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Scotland’s award finalists need your vote for the national Our Health Heroes Awards

  • Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 31st January 2022

Vote by 4th February!

A Harm Reduction Team Manager from NHS Lothian, and a Carer from Call-In Homecare based in Edinburgh have been announced as finalists in the Our Health Heroes Awards (this link will take you away from our website), delivered by Skills for Health.

James Shanley, who was nominated for the Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Healthcare category (this link will take you away from our website), and Alison Morrison who was nominated in the Inspirational Clinical Support Worker category (this link will take you away from our website) by colleagues, are both now up for a public vote. The vote will help decide who will take home Gold, Silver or Bronze when the winners are revealed at the awards ceremony on the 24th of March.

For most of his professional career, James has managed the NHS Lothian Harm Reduction Team. His work was paramount at tackling Edinburgh’s HIV endemic. Throughout his work, he has ensured better patient outcomes and has improved patient access to services such as opiate substitute treatments (OST), injecting equipment provision, and blood-borne virus (BBV) testing & treatment.

James has had to advocate for the importance of harm reduction work to gain public and professional trust and has saved many lives by reducing HIV rates. His work leaves a long-lasting impact on patients and the healthcare industry, as many of the models created in Edinburgh are being used by other areas throughout the UK.

Working as a full-time carer for Call-In Homecare, Alison goes around the community seeing service users who need care. Alison’s selfless acts outside of work are an inspiration to those who nominated her, particularly during the recent hard times. Alison goes above and beyond for others, with several instances where she has helped people outside of work in emergencies.

Throughout the pandemic, Alison helped by collecting toiletries, socks, and nightwear for patients at The Royal Edinburgh Hospital. She has gone out of her way to help Care Home residents by collecting Easter Eggs, making gift packages for Carers, and much more. Alison has also volunteered for the Meal train which delivers up to 20 meals a week to support the most vulnerable patients coming out of the hospital to ensure they have a hot, nutritious meal.

James and Alison are amongst two other finalists in their respective categories, and now have a chance of being crowned Our Health Heroes Winner for 2022. Vote by the 4th of February 2022 to help James and Alison in their bids to become winners at this year’s awards.

Vote for James here (this link will take you away from our website)

Vote for Alison here (this link will take you away from our website)

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