With popular speakers such as Professor Viv Bennett CBE, Professor Dame Sarah Cowley, Dr Alain Gregoire and Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, we have an amazing programme lined up for this year’s iHV Leadership conference on 4 December.

We also welcome some new speakers covering current issues such as Professor Alan Emond, Dr Jenny Godson MBE and Karl Roberts. In addition, Jackie Doyle-Price MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention has been invited.

 

Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the iHV Leadership Conference 2018: Leadership for Change!

 

We aim to RE-ENERGISE, EDUCATE AND MOTIVATE Health visitor leaders and those working with them. 

Come and join us for an inspirational day:

  • Date: Tuesday 4 December 2017 09:00 – 18:30
  • Venue: Wellcome Collection, Euston Road, London NW1 2BE

 

Earlybird tickets are available until midnight, 31 October 2017!  Don’t miss out – secure your earlybird ticket today!

 

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Please note the closing date for abstract submission for the 5th International Global Network of Public Health Nurses conference is on 30 September 2018.

The 5th International Global Network of Public Health Nurses conference takes place in Nairobi, Kenya, 14-16 May 2019.

Conference Theme: ‘Good Health & Well Being’ – Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Because of their global significance and relevance to Public Health Nursing, it was agreed to explore the contribution of Public Health Nursing to achieving Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development  Goals ‘Good Health & Well Being’ as a working title for the conference. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/ .

The sub themes will focus on how Goal 3 targets can be applied to every aspect and every population group, for example older people’s services, maternal & child, mental health, people with disabilities, health care systems and safe environments.

Call for abstracts:

  • in support of the conference theme ‘Good Health & Well Being’ – Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • closes 30 September 2018
  • please submit via the Ex Ordo online system

Conference Bookings/Registration and Earlybird

Bookings are now open with earlybird registration (saving you $50 USD) available until 28 February 2019.  After this date the prices will increase by $50 USD.

GNPHN members receive a $50 reduction on the conference registration cost.

Conference registration includes:

  • Attendance at 3 day conference 14-16 May 2019 including meals and refreshments
  • Optional – Site visits on 13 May 2019 /Welcome reception on 13 May 2019 /Gala Dinner on 15 May 2019

Conference registration does not include:

  • Accommodation and travel costs.
  • Tour packages will be available and can be booked separately.

During #WorldBreastfeedingWeek, the iHV is delighted to publish a report from its well-regarded breastfeeding conference held in April with the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) and Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).

The Breastfeeding: A Public Health Priority report gives a conference summary and implications for Public Health.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director iHV, said:

“This highly successful breastfeeding conference included, as speakers, some of the leading researchers in the field, as well as a range of successful local initiatives. We are delighted to be sharing a report from the day.”

Dr Cheryll Adams opening the breastfeeding conference

Please note that these resources are available to iHV members only – if you’re not a member, please join us to get access to all of our resources.

The iHV is a self-funding charity – we can only be successful in our mission to strengthen health visiting practice if the health visiting profession and its supporters join us on our journey. We rely on our membership to develop new resources for our members.

 

The 5th International conference for Global Network of Public Health Nursing (GNPHN) takes place 14-16 May 2019 in Kenya – and the call for abstracts is open!

Hosted by the University of Nairobi School of Nursing Sciences in conjunction with the Ministry of Health – Kenya, the GNPHN conference welcomes international policy makers, public /community health nurses, clinical nurse practitioners, midwives, scholars, lecturers and other health-related partners to submit abstracts and attend the conference.

Conference Theme: ‘Good Health & Well Being’ – Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Because of their global significance and relevance to Public Health Nursing, it was agreed to explore the contribution of Public Health Nursing to achieving Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development  Goals ‘Good Health & Well Being’ as a working title for the conference. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/ .

The sub themes will focus on how Goal 3 targets can be applied to every aspect and every population group, for example older people’s services, maternal & child, mental health, people with disabilities, health care systems and safe environments.

Call for abstracts:

  • in support of the conference theme ‘Good Health & Well Being’ – Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • now open until 30 September 2018
  • please submit via the Ex Ordo online system

Conference Bookings/Registration and Earlybird

Bookings are now open with earlybird registration (saving you $50 USD) available until 28 February 2019.  After this date the prices will increase by $50 USD.

GNPHN members receive a $50 reduction on the conference registration cost.

Conference registration includes:

  • Attendance at 3 day conference 14-16 May 2019 including meals and refreshments
  • Optional – Site visits on 13 May 2019 /Welcome reception on 13 May 2019 /Gala Dinner on 15 May 2019

Conference registration does not include:

  • Accommodation and travel costs.
  • Tour packages will be available and can be booked separately.

PHE is running a telephone conference on reproductive health on Tuesday 26 June 2018, 10:00 – 10:45, and invites health professionals to join. Please join Professor Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse & Director for Maternity & Early Years, Public Health England, for the launch of this latest edition of Health Matters. She will be joined by Dr Sue Mann, Medical Expert and Public Health Consultant in Reproductive Health, PHE and Dr Catherine Swann, Deputy Director, Maternity and Community, PHE.

About the telephone conference

Ensuring that women and men achieve and maintain good health in their reproductive years is a public health challenge that impacts on future health for both themselves and their child.

A woman who is healthy at the time of conception is more likely to have a successful pregnancy and a healthy child. A planned pregnancy is likely to be a healthier one, as women tend not to be optimally prepared for pregnancy if it is unplanned.

The aim is for pregnancies to happen by choice, which means increasing the proportion of planned pregnancies for those who do want to conceive, and preventing pregnancies for those who do not. Currently, one third of births in England are unplanned or associated with feelings of ambivalence, which can have adverse impacts for the mother, baby and children later in life.

Teleconference: Tuesday 26 June 2018, 10.00am – 10.45am

Please join Professor Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse & Director for Maternity & Early Years, Public Health England, for the launch of this latest edition of Health Matters. She will be joined by Dr Sue Mann, Medical Expert and Public Health Consultant in Reproductive Health, PHE and Dr Catherine Swann, Deputy Director, Maternity and Community, PHE.

Why you should take part:

The preconception period (the years in which you can have a child) presents an opportunity for women and men to take steps to protect the health of a baby they might have sometime in the future, and stay healthy throughout life.

There are both universal and targeted opportunities to embed preconception care as part of day-to-day business and thereby improve outcomes, reduce inequalities and radically upgrade prevention.

Health professionals and commissioners need to work collaboratively to deliver the best outcomes. The session will be of particular value to local authorities, directors of public health, health and wellbeing boards, commissioners, CCGs and health professionals.

 

This year’s theme is Diversity – understanding and reaching the missing families.

  • Date: Thursday 6 September 2018
  • Location: Imperial College London

The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA), of which the iHV is an active member, hopes the 2018 conference will start a conversation about diversity and provide an opportunity to focus on identifying and breaking down the barriers to mental health services for everyone.

The conference will:

  • provide an overview of the latest research on families experiencing barriers in accessing perinatal mental health support
  • highlight the latest thinking and interventions to meet the needs of hard to reach communities
  • share the stories of women from diverse backgrounds
  • bring together practitioners and experts from adult, child, maternity, social care, early years and perinatal mental health services to discuss diversity and perinatal mental health problems
  • showcase Mums and Babies in Mind (MABIM), Everyone’s Business and Maternal Mental Health Alliance and A Better Start (ABS)

Well, what a day we had yesterday (24 April) for our Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Conference: The Hidden Challenges!  Almost 200 people convened in Manchester including many of our Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions and those working alongside them.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE opening the PIMH conference

This multi-agency conference was a jam-packed day – with internationally-acclaimed speakers, a theatre production and amazing brave mums and dads talking about their personal stories and lived-experiences. A big thank you to you all!

Documental Theatre at #iHVPIMH18

Amazing feedback

We had fab feedback from Twitter- and we haven’t yet finished going through all the evaluations!

“Amazing day at #iHVPIMH18. Best conference I have been to. Definitely increased my passion for providing quality PIMH services across the UK.”

“Thanks for an inspirational day with excellent speakers my head is overflowing but my heart is full of gratitude to those amazing women and men for sharing their experiences #iHVPIMH18

“Wow what a day.”

“Fabulous conference with inspirational and motivational speakers. Feeling re-energised and can’t wait to continue the excellent work happening in the North West to improve perinatal mental health care.”

“Thank you so much to everyone involved in #iHVPIMH18. It was emotive and inspiring. Lots to take forward into practice and even more passion to #turnthemapgreen

“Excellent day thank you”

“I can’t remember any conference before where I’ve felt so moved , inspired and awe struck by the speakers #IHVPIMH18

“An inspirational conference! Well done everyone who bravely shared their personal stories & all involved”

“Thanks so much for a really fantastic inspirational Conference!”

“Wow! a conference with a difference they said! I wasn’t expecting that—an amazing inspiring day, need time to digest all I have heard and been part of.”

“Thoughts after an amazing #iHVPIMH18 conference in Manchester! “There is always hope” “be consistent” and “talk to dads””

“Loved every second and feel very inspired by the whole day, thank you for the opportunity”

Fantastic and informative day. Thank you #iHVPIMH18

“Thank you 4 today. I have learned so much! An outstanding conference!”

“Thank you for an excellent day”

Storify

For those of you who could not either join us on the day or could not follow the #iHVPIMH hashtag on Twitter, we’ve collected and made a little “Storify” of the tweets so you can follow some of what was shared.

Posters

Well done to all our poster submissions at #iHVPIMH18 – we had lots of amazing posters shared about innovative support for perinatal and infant mental health.

Many thanks to Professor Dame Sarah Cowley and Dr Karen Stansfield for assessing all the poster submissions.

Delivering an e-poster at #iHVPIMH18

the audience enjoying the e-posters – complete with popcorn!!

Our poster winner was Catherine Lowenhoff, PhD student at Oxford Brookes University – Combining evidence from research and practice to produce a draft intervention framework to guide the support that health visitors provide to mothers with mental health problems.

Many congratulations to Catherine who was selected to present her poster to the conference audience – see photo below.

Catherine Lowenhoff, e-poster winner, delivering her poster to the audience at #iHVPIMH18

Catherine Lowenhoff being presented with her winner’s certificate by Dr Cheryll Adams CBE

Well done also to our 2 highly commended posters:

  • Jane Dickens (who collected the certificate in the photo below) and Lisa Milne from Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust – Revolutionising the Parent Infant Relationship: Bradford’s Parent Infant relationship Resource Cards;
  • Anulika Ifezue (unfortunately had left to catch her train, so we are sending her certificate to her) from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – Breaking professional and organisational barriers in delivering perinatal and infant mental health care.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE presenting a highly commended certificate to Jane Dickens from Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust

Our fabulous pledge wall certainly gained some great foundations yesterday!

The pledge wall at #iHVPIMH18

Dr Cheryll Adams opening the breastfeeding conference

What an amazing day we had at the breastfeeding conference, held on Thursday 19 April 2018 in London!  Lots of great information shared and we’ve received some fab feedback from #breastfeeding2018.  Breastfeeding: a public health priority was joint hosted with the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) and supported by the World’s Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi).

Professor Russell Viner, RCPCH, addressing the conference

Professor Viv Bennett addressing the conference.

A huge thank you to all the exceptional speakers – it was a very dynamic day with masses of learning and collaboration.

In addition, Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, announced a pledge to introduce an additional mandated health visit at 3-4 months, as part of Labour’s commitment to making Britain’s children the healthiest in the world. See our previous news story on this.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health addressing the breastfeeding conference

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health addressing the breastfeeding conference

 

For those of you who could not either join us on the day or could not follow the #breastfeeding2018 hashtag on Twitter, we’ve collected and made a little “Storify” of the tweets so you can follow some of what was shared.

Addressing our breastfeeding conference yesterday (19 April), Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, pledged to introduce an additional mandated health visit at 3-4 months, as part of Labour’s commitment to making Britain’s children the healthiest in the world.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health addressing the breastfeeding conference

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, addressing the breastfeeding conference

Labour will commit an additional £25 million for health visiting to fund the pledge, paid for from Labour’s costed National Child Health Fund and forms part of Labour’s effort to tackle health inequalities and improve early intervention services.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director iHV, said:

“The iHV called for the mandation of a 3-4 month check in its evidence to the Health Visiting Service Mandation Review  in March 2017. Unfortunately, this wasn’t supported by the government but it is very encouraging to now have the support for this contact from the Shadow Health Secretary.

“The 3-4 month check is a critical developmental milestone when many families may require additional support with a range of issues. What has been proved in England is that, without mandation, commissioning of health visiting services is largely a ‘race to the bottom’ by cash-struck local authorities. Only the mandated contacts are being commissioned universally but they are still not being delivered universally.”