iHV wins first prize in International Perinatal Mental Health Education Awards

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce that it has won first prize in the White Swan Foundation and Marcé Society International Perinatal Mental Health Education Awards for its Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions training programme.

White Swan Foundation and Marcé Society say ‘the prize recognises the pioneering work of institutions that catalyse perinatal awareness through stakeholder education. It particularly focuses on models that have the potential to be scaled in low and middle-income (LAMI) countries where perinatal mental health issues are largely ignored and do not receive professional interventions.’

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director, Institute of Health Visiting said:

“This is a massive honour for the Institute and our perinatal and infant mental health training department. To win this award, with such internationally eminent judges, is significant recognition of the quality of the Institute’s training.

“Our training has evolved over many years, alongside the evidence base, changing policy and evolving national standards, and is unique in its capacity to reach large audiences through our highly developed cascade model which builds in sustainability for commissioners. The training and its quality assurance measures have been developed alongside experts by experience as well as perinatal mental health experts from the professions we commonly train, i.e. health visitors, midwives, obstetricians, general practitioners and psychiatrists and other mental health workers.”

The iHV Champions project has become a social movement of people and organisations who are committed to creating local health and social capital, and building a sustainable, community-based public health service. As of the NHS 70th birthday on 5 July 2018, the iHV had trained 1545 health and social care professionals as Champions – with numbers increasing all the time!

Dr Adams added:

“The Marcé scientific community is keen to see how the iHV model can be used across communities in LAMI countries and we are excited to think how lessons here in England can be used to reach even more families and communities globally!”

For more details of the iHV Champions training, please see https://ihv.org.uk/our-work/our-work-in-mental-health/mental-health-training/ or contact [email protected] , the Institute’s Training Lead.

For further details of other perinatal mental health activity undertaken by the Institute, please see https://ihv.org.uk/our-work/our-work-in-mental-health/ Or contact [email protected], the Institute’s Mental Health Lead.

Find out more: https://marcesociety.com/meetings/past-meetings/

Training on Delivering Different News to Families

Are you part of a team that delivers different news to parents? Do you work in Kent, Surrey or Sussex?

The expression “different news” is used in this study to describe the process of imparting unexpected, bad, sad or difficult information relating to an unborn or a newborn child having a condition associated with a learning disability.

The way different news is given to parents affects how parents receive, interpret, understand and adjust to the news – it can result in parental distress, fear, grief, depression, anxiety and chronic stress. This may impact on their parenting, the development of the child, and engagement with follow-on professional services.

As part of an ongoing study funded by Health Education England, the Institute of Health Visiting is piloting some training to support how healthcare professionals deliver different news – “Improving the Delivery of Different News to Families by Healthcare Professionals”.

Monday 10 September 2018 – Canterbury

Tuesday 11 September 2018 – Crawley

Please pass this information on to any colleagues who you think would benefit from attending the training pilot. At present we are seeking participants from the following staff groups to support this phase of the study:

Paediatricians/Neonatologists or Specialty trainees in this field
Obstetricians or Obstetric Specialty Trainees
Midwives, particularly Screening Midwives
Specialist Paediatric nurses or Advanced Nurse Practitioners or Neonatal nurses
Sonographers

Places on these free training pilots are limited, and are subject to eligibility determined by role and region of work.

Please express interest in attending the training by registering for consideration for this programme on the links below.

Register interest for Mon 10 September, Canterbury - Improving the Delivery of Different News to Families by Healthcare Professionals

Register interest for Tues 11 September, Crawley - Improving the Delivery of Different News to Families by Healthcare Professionals

New PIMH training opportunities – book now!

Multi-Agency Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Champions Training for individuals – Bookings open now!

Limited places available – so don’t miss out!

Following previous sell-out at our PIMH training events, we are offering a further rare opportunity to access a place to train as a Multi-Agency iHV Champion for Perinatal & Infant Mental Health via our highly acclaimed integrated programme.

Sheffield – 24 and 25 October 2018
London – 7 and 8 November 2018.

Duration of course: 2 days

Costs: £395 iHV Members/ £425 Non-members.

The programme is an accredited 2-day course which will cover a wide and updated programme content supported by contemporaneous evidence and policy underpinning practice. You will be supplied with a copy of the new combined Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Champions trainer pack and accompanying resources in order to be able to cascade a one day training to your colleagues to raise awareness of perinatal and infant mental health across your organisation or service.

These courses are very popular – so book your place today! Don’t miss out!

If you would like more information, please contact [email protected]

Early Voices – Free professional development for HVs on speech, language and communication

The Communication Trust’s new programme Early Voices offers a unique opportunity to health visitors to access free professional development and training to increase their knowledge in early speech language and communication development in order to achieve higher impact with the families that they work with.

The Early Voices programme seeks to recruit health visitors to take on the role of ‘Communication Leader’ in their locality. Communication Leaders will receive a fully-funded place on a Level 3 Award in speech, language and communication, and additional training from The Communication Trust (TCT).

TCT training will outline the expected levels of early speech language and communication development, advice on how to share this information and evidence-based strategies with parents, and where to signpost parents to access further support. To broaden the reach of this knowledge, Communication Leaders will cascade their learning via two TCT-designed sessions to their local early years networks.

For more information and how to apply

Application deadline – 11 April 2018

iHV welcomes immunisation training standards for healthcare practitioners

iHV welcomes the National Minimum Standards and Core Curriculum for Immunisation Training for Registered Healthcare Practitioners which have just been published.

The National Minimum Standards and Core Curriculum for Immunisation Training for Registered Healthcare Practitioners sets the standards and lists the essential topics which should be incorporated into immunisation training for registered healthcare practitioners.

The aim of the national standards is to describe the training that should be given to all practitioners engaging in any aspect of immunisation so that they are able to confidently, competently and effectively promote and administer vaccinations.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director, iHV, said:

“iHV welcomes this new guidance from Public Health England on the training and standards required to support a high quality, safe and effective immunisation programme that achieves high uptake. It is important that HVs, who visit every baby and family, have a good knowledge of immunisation and are confident to advise parents. Comprehensive training and regular updates combined with supervision and support as laid out in the guidance will help support HVs to achieve this.”

Go to PHE - Immunisation training standards for healthcare practitioners

iHV launches new evidence-based leadership development programme

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce the launch of its new leadership development programme.

The programme, suitable for health visitors, school nurses, nurses, midwives and other health and social care professionals, aims to develop knowledge, skills and enhance confidence in clinical and public facing leadership.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director of the iHV, said:

“Our new leadership development programme has been informed by recent health visiting research, and is thoroughly tested and evidence-based. Originally developed for a health visiting and school nursing audience, evaluation of the programme as part of its rigorous testing also suggested it is suitable for other health and social care professionals wanting to develop their leadership skills.”

Delivered over a six-month period, the new programme includes: two days of initial training; followed by two further development half-days to develop a Community of Practice (CoP); and a final summative half-day Community of Practice meeting to review outcomes.

The initial two-day training event develops knowledge and skills in leadership in relation to the health visitor/school nurse/professional as a leader and on leadership in a team and organisation setting. It builds on leadership evidence and incorporates ongoing activities to ensure the programme is delivered within the context that practitioners work in.

Dr Adams continued:

“The programme aims to embed good practice, and promote and strengthen local leadership with integrated services across health and social care boundaries which, in turn, supports the opportunity for good health outcomes for children and families.”

For more information on new iHV evidence-based leadership development programme, please go to our training page or contact [email protected]

Download iHV Leadership Development Programme Flyer

Download updated iHV Training Portfolio

New iHV training and updated resources to assist Revalidation

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is pleased to announce a new training programme and an updated handbook designed to assist health visitors going through their Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) revalidation.

It is now almost 18 months since the launch of NMC revalidation supporting the professional registration and license to practise as health visitors. It is estimated that almost half of registered health visitors are still to revalidate and may not yet have given much thought to the process. So, to support those health visitors still to undergo revalidation for the first time, the Institute has developed new training and updated resources to help them through the process.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“Revalidation is a welcome way to support and develop health visitors’ practise – thereby ensuring the standards of our profession. We collected feedback from our Fellows and iHV team members who have already undertaken revalidation, and developed a new workshop to help all health visitors with their revalidation requirements.

“Our popular ‘Route to Revalidation’ handbook has also been updated to keep it in line with NMC guidance. We hope these new resources will guide and inspire those who are to undergo revalidation.

“The workshops are relaxed and informal – the first one takes place on 9 October in London. This workshop will go through the process of revalidation and the paperwork required, and offer iHV tools and guidance specifically developed for health visitors working in all areas of practice, whether clinical, managerial, teaching or research. It will also provide the opportunity to share any concerns, check facts, and the chance to complete part of the requirements for revalidation whilst in a supportive environment.”

Institute’s Champions training receives national recognition in mental health awards

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to receive national recognition for its Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions Training Programme in the first ever perinatal mental health awards, organised by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) and Mums and Babies in Mind (MABIM).

The iHV’s Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions Training Programme was highly commended in the Emma Cadywould Award for Perinatal Mental Health Education and Training 2017. The awards, which were announced on Wednesday 13 September at the first Annual UK Maternal Mental Health Alliance Conference at Imperial College, London, recognised best practice and achievement in the categories of perinatal mental health education and training, perinatal mental health awareness raising, peer support and transgenerational service.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“The Institute of Health Visiting is proud to receive this prestigious training award which was set up in the name of Emma Cadywould, who tragically lost her life whilst suffering severe postnatal depression.

“Our comprehensive, accredited training, which now reflects the national competencies for perinatal and infant mental health, has been developed over the past five years and consistently attracts wonderful evaluations.

“We have recently extended our training offers to be suitable for all professionals working with women with perinatal mental illness. This has been in response to many requests for multi-professional training from the health, local authority and voluntary sectors. Our current Champions Training ensures that all practitioners working alongside women and their families perinatally are equipped to provide evidence-based and confident support – as of June 2017, we have created over 140 Multi-agency Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions, as well as almost 900 health visitor Infant and Perinatal Mental Health Champions whose originally training we know has been cascaded to upwards of 10,000 others.

“This award is a massive credit to the Institute’s team who have worked so hard to develop, refine, deliver and quality assure, and most recently to benchmark our training to the new national standards.”

The winners were presented with their awards by acclaimed author, journalist and psychotherapist Susie Orbach.

Find out more about the iHV’s Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions Training Programme

Read the full press release

New dates added for Healthy Weight Healthy Nutrition Champions training

Further to demand, we are delighted to announce new dates for the Healthy Weight Healthy Nutrition Champions training schedule:

12/13 Jan 2017 – Leeds
9/10 Feb 2017 – Antrim, Northern Ireland

For more details and how to book

Building upon existing knowledge, we explore why good nutrition matters across the lifespan, the significance of supporting women to eat well during pregnancy, as well as how HVs can influence and promote optimal and responsive infant feeding practices. You will also have the opportunity to examine more complex issues of allergies, fussy feeding, safeguarding and nutrition, the relationship with activity levels and overweight and obesity.

Our Champions programme equips participants to take on leadership / special interest roles as well as cascading Healthy Weight Healthy Nutrition training updates to colleagues within their organisation. This is a cost-effective method of ensuring the workforce has access to up-to-date evidence-based knowledge and skills to support practice in this important public health subject area and additionally represents an excellent development opportunity for health visitors.