May 2010
Dear Member,
‘Reality bites – challenges in current practice’
This year’s SSHA conference will be at the Hilton Hotel, Belfast from September 17th – 19th 2010.
To date, completed applications to this years SSHA conference, provisionally organised for Belfast has been slow. The HA team in Belfast were the only team interested in hosting and organising conference and it would be great to have conference in Northern Ireland for the first time.
Although fees have again been kept to last year’s levels to reflect the current NHS financial climate we have few confirmed attendees so far.
If we do not get enough attendees to cover the cost of conference (and any money made goes back to fund next year’s conference and things such as MI training days) we may be forced to review or cancel conference for this year. If you are interested in attending SSHA’s annual conference, we recommend you supply applications as soon as possible.
You will now be aware of changes and developments in the professional regulation agenda of health advisers. All of this serves to endorse the role of the health adviser in the NHS, and you are encouraged to attend the SSHA conference this year.
An application form is available on the website (www.ssha.info). Members get a discount although conference is open to Non Members at a slightly higher rate.
The conference is the first of its kind in Belfast and there will, as usual, be prizes for the best poster. There has also not been a huge response to this so far from the profession, but there must be a great deal of relevant Health Adviser led work out there that could be shared with colleagues so please consider a poster on some aspect of your work.
Interest in presenting has been good. There will some follow up workshops on risk reduction using a motivational interviewing approach following some excellent work by SSHA members on an educational subgroup around working with the NICE guidelines. Other topics include Abortion Law in Northern Ireland, Working with Sexual Addiction, Resilience and Young People, Renegotiating Sex and Relationships after a diagnosis of HIV.
A final timetable and venue details will be mailed out to all attendees.
Membership
- For information on how to become a member and to request a membership and or conference application form please visit www.ssha.info
To Attend
- Please complete an application form to book a place or please mail myself David, Maeve and Catherine, our conference organisers and we would be happy to send you one electronically or answer any other questions regarding this year’s conference.
James.Hardie@chelwest.nhs.uk
david.wilson6@nhs.net
maeve.cross@belfasttrust.hscni.net
CatherineA.Jackson@belfasttrust.hscni.net
Yours sincerely,
Jamie Hardie
SSHA President