What does a leader look like: advice and experience from people with learning disabilities

                                   

What does a leader look like according to TRAC?

  

 

Approachable; friendly, helpful, confident and believes in themselves but not arrogant

A leader encourages others, they motivate and they are flexible they don’t steal people’s ideas

People believe in a leader, they talk, explain and give advice, they don’t think they know everything

Their voice is quiet so people listen to them they are not manipulated by others

They have positive, happy, good body language they don’t swear, that’s unprofessional

They act as a coach and show you where to go they don’t turn a blind eye and they aren’t distracted by their mobile phone

A leader speaks up when something is wrong they aren’t frightened to speak up

A leader is flexible, they don’t get stuck on one thing and they will change their opinion

A leader is respected and trusted they acknowledge their mistakes, they don’t dismiss things

They work together with people to find solutions they aren’t frightened to ask questions

We all agreed that it is not easy to be a leader!

Reviewing ground rules and planning teaching

TRAC met in January and we agreed that this blog would summarise what we talked about in our meeting.
At the meeting we trialled a new way of making sure that everybody is heard.  This was because at our last meeting some people felt that there were people taking over and not everybody was getting time to talk.  Meaningful inclusion and communication is so important to us and revisiting ground rules has helped us to think about this.

We had a new member Andrew with us who chaired the meeting and we used a number of A4 size easy read symbols 'I want to be heard' on the desk in front of members. 

One of our group members explained that there are some sound boxes that we could use to trial being heard.  We decided that next time we meet we will use these and then vote about which TRAC members prefer.

Professor Ruth Northway came to talk to the group about being involved in a piece of research, we talked about exercise and how people with learning disabilities might be motivated to exercise but might not have the knowledge about how or where they can exercise.

Or they may want to exercise and know how important it is but might not have the equipment and money to get involved.  TRAC are really excited about this piece of work.

In the meeting Ben Pitcher came to talk to us about being involved in teaching advanced practitioners, Ben would like TRAC to come and talk about what is important for other people to know when communicating and assessing people with learning disabilities.  We talked a lot about medication, consultations and how important it is to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act (2010), something that was really important was having extra time and having a key person who can be there to explain and help to ask more questions.

guests in the meeting, setting goals and confirming ground rules

TRAC met on Thursday for the first time this academic year.
We had some guests, Lisa and Chloe, a student social worker and student adult nurse who were on placement with Torfaen People First.
It was really good to hear what they thought about our work. It was helpful too because the students were involved in writing ground rules and working out what was going well in TRAC and what needed to change.

It was a great meeting with lots of good ideas.  Thanks to Chloe for her feedback, she says how important and good it would be to get students from all fields involved in TRAC.

Lisa, student social worker with our Chair, Sarah and Trish from Torfaen PF

My day at TRAC meeting with Torfaen people first

I am a 2^nd year student nurse, adult field, at USW and I spent the week with Torfaen people first. During my time at Torfaen people first I attended a TRAC meeting at the university with the members. Before attending Torfaen people first, I did not know who TRAC were and what they do.

As well as Torfaen members, there were members from Blaenau Gwent, RCT and Newport. I got to spend the day with all TRAC members and gain knowledge on what they do, the research projects they have been involved in, the conferences they have attended, the involvement with learning disability nurse training and their ideas of what they would like to achieve this year.

I believe it is a fantastic idea to get individuals with learning disabilities involved with learning disability nurse training because each individual with a learning disability is different, but they are all experts in their disability and can express their feelings on what they would like from us as nurses.

I believe these lessons would also be beneficial for the adult nurse field, as I believe we do not have enough insight into learning disability. The work TRAC have done is phenomenal, and they should all be proud of what they have all achieved.

If you have the chance to go to a TRAC meeting, you should go and see what it involves. You will get to spend time with individuals with learning disabilities and gain knowledge on the research they have undertaken and what they all want from us all, as health care professionals.

Chloe Edmunds

Learning Disability Awareness Week and the Lived Experience Network

It's been a little while since we have managed to post on the blog.  TRAC have met twice since May and have been busy preparing for attendance at conferences and presentations, as well as the summer.

What did we do in June?

It was great that Philip, one of our most established members of TRAC and I were able to present at the Lived Experience Network (LEN) in Swansea as part of the All Wales Supporting Community Engagement group, where all the universities in Wales work together to showcased patient and pubic engagement.  

This is Julia Terry and Vaughan Gething with the Patient Experience and Evaluation in Research (PEER) group.

Vaughan Gething Minister for Health, Well-being and Sport was there and spent some time hearing about the work TRAC does.  He asked Philip and I a few questions about the way we train nurses at USW. 

It was great for us to hear about the role of patients, families and carers and how they influence education in Health sciences throughout the UK.

The experience was extra special for me as it was the first time I had presented at a conference and the support I received from Philip was invaluable.  It was also Learning disability awareness week 19th-25th June and so I wrote a blog for learningdisabilitynurse.com about the experience. 

It was great to have some feedback about the blog from Peter Bates from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) who has a fantastic website dedicated to involving people with learning disabilities in research and the community, there are a range of how to guides, which you can find here.  The thing that struck me the most was how calm and relaxed Philip was about the experience, in stark comparison to me!

One of our first year student nurses Caitlin was also there and she was lucky enough to win a prize for the  poster presentation that she submitted, all about TRAC and the work we do, she also made the poster easy read which is so important.

Well done Caitlin and thanks to Julia and Philip

TRAC's trial blog

Hello!

This is TRAC's first blog, we talked at our last meeting about how we wanted to capture some of the key issues that we discuss and share with a wider audience.   We agreed that a trial blog would be a good place to start.  We hope that people with learning disabilities and those supporting them will read our blog and get in touch to find out more about what we do and share ideas for practice, research and education.

I am in charge of writing the blog but we will all contribute ideas.  I am a lecturer and a learning disability nurse and I have recently joined the University of South Wales, taking over from my former colleague Victoria Jones who set up TRAC a long time ago, with the support of Professor Ruth Northway OBE and the Unit for Development in Intellectual Disabilities (UDID) this explains more:  TRAC Poster.

Who are TRAC?

The Teaching Research Advisory Committee (TRAC) meet every month at the University of South Wales.

The committee is made up of men and women who have learning disabilities and their supporters, and is facilitated by me, and sometimes some of our learning disability student nurses.

The committee is consulted on key issues related to teaching and research about people with learning disabilities.  Our members are able to influence the curriculum, they are involved in many things including the recruitment and assessment of student nurses. 

TRAC members teach across the university and are often consulted with by agencies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Public Health Wales and Welsh Gov.

Last year one of our committee members Lynne, received an honorary fellowship from the University in recognition of her hard work and service to the university.

What do TRAC do?
We often talk about the importance of meaningful inclusion.  This article was written about TRAC and how important it is the people with learning disabilities are active as researchers and participants in research.


TRAC have been involved in inclusive research projects,
looking into abuse final report and there are links to easy read versions of reports that TRAC have been involved in: advocacy and the learning disability nurse, adults with learning disabilities presenting with dementia, being a family, death and dying and what's all the fuss about aging?

Where do our members come from? 
www.caldicotpeoplefirst.org.uk
www.tpfirst.org.uk
www.rctpeoplefirst.org.uk
Blaenau Gwent People First
Caerphilly People First
and all groups link into All Wales People 1st

TRAC is always interested in welcoming new members and we have men and women of all ages involved who want to have their say on what happens to people with learning disabilities making their lives better. 

What next? 
Well, if TRAC like what this says then we will be sharing some of our discussion and links to more of our work through this blog!
Watch this space!