RHCW Conference 2018

Improving the Health, Well-being and Care of Rural Populations

The second Rural Health and Care Wales conference, “Improving the Health, Well-being and Care of Rural Populations”, was held on the Royal Welsh showground in Builth Wells on Tuesday 13^th November 2018. Dr Chris Jones, Chair of Health Education and Improvement Wales, conducted the official opening, with Bernardine Rees OBE, Chair of the Mid Wales Joint Committee, co-ordinating the day-long event to an audience of around 150 people.

The conference was extremely well received, with plenary presentations by Helen Howson, Director of the Bevan Commission, on “Transforming Rural Health and Care – thinking and practice”; Dr Carolyn Wallace, Chair of the All Wales Social Prescribing Research Network, on “Building the critical evidence for Social Prescribing in Wales: the work of the Social Prescribing Research Network” and Jack Evershed, Chair of Rural Health and Care Wales, on “From Protest to Co-production – a personal journey”, culminating in an exciting practical demonstration and presentation by Jess Allen from Awyrol on “A flying start: aerial yoga as a playful practice for whole-self health and well-being in rural communities”.

The day’s busy schedule provided delegates with the option of attending 3 presentations out of a possible 12, covering a broad spectrum of subjects that ranged from medical training for rural GPs in Wales and Scotland, midwifery care in rural areas, rural road safety as a public health problem, how woodlands are being used for wellbeing and the use of physical literacy to address inactivity, to name but a few.

An excellent display of posters was held, with the winning prize going to Hannah Buck, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, for her poster on “National Parks Wales: together for Health and Well-being”. In second place was Aberystwyth University student Sam Harvey with his poster on the “Recruitment of Vulnerable Older Adults from a rural setting into a one-day health and functional fitness workshop promoting physical activity”, and in third place was Dr Marie Lewis, Consultant Midwife with Powys Teaching Health Board, for her poster depicting “ASAP – Appropriate Skills for Appropriate Places”.

Feedback received has been extremely positive, with the intention being to continue to stage a rural conference in Mid Wales next year and as an ongoing annual event. Feedback and evaluation for the Conference can be found here: RHCW Conference 2018 Evaluation Report

Copies of Presentations

Copies of Plenary Presentations:

Helen Howson, Director of the Bevan Commission – Transforming Rural Health and Care, thinking and practice

Dr Carolyn Wallace, Chair of the All Wales Social Prescribing Research Network – Building the Critical Evidence in Wales: the work of the Social Prescribing Research Network

Jack Evershed, Chair RHCW – From Protest to Co-Production, a Personal Journey

Jess Allen, Awyrol – A flying start: aerial yoga as a playful practice for whole-self health and well-being in rural communities

PAPER PRESENTATIONS

Paper Presentation Options provided to Conference Delegates

Presentations 1:

The University of Aberdeen Student Experiences in Rural Primary Care: Developments and Initiatives, Dr Kim Miller

Reflections on a travel scholarship: improving models of Midwifery care for Rural Communities, Dr Marie Lewis

A Public Health perspective on developing resilience and wellbeing with Carers in rural communities, Dr Dee Gray & Dr Sue Fish

Presentations 2:

Learning through the CARER scheme (Community and Rural Education Route) – experiences and reflections of the first 10 weeks, Prof. Steve Riley & Dr Sue Fish

Negotiating conversation and interaction through videoconferencing in Speech Language Therapy: a conversation analytic study, David Dalley

Road Safety as a Public Health problem – the challenges of Rural Roads, Jenny Shepherd