Monthly Archives: May 2016

#TOTW (x9) #CPDWeek

Ciao!

As has become customary following one of my theme weeks, this week’s #TOTW is a summary of all the tweets related to the theme – that being CPD, so here they all are:

I hope those of you actively involved in radiography have, and will continue to find this a useful resource for CPD 🙂

More theme weeks are planned for the coming months. Feedback appreciated – as always!

Enjoy!

Ben 🙂

 

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Male or female? Neither one nor t’other? Both?

Ciao!

The majority of you reading this will probably be able to answer yes to being either male or female, certainly with regards to your sex at birth. Some of you may also have transitioned from male-to-female or female-to-male, with others of you having been born with both male and female genitalia. What happens however, if you are born either male or female but you don’t feel like either of these “fit” your gender? This morning on my way into work I took the time to listen to the following programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07btlmk

Called ‘Beyond Binary,’ it’s only 30 minutes long and if you are at all interested in gender, it’s definition and evolution, then I can thoroughly recommend it. It looks at the concept of gender and how it is traditionally defined as binary, either male or female, with nothing in between. It explores the concept of gender as a spectrum. Why should a person’s gender have to be either male or female? OK, so birth sex may be either of the two, but a person’s sex does not define their sexuality or gender.

Confused? Yeah, OK so maybe you are, but it’s not rocket science and if you take some time to listen to the programme you’ll most likely find that you learn something about gender and how it’s not the binary construct that the majority of us are educated to believe.

“We’re all learning along the way.” 

These are the words of Dr. Polly Carmichael, the Director of the Tavistock Clinic, the gender identity clinic to which people are referred. This is how it should be. Just because you might not understand how it is that there are people who associate as being both male and female or any such variations on the gender spectrum, does not make such people any less real or worthy of the respect you would afford to someone who is comfortable being either male or female.

Food for thought? I hope so 🙂

#ListenLearnShare

Ben

#TOTW from 18-05-16 ‘A&E and mental health’

Ciao!

As many of you may be aware, this week has been Mental Health Awareness Week or #MHAW16. The majority of my tweets have been in support of this, and I have chosen one such tweet for my #TOTW because I feel it got lost amongst all the others and didn’t get the airtime it deserves:

“patients with issues have historically not always had a good experience in A&E”  http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/may/17/accident-and-emergency-mental-health-crisis

The associate director of acute and urgent care at Birmingham and Solihull mental health NHS foundation trust, Mary Elliffe said:

“There’s been a feeling that people with mental health issues have no right to be there.”

Apart from that being utter tosh, it’s just pretty sad that some people might have those views in this day and age. Mental Health is as equally important as physical health, and so why wouldn’t a patient suffering from an acute episode of bad mental health have the right to go to A&E and be seen to in much the same way as a patient that has gone over their ankle on a drunken night out and hurt themselves? Of course they do, and the schemes above which place mental health teams in A&E departments simply must be the way forward to improve mental health care for the acutely unwell.

Take care folks!

Ben 🙂

#TOTW from 11-05-16 ‘#Selfharm: The 7 myths that need busting’

Ciao!

Choosing a #TOTW this week wasn’t straightforward, as i’ve tweeted about several really interesting topics. However, I decided to devote this weekly slot to self-harm and the two tweets relating to that:

(1/2) “Self-harm is officially one of the biggest killers for young adults in the UK.”

(2/2) “It was a relief. I translated all the emotional pain to something physical.”

The links above contain some really useful information on the topic and the issues around it. For example, one of the myths the first article highlights is that those who self-harm do it for the attention. Rachel Welch, the founder of Freedom From Harm states:

 “There’s a dangerous perception that people who self-harm do it purely for attention.” She goes on to say, “firstly, it’s not always the case, and secondly, there’s nothing wrong with that. “We all need attention. It’s not necessarily a negative thing. If someone’s doing this to get noticed then something’s gone fundamentally wrong and they need that attention and help.”

Click on the links to learn more about self-harm. Not only might you learn something, you might also be able to help others dispel some of the myths around it.

As always, please #ShareAndLearn, or should that really be #LearnandShare? You get the gist!

Ben 🙂

#TOTW from 04-05-16 “Reversal of Death?”

Evening all!

Now I wasn’t quite sure whether the topic I have chosen for this week’s #TOTW was a late April Fools’ Day joke or some such like, because it all sounds a bit like something out of a science-fiction novel to be honest:

“will gain unique insights into the state of ” Morally/ethically acceptable?

The CEO of Bioquark Inc., Dr. Ira Pastor,  was quoted as saying:

“This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime.”

Really? Reversal of death? I have to confess to knowing very little about brain death and as such this article has prompted me to dig out some of the textbooks from my postgrad that have chapters on the subject. As to the ethical/moral debate around whether or not is is right to be carrying out such experiments, well until I know more about it then I wouldn’t like to say. My initial reaction however, is one of scepticism and a little unease.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Please feel free to share them by commenting here or on my Facebook page. I’d be really interested to hear other people’s views and opinions on this.

Take care,

Ben 🙂

#TOTW from 29-04-16 ‘…stigma, denial, and a lack of public awareness…’

Hej!

I hadn’t forgotten a #TOTW for last week! I have chosen to re-highlight the issue of eating disorders, and as the article below says, the lack of public awareness about them:

“…stigma, denial, and a lack of public awareness about …”  https://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2016/apr/28/eating-disorders-are-more-common-in-some-schools-than-others-but-why

The article looks at how the educational environment may play a part in eating disorders. Dr. Helen Bould states:

“Of course, eating disorders are complex illnesses, and what leads any one individual to become ill will probably involve genetic predisposition, personal characteristics and the environment and stressors they encounter. School environments are just one factor that may play a part.”

It’s an interesting article and well worth 5 minutes of your time.

Ben 🙂

#4PUF – What’s it all about?

Hey!

Happy Bank Holiday to those of you in the UK, and just happy Monday to those of you who aren’t!

Those of you that follow me on Twitter or Facebook might have seen that I retweeted a number of tweets this morning. At or near the end of each month I pick one tweet that I have liked from each week of the month and retweet them with the hashtag #4PUF – 4 Previously Untweeted Favourites. Now of course Twitter went and changed favourites to Likes, but hey…i’m not changing my hashtag! LOL!

Here are last months #4PUFs:

Proud to support – the campaign for LGBT inclusive sex education

about . Still working hard to reduce . Download our free for info & tips xgrassroots

: Just 3% of total govt health spending worldwide is for

All I want for my birthday is awareness PLEASE RTpancreatic

As you can see, the topics I like/favourite are pretty much the ones I tweet and blog about. There are just so many good articles out there its impossible to read/retweet/like them all!

I hope you enjoy reading them.

Ben 🙂