The Rosewood Involvement Centre members attended the Annual General Meeting of Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust on Friday 24th July held at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham.
Each of us was given the task to make sure that Ingrid was at the departure point for the bus at 3-10pm. (Well she has been tied up in conversation and been late in the past!)
There were many stalls at the Conference but the one which impressed me the most was computer that enabled patients to type using just eye movements. After calibrating the computer to my individual eye movements by following two dots as they moved across the screen, I looked at the individual letter on the “qwerty” key board and the letter was typed. The machine even has predictive text and gives possible words that you may be thinking of.I wrote: “Hello my name is Eric”. This computer is invaluable to patients who can only communicate using eye movements but at the moment costs £15,000 pounds.
At the more formal part of the Members’ Meeting there was the opportunity to ask the Chief Executive , Ruth Hawkins, and other members of the panel questions.
As part of Rosewood’s links to Forensic Services at Rampton Hospital we were able to ask questions on behalf of the patients, these were:
“Could Rampton be used as a venue for the AGM with patients attending? “
“Access to modern technologies is restricted in High Secure settings leaving patients behind the times – can this be addressed? “
“How do we live in an environment with least restrictive practise when we are not given the staffing resources to meet needs?”
“Can the policy surrounding social visits be looked at to give more support throughout the process, ensuring enjoyable and manageable experiences?”
The questions were all answered succinctly and gave hope for the future.
At the end of the meeting Ingrid was one of the first at the bus!
We had all had a brilliant time !
Eric – Rosewood Involvement Volunteer
I enjoyed reading the blogg that Eric posted about the A.G.M especially “Find Ingrid” ha! ha! i did get my leg pulled that day.
Yes it was a good day and everyone from Rosewood ivolvement entre enjoyed themselves. We are
now looking forward to next year’s A.G.M.
It was good to have something different on the blog and the Tweets certainly livened things up! It really gives a feel of the great relationship volunteers and staff share together.
Thanks Ingrid!