Surf Therapy Charity shares insights with Early Career Doctors in North Devon
Our North Devon Surf Therapy team were thrilled to be asked by Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to facilitate a workshop for their Early Career Doctors cohort.
The Trailblazers Project is one of seven pilot projects across the UK which aims to reduce health inequalities and advocate for social justice. Those who come through the programme will be ready to work collaboratively, inclusively and compassionately within multi-disciplinary teams to deliver ‘person-centred’ care for the population that they serve in healthcare.
Our North Devon hub has been active since 2013, was able to host a three hour workshop sharing their best practice, after years of experience, with these early career doctors.
In North Devon The Wave Project delivers six-week Surf Therapy courses, a mental health intervention for children and young people aged 8-18 and also Adaptive Surfing, allowing people of all ages and abilities to access the therapeutic benefits of getting into the Atlantic ocean.
The workshop for early career doctors covered a plethora of topics. From the tried-and-tested ways to support young people experiencing anxiety, to best use of inclusive language, the group also got involved and practiced transfers (for a person with limited mobility) from a wheelchair to a beach wheelchair, and even got into the water on surfboards to get a real taste of the experience for participants too.
This partnership is just one of the opportunities that Early Career Doctors get to witness how the charity sector can also play an important role in supporting healthcare outcomes in the locality, and an opportunity to see how low-cost interventions that are embedded in the local community and natural resources of the area can be beneficial for all.