies (together with within the Caswell Clinic in Bridgend) and, most lately, as a principal psychotherapist at Oxford Well being NHS Basis Belief. Anne continues to mix scientific apply and management in psychological well being companies with analysis and scholarship. She holds a PhD awarded by Middlesex College for which her supervisor was Professor Daniel Kelly, now within the Faculty of Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff, and who offered Anne along with her Skellern Lecture plaque.
In her lecture Anne spoke with eloquence and authority on the subject of ‘Psychological well being care and the enduring problem of racial trauma’, referring to the cumulative re-traumatising affect of racism skilled over time by way of each particular person acts of discrimination and systemic racism. Anne cited a number of methods by which this takes place, together with by way of dehumanisation, the ‘adultification’ of Black kids, by way of the deaths throughout bodily restraint of Black males and thru mechanisms of transgenerational trauma. Racial trauma, Anne argued, in her thought-provoking and transferring tackle, that racial trauma is reproduced inside psychological well being care settings, which function ‘places of disturbance’, and in methods that are a priority for all. Anne’s proposals for motion in response included a sustained deal with addressing transgenerational racial trauma in training programmes, genuine allyship with a various workforce and the creation of protected areas to advertise help, therapeutic and resilience.
Recipient of this yr’s Lifetime Achievement Award was Professor Mary Chambers, Emerita Professor at Kingston College and Emerita Professor in Psychological Well being Nursing at St George’s, College of London. Mary was launched by 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Professor Kevin Gournay, Emeritus Professor at King’s School London, and with humour and perception mirrored on her in depth and internationally influential profession in psychological well being apply, analysis, training and management starting with nurse coaching in Belfast within the Sixties. Reflecting Mary’s profession in main and pioneering advances within the discipline of psychological well being nursing, her tackle picked up the theme of being ‘the primary’ in lots of roles. In an early, extremely formative, expertise Mary described having been a part of the primary technology of nurse behavioural therapists, following what at the moment was an experimental course on the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital within the Seventies. By way of roles within the NHS Mary described her transfer to an educational place on the College of Ulster the place she mixed tasks for training, course management and analysis.
As Mary’s speak demonstrated, her pursuits and work over time have expanded to incorporate well being care informatics, apply improvement together with by way of collaborations with colleagues on the Royal School of Nursing, the measurement of nursing interventions together with a rock-solid dedication to significant public and affected person involvement. In these fields Mary is now internationally recognized, along with her first professorial place following the award of a private chair at Ulster in 1998. For a few years Mary additionally fulfilled a foundational editorial position on the Journal of Psychiatric and Psychological Well being Nursing, and most lately served as a member of the Allied Well being Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy knowledgeable panel within the Analysis Excellence Framework 2021.
The occasion closed with the presentation of a plaque to Mary by Professor Ben Hannigan from the Faculty of Healthcare Sciences, adopted by a vote of thanks and a reminder that nominations for the 2024 Skellern Lecturer and Lifetime Achievement Award at the moment are open.
Ben Hannigan, Stephen McKenna Lawson, Seren Roberts
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