Staff and volunteers from general and community hospitals and voluntary organisations in the South West attended an inspiring, uplifting and stimulating conference in Taunton on 8 March 2013. Compassion, Care, and Community were the key themes and core messages for the day which at the close Andy Bradley, conference facilitator and lead speaker, dedicated to the people of Mid Staffordshire.

Download presentations and papers from the conference

Opening the event, Alison Moon, Chief Nurse at University Bristol Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South West Champion for Dementia Care, acknowledged that many present were enabling and delivering much improvement in hospital care, and went on to encourage relentless focus and energy on the care of people with dementia. She pointed out that the recently issued Francis Report had so strongly indicated that there is no place for complacency about hospital care in the NHS.

The first session followed with an invitation from Andy Bradley to engage personally with compassion, this was supported by a moving testimony on film of an account by a doctor of his own terrible experience in receiving catastrophic news about his health and the impact on him of in sensitive care. Andy and colleague Alister Scott then engaged all present in exercising and practising compassion underpinned by the attitudes, behaviours and practices that can develop and sustain a culture and community of compassionate care.

Edana Minghella went on to describe the emotional and effective power of people’s individual stories as the basis for and a key component for demonstrating impact to inform change and improvement alongside more standard quality effectiveness methods.

The main headlines from the recent peer review of dementia care in hospital were set out by Alison Moon, an overview report and a new edition of the Compendium of Positive Practice collated from information gained during the review will be available on the website at the end on March 2013.

Referring to the huge changes in motion for the NHS system, Nick Cartmell set out some of the new structures and mechanisms suggesting that though this context may seem confusing and complex all present at the conference as leaders for improving care of dementia can contribute to driving forward improvements in care.

Workshops echoing the conference themes included opportunities to hear about positive practices and developments and to test out compassionate care practices and storytelling. A good range of displays provided information, ideas and resources and the lunch interval was heralded and closed by spontaneous soothing and stirring music in turn performed by Caroline David and her colleague.

After a final session with Andy and Alister encouraging delegates to be willing to embody and model their personal commitment to Compassionate Hospitals, Alison Moon gave thanks for the passion and expertise of the speakers and presenters.

Download presentations and papers

• Conference programme | Evaluation report
• Opening Remarks (Alison Moon, Chief Nurse, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and NHS South of England (West) Dementia Champion)
• The Compassionate Hospital – A Community of Caring (Andy Bradley, Founder, Frameworks 4 Change, Dr Alister Scott, The One Leadership Project)
• Capturing impact, change and improvement (Dr Edana Minghella, Independent Consultant and author of Transforming Models of Care)
• Leadership for dementia – going forward (Dr Nick Cartmel, GP lead for dementia, NHS South of England (West), and member of North East and West Devon Clinical Commissioning Group)
• Highlights of Peer Review 2 (Alison Moon, Chief Nurse, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and NHS South of England (West) Dementia Champion)
• Caring about pain | Workshop discussion (Denise Barr, Julie Bruce-Watts, Jane Chigley–Clark)
• Art and creativity in hospital (Marian Naidoo)
• Using life story work to deliver person-centred care (Rachel Thompson)
• Reflective compassion in action (Edana Minghella)
• Enriching Care; relationships, activities, friendly places
  • WCH Memory Cafe (Shirley Harris, Tina Elliot, Jo Wallis, Jo Pope, Lisa Williams)
  • How does it feel to be a person with dementia (Jo Oneill)
  • Befriending (Emma Flanery)
  • Facilitated discussion (Fraser Underwood)
• The Compassion meeting (Andy Bradly, Alister Scott)