We were happy to welcome Dr. Ben Pearson to join us for some of our day-to-day activities in Glossop and New Mills last month. The visit arose from Anna Watson’s contact with Ben over the past few years through the DCHS Reciprocal Mentoring scheme, which is due to be re-launched shortly (watch this space!).
We were able to showcase the rich and varied roles of the 0-19 team here, beginning with 0-5 clinic at Glossop Children’s Centre run by Rachael White (Health Visitor), then a home-visit with Merle Youngs (HV), followed by a clinic for young people at New Mills High School with Anna. Ben’s day ended at New Mills clinic, where he was welcomed by Sally Stretch, our lovely receptionist, and was able to chat with, Nicola Heathcote-Hems, Anna Brooks and Jenny Oram about wider working practices and the experiences our team encounters within the communities we are so privileged to serve.
We all felt appreciated, valued, listened to, and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Ben a little better. Merle shared that she would have liked to have spent longer with Ben if her schedule had allowed, and Rachael reflected the feelings of all of us by saying ‘it was great to have Ben visit our service and be so interested in the work we do with our families’.
Ben described his thoughts on how the day went a short time afterwards:
Dear Anna,
I wanted to write and thank you so much for hosting my visit today and organising such an interesting set of clinical scenarios and meetings. I never needed convincing that the work of the 0-19 services is vital, important, preventative, high quality and everything a community trust should be. I was clearly in the presence of dedicated, experienced and person-centred clinicians all day. Please pass on my sincere thanks to Rachel, Merle, Anna, Sally, Nicola and Jenny for allowing me to observe them or joining us for a chat and the picture.