Kerry Gilligan, Development Officer for the Integration Support Team, reflects on the work of the team over the past few months.

The word of our work in the Integration Support team is really going places – namely, Ireland and the Netherlands, who have both been interested in learning more about our work. This international sharing of learning and information has been hugely influential in shaping our work, and most importantly in supporting our colleagues in Health and Social Care Integration in Scotland.

Myself (as a representative of the Integration Support Team) and two colleagues from the Self Management Network Scotland Team at the ALLIANCE, were invited to the Integrated Care Partnerships ‘Self Management and Integrated Care: Where are we now and what can we learn?’ by the Long Term Conditions Alliance Northern Ireland (LTCANI) in County Antrim. The event was a great opportunity to showcase our learning – our successes and lessons learned, as well as future goals. The event concluded with shared outcomes including insight into the policy context in Northern Ireland with relation to health and social care and greater awareness of the progress to date, a greater understanding of what has helped drive progress in these areas in Scotland; and increased sharing of ideas and knowledge and experience in self management. We look forward to working with NI colleagues in the future and continuing work towards our shared outcomes.

On the 2nd May I was lucky enough to represent the team for a second time, and to join over 3000 influencers at the International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare in Amsterdam. Myself and Grier McGee; Improvement Advisor at the Active & Independent Living Programme, were presenting a poster entitled: ‘Navigating the Complexity of Health and Social Care Integration in Scotland using Conversation and Collaboration to Explore Alternative & Improved Ways of Working‘. Our poster, with a nice ALLIANCE Tartan to add that Scottish twist. The conference itself offered inspiring talks from leaders in healthcare and activists for human rights (including Caitlyn Jenner, whose speech about transgender rights was very inspiring) and challenging workshop where we joined strong discussions focused on shifting the balance of power and the importance of true collaboration in quality improvement health and social care.

It has been fantastic to see the reach of our programme and to network with individuals who are equally as passionate about transformational change. The Integration Support Team is going global – come join us!


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