Jan Hyland recently retired from sexual health advising after a long career in sexual health.

Jan qualified as a SRN at The Royal Free Hospital in London in 1975 and worked on Liver, Skins and Intensive care units before moving to Suffolk and qualifying as a Midwife in 1977. She changed direction into Genito-Urinary Medicine in 1978 starting as a Staff Nurse progressing to Sister then ultimately becoming the Health Adviser in 1994.

Jan was the longest serving member on the SSHA NPC and her contribution to the Eastern Region will be missed as will her contributions to the SSHA NPC and at conference. Her experience and wisdom and sense of humour will be sadly missed both by the NPC but also I am sure by all her colleagues in GUM both locally and nationally.

We marked the occasion with a gift from SSHA and want to wish Jan all the best in her retirement with lots of love from everybody who has worked with her over the years. The NPC won’t be the same without her.

Jamie Hardie

SSHA President

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=fe05a7103a3443839418bf185&id=21862d760d

This new one day course will give you an essential update on the diagnosis and management of key areas in sexual health and urology.

During the morning sessions, our expert speakers will focus on important topics in sexual health – STIs, HIV, infertility and sexual dysfunction. These are topics which patients may find difficult to approach their GP about, and equally, some GPs may find them sensitive areas to discuss.

The afternoon sessions will enhance your skills in managing common urological problems. Using case examples, the speakers will cover PSA testing and monitoring, testicular problems and female urinary symptoms.
By the end of the day, you will be up to date on the latest evidence based management of your patients, and how best to advise them.

Why attend?
• Sexually transmitted infections
• HIV in primary care
• Infertility
• Sexual dysfunction
• Prostate-specific antigen – what’s the advice?
• Testicular pain and lumps
• Female urinary symptoms.

Who should attend?
• GPs
• GP trainees
• GPs with a special interest in sexual health or urology
• Practice nurses
• Nurse practitioners
• Other healthcare professionals with an interest in sexual health or urology.

For more information, please visit:
http://masterclasses.bmj.com/GPs/gp-series/GPs/sexual-health-urology/

To register now, please click here:
http://masterclasses.bmj.com/register-now

For three months, Doctors, nurses and Health Advisers were followed by a film crew, documenting the everyday life of a busy inner city sexual health clinic. The Health Adviser team were particularly supportive of the project and were able to give help and advice to the producer and camera crew on how the clinics were run and the roles of different staff.

The 3 months filming has been condensed into a 43 minute documentary, which sadly meant that a lot of the Health Adviser input hit the cutting room floor! However, Health Advisers are mentioned a few times and there are brief glimpses of a PTD, an HSV discussion and a moment where we find a patient has defecated on the carpet……….which ably demonstrates the glamour of a Health Adviser job!!

It was generally a really interesting and positive experience and the clinic and our HIV/GUM Directorate are pleased with the resulting documentary.

- Ceri Evans (Senior Sexual Health Adviser)

The programme will be aired

Monday, 26th July
9:00PM
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-hospital

A lack in the number of applications has meant that we are unable to make the conference financially viable this year, and if we did not cancel now, we would be liable for hotel charges which would affect our ability to pay for a future conference and also to support things such as MI study days and other professional activities.

SSHA NPC would like to thank the conference organisers who put in a lot of hard work and to speakers who had agreed to present. We would also like to apologise to those who had sent in their application forms and money.

We are of the understanding that the current financial climate may be a deciding factor for potential delegates. It would be helpful if you did contact us to let us know why you decided not to attend this year – this will aid us in future planning meetings (info@ssha.info )

We hope to schedule a 1 day event in London later this year in a cost neutral venue so we would appreciate any ideas you may have about this as well as ideas about SSHA conference next year.

Please contact David Wilson re. finance or myself or Maeve for any other issues to do with conference.

Yours sincerely,
Jamie Hardie

SSHA President

Helping people reduce sexual health risk using a Motivational Interviewing approach
To prepare sexual health staff to deliver the 2007 NICE recommendation of structured one to one risk reduction discussions based on a theory of behaviour change, for people at high risk of STI or under 18 pregnancies.

Follow-up Motivational Interviewing for sexual risk reduction
To consolidate learning in the use of Motivational Interviewing, following attendance at a previous SSHA study day, or equivalent training. The focus will be on practical application with clients, using case discussions and practice exercises.

Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

Please download your application form below:

1. Helping people reduce sexual health risk using a Motivational Interviewing approach application
2. Follow-up Motivational Interviewing for sexual risk reduction application

The question
“All non-medically qualified public health ‘specialists’ currently on the UK Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists should instead be placed on a Statutory Register. The wider Public Health workforce (i.e. those not eligible for inclusion on a Public Health Specialist register) should be subject to a self-regulation register.”

We understand why non-medical public health specialists should sit with medical public health specialists, but where does this leave other public health practitioners?

The terms of reference clearly state that one of the purposes of the review is to

• indicate a policy direction for defined specialists and for the practitioner workforce, but not address issues related to these workforces in their entirety;
• indicate a policy direction on a common pathway to registration, but not address this issue in its entirety;

I cannot see how the narrow question can lead to any meaningful answers as to how these issues can be taken forwards

I am worried that the views of a wider public health based workforce (and in our case we work in Sexual Health), will not be able to be expressed adequately .

Sexual Health Advisers work in both GUM and the wider community often in a Public health context.Although a majority of our members are Nurses, a significant percentage is not and come from varying backgrounds.

This DOH/SSHA document from Anne Mcnall highlights the work undergone so far and the issues that have led to some of this work and our PH work context; http://www.ssha.info/briefing-paper-sexual-health-advising-developing-the-workforce/

I had been under the impression that the review was going to take a clear look at practitioners and cover some of the issues that we had previously worked with the UKVPHR on, to do with assisting in developing standards and looking at how Professionals working in a PH context who are not registered or regulated could be covered.

The content of the review doesn’t appear to fit the original remit of the UKPHR, which was to give the public protection by ensuring a level of  accountability through the establishment of a regulatory ‘home’ and professional recognition for those who work in public health. By only focusing on the ’specialist’ end of this workforce, (many of whom hold dual registration elsewhere such as with the GMC or GDC, which provides at least some level of accountability) the greater majority of the public health practitioners (who are less likely to be hold a separate registration) who work mainly unrestricted with no professionals guidance, accountability, code of ethics, agreed standards, etc, all of which should be in place to safeguard the public. To further compound this issue, many of these practitioners are working in positions of responsibility including managing programmes and people, resulting in an increased probability that the impact of any unsafe (or even just poor) practices undertaken could be far reaching.
I fail to see how the review in its current format will contribute to ensuring the issues above can be taken forwards
The purpose of what the review is trying to achieve is not clear in its current guise of focusing on should we or should we not have a joint register for different categories of specialists. Clarity on this point is urgently needed.
        
I am concerned that a Stakeholder such as SSHA was not involved in discussions or invited to stakeholder events and have found out ‘by accident’ that they can engage.
By engaging stakeholders in the consultation, costs and time would have been greatly reduced but perhaps more importantly, those people who are familiar with the questions under debate as well as the wider regulatory issues (in addition to having a good understanding of the matter in relation to their specific workforce and a large wealth of knowledge and experience) could have contributed greatly to the consultation.

Jamie Hardie-SSHA President

Defending Trade Union Facility Time
The Freedom of Information Act has been used by a number of organisations to question trade union facility time across the public sector.  Unite believes that these actions are part of an attempt to undermine and weaken trade unions’ legitimate role in the workplace.
Trade Union Facility Time is a crucial union resource and if seriously undermined could acutely jeopardise the ability of the unions to represent members effectively.
We know that we will have many struggles on pay, pensions and other members’ rights and benefits in the months and years to come and we need to be able to defend our members’ interests across the public sector.
We must ensure we defend our Facility Time Agreements.
We have created a Defend Trade Union Facility Time page on the Unite website; there is a Briefing for Activists and a range of additional resources outlining the key arguments that should me made to assist you at a local level to defend your Facility Time Agreements.
Please visit the site at: http://www.unitetheunion.com/campaigns/valuing_public_services/facility_time.aspx?lang=en-gb

This information will also be sent out today to reps on a Health Sector e bulletin newsflash.

Kind Regards,

Karen Reay, National Officer Health
David Fleming, National Officer Health

Dear Gill,

The National Professional Committee (NPC) for the Society of Sexual Health Advisers would like acknowledge that we welcome the forthcoming Partner Notification performance measure for the BASHH STI Management Standards.

However the NPC would recommend that the audit standard sits in line with the recommendations within The Manual for Sexual Health Advisers published in April 2004 and Scotland’s Standards for Sexual Health Services published in March 2008.  Both of which recommend a 90 day time span in relation to contacts having attended a service from the index cases first partner notification interview.

NPC recognise that the majority of contacts will have attended much sooner than the 90 days as the emphasis of partner notification should be carried out promptly and the aim is to encourage contacts attendance as soon as possible but agree that staffing levels and locality of service in relation to access can affect this.

We would be grateful if the standard could be re-worded to ensure equity across the UK.

The PN outcome standards we recommend are:
1.The number of sexual contacts satisfactorily managed (clinician confirmed) within 90 days of the first partner notification interview.
2.The number of sexual contacts satisfactorily managed 9clinician or patient confirmed) within 90 days of the first partner notification interview.

Best wishes,
Jamie Hardie
SSHA President

On behalf of SSH NPC

Please consider responding to this survey and encourage members in your regions to do so too.

CHCC should respond as “allied health profession (AHP)” and SSHA either as “nurse or AHP according” to which you are.

NHS workers joint union survey – your views are needed
The joint trade unions are determined that the voice of NHS staff should be heard loudly and clearly in the debate around pay and in the evidence to this year’s NHS Pay Review Body that will recommend how much AfC pay scales should be increased by. We are conducting a joint trade union survey to ask staff about their pay, morale, workload, experiences at work, access to training and their work-life balance.

Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9B57NNX to take part.

Regards,
Carol.

Carol English
Professional Officer
Unite Health Sector

020 3371 2013
07919 324 716

Dear Member,

‘Reality bites – challenges in current practice’

This year’s SSHA conference will be at the Hilton Hotel, Belfast from September 17th – 19th 2010.

To date, completed applications to this years SSHA conference, provisionally organised for Belfast has been slow. The HA team in Belfast were the only team interested in hosting and organising conference and it would be great to have conference in Northern Ireland for the first time.

Although fees have again been kept to last year’s levels to reflect the current NHS financial climate we have few confirmed attendees so far.

If we do not get enough attendees to cover the cost of conference (and any money made goes back to fund next year’s conference and things such as MI training days) we may be forced to review or cancel conference for this year. If you are interested in attending SSHA’s annual conference, we recommend you supply applications as soon as possible.

You will now be aware of changes and developments in the professional regulation agenda of health advisers.  All of this serves to endorse the role of the health adviser in the NHS, and you are encouraged to attend the SSHA conference this year.

An application form is available on the website (www.ssha.info). Members get a discount although conference is open to Non Members at a slightly higher rate.

The conference is the first of its kind in Belfast and there will, as usual, be prizes for the best poster. There has also not been a huge response to this so far from the profession, but there must be a great deal of relevant Health Adviser led work out there that could be shared with colleagues so please consider a poster on some aspect of your work.

Interest in presenting has been good. There will some follow up workshops on risk reduction using a motivational interviewing approach following some excellent work by SSHA members on an educational subgroup around working with the NICE guidelines. Other topics include Abortion Law in Northern Ireland, Working with Sexual Addiction, Resilience and Young People, Renegotiating Sex and Relationships after a diagnosis of HIV.

A final timetable and venue details will be mailed out to all attendees.

Membership
For information on how to become a member and to request a membership and or conference application form please visit www.ssha.info

To Attend
Please complete an application form to book a place or please mail myself David, Maeve and Catherine, our conference organisers and we would be happy to send you one electronically or answer any other questions regarding this year’s conference.

James.Hardie@chelwest.nhs.uk
david.wilson6@nhs.net
maeve.cross@belfasttrust.hscni.net
CatherineA.Jackson@belfasttrust.hscni.net

Yours sincerely,
Jamie Hardie
SSHA President.