The University of Brighton is influencing ground-breaking changes to health services in China and Thailand. The School of Nursing and Midwifery has delivered bespoke courses to senior health professionals from both countries, giving participants a chance to examine how health services are delivered within the UK.
China has major problems dealing with a rapid rise in chronic diseases and with supporting an ageing population due, in part, to their fast economic growth. This has increased life expectancy and led to the adoption of lifestyles associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and associated diseases.
One course, 'Introduction to Community Health Care in the UK', is run by the School of Nursing and Midwifery in collaboration with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School’s Division of Education, and Innotech Ltd, a company which develops innovative business ideas. The course is being delivered to senior health professionals from the Minhang District of Shanghai.
Earlier this month, the university organised a visit for a delegation from China to the headquarters of Welbeing (Wealden and Eastbourne Lifeline), where delegates were given a demonstration of ‘telecare’ services. These help people to remain living independently in their own homes. Telecare provides a national cost-effective service using technology which may help to improve the health service provision in China. The visit was reported in the local press and delegates also appeared on UK TV.
Carol Williams, course leader, School of Nursing and Midwifery, said: “As a direct result of participation in the course, previous delegations have already been able to influence change within the Minhang district by implementing a GP service, and The Minhang model is viewed as a beacon of innovative service delivery in Shanghai.”
In Thailand, the Department of Health’s ‘Family Love Bonding Hospital’ initiative has prompted hospitals to set up breastfeeding clinics. The School of Nursing and Midwifery, in partnership with the Infant Feeding Consortium community interest company (IFCcic), recently delivered a bespoke course ‘Infant Feeding and Public Health: Breastfeeding Theory to Practice’ to a delegation of doctors and nurses from Ramathibodi and Charoenkrung Pracharak Hospitals in Bangkok. Participants were able to update their skills and technical knowledge on infant feeding during five days of classroom-based learning, followed by clinical placement visits in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall at a variety of health and non-governmental breastfeeding support facilities.
Carol Williams added: “It is rewarding being able to focus our teaching to address the particular conditions encountered in Shanghai and Bangkok and to influence positive changes in both countries.”
Last September, Carol Williams and the IFCcic visited Cambodia to deliver a Maternal Nutrition and Infant and Young Child feeding course for World Vision International, South Asia Region. Participants came from neighbouring countries including Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Philippines and Vietnam.
Positive feedback from delegates included comments:
- “The knowledge and information will help in ‘tweaking’ current health programmes in World Vision, especially health education and promotion.”
- “It has changed my way of thinking. The technical sessions helped me to evaluate the quality of past training programmes in the field and helped me to see how to improve the quality of the next training programmes.”
- “For World Vision to be successful in our child wellbeing outcomes we need to continue to have more training of this sort on other related issues in maternal and child health.”
- “I can’t thank the University of Brighton enough.”
