It’s been an active 6 months for the PCV Project! At the moment we are busy writing a number of summary reports about our activities, which we will share with you in March. But in case you can’t wait that long, here is a recap of what we have been up to.
Allies in Health Care: 2nd Annual Community and Patient Fair
The 2nd Annual Community and Patient Fair was a big success! Despite the rainy weather, on Thursday October 28th, 33 community organizations and over 400 visitors converged at the West Atrium of the Life Sciences Centre from 10:00am-4:00pm to share community health resources and to learn from each other. We doubled our attendance from 2009. It was amazing to see students from many different health disciplines speaking with people from the community, many of whom had the chronic health concerns represented at their booths. These are the types of learning experiences that students will be able to apply to their future practice.
The Fair also brought out the creative bug in our community exhibitors. Everyone enjoyed the various games, toys, prizes and experiential exhibits. Every hour we held a prize draw for some fantastic items (hello 2011 entertainment book, hello amazing coffee, hello toasty fleece pullovers and stylish t-shirts, yup we are talking about you workshop certificate and gift cards!). The prizes were generously provided by our donors: Ethical Bean Coffee, White Spot/UBC Food Services, UBC Bookstore, Save-on-Foods, Choices Markets, PeerNetBC, Mahoney’s, Scleroderma Association of BC, and the Developmental Disabilities Association.
This year we also ran 5 Patient Panels, where patients shared their stories and answered students’ questions. Students from Dental Hygiene and Social Work attended the panels as part of their course. With a total attendance of 104 people, the panels were a big hit!
We cannot overstate the contribution of our wonderful student and staff volunteers who helped make the day a success. Thank you to everyone who came and we hope to see you at the 2011 Fair!
The 2nd Annual Community and Patient Fair was organized by the Division of Health Care Communication and the College of Health Disciplines as part of UBC Celebrate Learning Week. It was funded through the UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund and the Social Accountability and Community Engagement Initiative of the Faculty of Medicine.
Workshops, Workshops, Workshops
Over the past few of months we held 2 workshops: a workshop on HIV in November 2010 and a workshop on Mental Health in January 2011. The turnout for both workshops was fantastic. We reached our capacity for the HIV workshop very quickly, and I am happy to say that despite blizzard-like weather conditions, 20 students came out to learn from our Community Educators! Presented by the BC Persons with AIDS Society and the Positive Women’s Network, the stories told that day were personal and powerful, and left a strong impression on our students.
Community Educators from the Richmond Mental Health Consumers and Friends Society led our 2nd workshop. Presented mainly for a Mental Health Nursing class taught by Prof. J. Craig Phillips, the workshop attracted students from a number of other health disciplines. The shared experiences of mental illness and recovery were candid and compelling. Everyone at the workshop came away learning something new about mental health.
We are currently working on developing a new workshop with the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences Aphasia Mentoring Project for June 2011. We will be posting more news soon, so stay tuned!
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