Monthly Archives: December 2015

#TOTM from 02-12-15 ‘Dealing with PTSD has made me even stronger.’

Hola!

Before I head out for a few scoops to say goodbye to 2015 and welcome in the new year, it’s time for the last blog of 2015!

It’s that time of the month when I look back through all my #SoMe posts and pick one to highlight for the month. This month i’m not choosing a #TOTW but rather a tweet that I just wanted to put out there one more time. So for my final #TOTM of 2015 I chose:

‘People can see a broken leg; people can’t necessarily pinpoint the signs of a mental illness’

It contains one of the lines that has stuck with me the most from all that I have tweeted about this year,‘People can see a broken leg; people can’t necessarily pinpoint the signs of a mental illness.‘ This is so true. Mental health is often not as visible to the onlooker as a broken limb in plaster. However, this doesn’t mean the person is suffering any less. Just because they aren’t bandaged, or in plaster, or have a sign around their neck saying “I’m suffering from poor mental health,” doesn’t make it any less real.

Please remember this. You *will* know someone who is suffering with mental health problems, but whether or not you are aware of what they are going through is another thing.

Just be yourself and be there for them if they ask for help.

I wish you all good mental health and hopefully a happy new year!

I’ll be back!

Ben x

 

#TOTW from 23-12-15: ‘Cardiac arrests have warning symptons’

Ciao!

Hope you all had a good time over the festive season? Worked on Christmas day myself, but at least i’m off for new year!

More of a public service announcement this week as I have chosen the following for my #TOTW:

Chest pains? Shortness of breath? Don’t bury your head in the sand – better to be safe than…

“By the time the 911 call is made, it’s much too late for at least 90 per cent of people,” said Dr. Sumeet Chugh of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the study. “There’s this window of opportunity that we really didn’t know existed.”

Read on to find out more. It’s only a very short article so won’t take you long and could save a life! Now that’s got to be worth 5 minutes of your time right?

Ben 🙂

#TOTW from 15-12-15 ‘Coercive and controlling behaviour’

Ciao!

How are we all?  This week I would like to give some more airtime to a topic that until recently I knew next to nothing about, and even now I’ve only scratched the surface. I’m talking about domestic violence and the introduction earlier this year of the new offence of ‘coercive and controlling behaviour,’ and so my #TOTW (x2) are:

(1/2) Introduced as part of the , the new offence of tackles

…and:

(2/2) Video piece showing how Police are tackling

This week also saw the documentary  ‘Love you to death: a year of domestic violence’ aired on BBC2:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06sgbbm/love-you-to-death-a-year-of-domestic-violence

I recently attended some basic training on how to look for signs of domestic violence and how to help people who have suffered from it. If you already know something about it and are aware of the kinds of things that can happen, then maybe you don’t need to look at these links. However, if you would like to find out more about this very real problem in our society then please take some time to click on the links above and maybe you’ll learn something that may help you, either help yourself or to be there for a friend or a patient. However or whoever you can help, it’s  a topic that is very worthy of some time to #GoLearn.

As this will be the last #TOTW before Christmas, may I take this opportunity to wish all of those who celebrate it a very happy Christmas!

Ben 🙂

 

#TOTW from 10-12-15 ‘From teaching suicide prevention to being on suicide watch’

Ciao!

How is everyone this week? Fine and dandy I hope? I realise however, that people are not always in the best of mental health, and so I wanted to highlight a ‘good news’ story this week about a charity by sharing the following again as my #TOTW:

Really interesting piece about a suicide respite centre

I posted the other week about a cafe where people suffering from mental health problems could go for help and support, rather than ending up in their local A&E department. This week, there is the article above that tells the story of a charity-run suicide respite centre, The Maytree in North London. Here the charity provides a safe place, help and support for those who have got to the point that they feel there is no alternative than to contemplate suicide.

Take a look at the article and I would hope you would agree that there should be many more such centres all over the country, and not just funded by charities. This type of support should – in my opinion – be provided by the state, and as part of an integrated approach by the government to tackle the mental as well as physical health of those who need it most.

Just saying.

Ben

#TOTW from 03-12-15 ‘Plain film: YES or NO?’

Ciao!

So then, another week and another Twitter poll is the topic of my #TOTW:

Does the term imaging devalue the work we do? I don’t think so

So, you can see the question – what do you think? The results of the poll – admittedly only 10 people – showed that 70% said NO, use of the term plain film did not devalue the work we do, with the remaining 30% feeling that it does. As I stated in the Twitter poll itself, I do not believe that referring to ‘plain film’ imaging devalues the work I do as a diagnostic radiographer. Yes, I agree it is outdated as we no longer use films in imaging, and OK, so maybe there’s nothing ‘plain’ about what we do, but it’s descriptive. People know what we are referring to when we use the term.

This years Annual Delegates Conference saw a motion to see a change to the use of the term. It begs the question, does it really matter? I know that I have spent 3 years at university and worked hard in order to be able to do what I do, and I am happy to use the ‘outdated’ term. It does what is says on the tin. OK, so maybe it is inaccurate, but I don’t at present see anything better out there to replace it with. For example, it has been suggested by some that ‘primary’ imaging would be better. However, ‘plain film‘ is not always the primary form of imaging these days, particularly in a trauma scenario when a patient more often that not takes a trip through a CT scanner before making their way to X-ray! Also I don’t feel that ‘primary’ imaging is descriptive enough as to the type of imaging that is taking place. Another of the alternatives suggested is that of ‘general‘ imaging. Now OK, so this is a term that I know is in use a bit more and when I was interviewed for my Band 6 position it was for ‘General and Trauma Imaging.’ However, the general bit still doesn’t really work for me either to be honest! I say if ain’t broke – don’t fix it! Until someone comes up with an obviously more descriptive and up-to-date term then I shall continue to use the term ‘plain film.’

What do you think? Answers in a comment to…

Ben 🙂

November’s #TOTM from 29/11 ‘Terms of endearment’

Hola!

The biggest response I had from tweets/posts this month was to do with the use of terms of endearment with patients, so the winner of November’s #TOTM award goes to…

from 24-11-15 ‘Terms of endearment’

No need for me to go over the same stuff here again, but suffice as to say i’ve been discussing this with colleagues since my original tweet and I haven’t changed how I interact with my patients! I would certainly be interested to do some research into this subject, but that will have to wait until the postgrad is finished next Spring!

For those of you that have already clicked on the link and read my original post, then thanks for popping by again! For those that are seeing it for the first time, then please feel free to drop me a line and give me your opinions and experiences!

Only one more #TOTM to go until my very first #TOTY!

Ben 🙂