On 12 June, a team from the RCH ChIPS program (Chronic Illness Peer Support) departed Melbourne for Paris, France to participate in the International Association of Adolescent Health European Congress.Between events, they’ve brushed the baguette crumbs from their keyboards to keep us updated on the experience.
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As the ChIPS team visits London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital on the way home, facilitator Meagan Hunt reflects on the lessons the trip has yielded.
Coming Home
As I sit on the plane with the ChIPS team heading back home to Melbourne and the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), I am content; I can confidently say that this has been an incredibly valuable experience for all involved. We are bringing home new lessons for our program and hospital; invaluable experience to share with all; and connections that will see us continue to collaborate with colleagues across international waters. Most of all, we’ve learned that we have a very unique program in ChIPS and have created an international reputation for it.
ChIPS and GOSH
The latter part of our trip was spent in London where we visited the Great Ormond St Children’s Hospital (GOSH). They organised an extensive schedule of meetings with health professionals and program leaders who work with adolescents at their hospital. The people we met openly shared their work and experiences—and were interested in learning about ours.GOSH are developing their adolescent-focused health care and are creating a youth advisory council which currently has 10 members, but had not yet considered creating a support network for their young patients who have chronic conditions.
They drank eagerly from our experience as we shared our ChIPS program model, and they learned from Jemma and Scott’s personal experience. They were impressed as we informed them of our innovative transition program and the strong status our own YAC (Youth Advisory Council).
‘I found the visit to GOSH incredible. Even though we were there to see their programs and facilities, it was more of a mutual exchange of ideas,’ says ChIPS member Jemma. ‘It was a great learning experience and makes me realise how lucky I am to be a part of a program like no other. ChIPS has given me the confidence and abilities to take life head on, as well as invaluable friendships and connections. I can’t wait to share our observations and experiences from the conference and GOSH, and use them to strengthen our already brilliant program.’
To me, this trip has reaffirmed the importance of giving young people a chance to have a voice in their own health care; I found that this element was what most moved and impressed the health professionals we met. After this experience I firmly believe that the Centre for Adolescent Health and Royal Children’s Hospital are leading the international field in how we approach adolescent health, empowering young people in their health, how we manage transition and how we work collaboratively with young people to do all of this.
On behalf of the ChIPS team I want to thank the CAH, RCH Executive and the RCH Foundation for supporting this venture.
Next year’s IAAH European Congress is in Lisbon, Portugal. So who’s coming?