Rural Proofing - A great month for the National Centre. We launched our Rural Proofing toolkit developed through a commission with Rural England. You can access it here. More information from the seminar at which we launched it with insights from other key speakers is available here.
Covid Dashboard - We also got some fabulous exposure for our work with Nuffield on the impact of the pandemic on rural settings. This is featured in the first story in Casebook this month.
International Perspectives - We also had a great international series of insights from the Parliamentary Inquiry with speakers from USA, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, India Spain and Brazil. We are following up with a detailed partnering discussion linked to the National Rural Health Association in the USA. Watch this space for more information. They have a fabulous library of international best practice resources.
Parliamentary Inquiry - We have a further session on emergency services planned for the Parliamentary Inquiry on 15 December which will be followed by plans to begin drafting the overall report. Look out for Easter.
Member Benefits – We are currently revising and looking to strengthen still further our package of member benefits in the new year – we’ll be in touch in early 2021.
Mobilising Around Community Responses to Rural Health and Care – We are currently developing a new bid to supplement our work on community engagement in rural health care.
Successful Funding Applications – Two bids we have been cited in: an Innovate UK proposal to provide driverless delivery vehicles with a range of foci including rural health and care with the University of Lincoln and a proposal led by Dr Tom Kingstone at Keele entitled: FIRESIDE study (Optimising Fire and Rescue Service “Safe & Well” visits to support detection and sign-posting for mental health problems in older adults) have both been approved.
Wider Mental Health Work – Finally for this edition to make you aware of the work we have begun with Support in Mind Scotland, Mental Health Foundation Wales and Rural Support Northern Ireland to explore the case for a rural mental health forum in each UK country. I can provide more information on request. This has involved a submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review and is gathering pace as we move forward into 2021.
And Finally – Merry Christmas!!!!!