Day three – News digest of the ALLIANCE Annual Conference

Catch up on activity from day three of the ALLIANCE's first online and week-long conference.

Day three – Wednesday 9 September 2020 – of our first-ever online and week-long annual conference saw over 800 event attendees join five events throughout the day.

Today’s events 

The third day of the Conference began with a morning panel interview with Kate Swaine and Tilly Robinson-Miles exploring the topic: ‘Why is nutrition a ‘must’ for wellbeing?’ The conversation ranged from the benefits of social eating, access to nutritious food and food insecurity and the impact this has,  The session covered foods that aid in building immunity, malnutrition as well as the roles Government and third sector play in educating the public about vital nutrients and dietary needs across the lifecycle.

You can watch the session on our YouTube channel (this link will take you away from our website)

“Access to healthy food should be a human right given the important link to health and wellbeing”. (delegate)

Let’s talk about Self Management

This workshop led by the Self Management team in the ALLIANCE explored the importance of self management as we continue to deal with the pandemic and plan the remobilisation of services. The workshop looked at the key messages that will be shared throughout self management week and participants shared their thoughts on future priorities. Through this the importance of promoting an understanding of self management in the general public was stressed.

“Lots of great discussions and inputs from @SelfMgmtScot, very valuable to consider the future of Self Management by rebranding and re-educating the public again.” @BSLConsultant

Purple Poncho Players and Glasgow Disability Alliance

Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) Chief Executive Tressa Burke introduced the Purple Poncho Players and showed a screening of a powerful performance which struck the audience. The performance emphasised the obvious lack of listening to people with lived experience, and a key theme throughout the discussion surrounded the major drawback that disabled people have is a lack of voice and a lack of role models. Tressa shared how GDA have been working through COVID-19 and the growing concern for disabled people on a potential second wave of COVID-19; life is passing disabled people by as they are scared to go outside and are told to shield.

“Great points Tressa – the speed at which inappropriate language and behaviours emerged in the pandemic demonstrated just how shallow the understanding of and respect for disabled people’s rights actually is“. (delegate)

Making links through lockdown

The ALLIANCE’s Director of Integrated Services Andrew Strong and Community Links Manager Roseann Logan look into how the Community Links Practitioner (CLP)’s have been helping people through COVID-19 with shielding support, social security advice, food access, any many other issues. The event brought together GPs from the Deep End Practice who highlighted the importance of Community Link Practitioners working across Scotland, and how there were calls for more collaborative working between GPs, structural responses to structural problems (e.g. child poverty, unemployment). The impact of COVID-19 on the most disadvantaged communities has been evidenced by GPs and CLPs, which shows how the pandemic has further highlighted social and economic issues.

You can watch this event on our YouTube channel (this link will take you away from our website)

Day three wrapped up with ‘Resilience’ – film screening followed by a panel discussion

The ALLIANCE’s Director of Policy and Communications Lucy Mulvagh was joined by Clinical Psychologist Dr Adam Burley, Development Officer at Violence Reduction Unit James Docherty, CEO of Children 1st Mary Glasgow and Pauline Craig with Public Health Scotland. The audience watched ‘Resilience’ a film which explores the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), after which the panel gave their reflections and answered questions from the audience. The film explores how ACEs is now thought to be one of the leading causes of everything from heart disease to substance abuse and depression.  Mary Glasgow said she is grateful the film has been made, but continues to be impatient for change. James Docherty describes COVID-19 as ‘the perfect storm’ as it has triggered past experiences and trauma and brought about a huge sense of isolation for many people. Pauline then describes ACEs as the biggest public health discovery we have ever seen as Dr. Adam Burley shares how ACEs research is being integrated into the NHS very ‘cautiously’.

“We don’t need to teach parents to parent, we need to support parents to get through the other side of their trauma“. Mary Glasgow

The tweet of the day

“Really interesting point of seeing food as nourishing & enjoyable. We often punish ourselves over our choices & our relationship with food is classed as good or bad. #ALLIANCEConf20” @leannk_22

Feedback from day three

“A very valuable opportunity for me to be involved in discussing Self Management issues with those from different areas/perspectives in relation to Self Management. Hearing from people with more/deeper/specific experiences is a very useful way to connect more strongly within this broad agenda“.

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