Contents:

• INTRODUCTION
• DOWNLOAD THIS SITE
• TEACHER FEEDBACK
• •SUGGESTION ON THE USE OF THE RESOURCE
   - Classroom Management
   - A Visit from an AHP
   - Session One
   - Session Two
• WORKSHEETS
   - Empathy
   - All language is special
   - Beyond the screen
• FURTHER WORK

INTRODUCTION

This resource aims to introduce Key Stage 3 (particularily year 9) pupils to the work of a group of Allied Health Professionals at a time when they may be beginning to think about subject choices and exploring possible career options. In doing this the site offers materials and suggestions to support work within PSHE; worksheets extend beyond this into suggestions for English (including creative writing), Drama and Media. Information contained in the material and questions raised by it will extend into wider discussions relevant to Citizenship.

The resource is built around three main blocks of material:

• 27 profiles of actual Allied Health Professionals (AHPs)
• 9 case studies
• Worksheets

Early discussions with teachers have indicated that they see potential for the resource with older pupils studying a variety of GCSE subjects, for instance, Level 3 Health and Social Care. If you wish to use it for these purposes you will find the material is flexible; you will easily be able to tailor it to your own use.

Young people will know of the work of doctors and nurses but may not know of many other people who look after our health and welfare. In this resource they are specifically:

• Arts Therapists
• Dietitians
• Occupational Therapists
• Orthoptists
• Physiotherapists
• Podiatrists and Chiropodists*
• Prosthetists and Orthotists
• Radiographers
• Speech and Language Therapists.

*Note: podiatrists and chiropodists effectively do the same job, but where they are currently more commonly known as chiropodists, now and in the future, those qualifying in to the profession will be known as a podiatrist only.

TEACHER FEEDBACK

Your feedback on this resource is important to us and will enable us to make improvements or adjustments to the materials provided in line with your comments. We would therefore appreciate your time in filling out this questionnaire once you have worked with the site. Please then return it, either as an attachment to Sarah.heagren@nhsemployers.org, or by post to the address given on the form. Thank you in advance for your time.

Teacher's Feedback form

SUGGESTIONS ON THE USE OF THIS RESOURCE

Classroom Management

This suggestion is for use of the resource with Key Stage 3 pupils as part of a PSHE programme. You will know your groups best. Below we suggest pupils working in groups, but you may prefer to select and study more modest amounts of information working with your class as a whole.

The resource is designed to be used over two sessions. The first session introduces pupils to the range of Allied Health Professions (AHPs) on the site; the second session encourages pupils to work out, for specific case studies, which AHPs might best become involved for the patient's welfare.

If you choose to divide your class into small groups, each group will need access to the resource on-line or, if you are using one, from the CD Rom. This is particularly important during Session 1 (described below) in which pupils explore AHP profiles. Pupils may need ready access to a printer. Though desirable, it's less important for pupils to be on-line when they explore the case studies (Session 2).

You will notice in the AHP Profiles that some words are set in bold. These words can be found in the glossary to aid pupils' understanding of more technical or unusual words.

Click here to access the Glossary.

All profiles, case studies, worksheets and prompt sheets are designed in a printer-friendly format.

A visit from an AHP

Once your students have worked through the New Generations resource, you might like to book a visit from a New Generations Ambassador. We have set up an ambassadorial scheme for different AHPs to visit schools that are located in their region of work. The purpose of the visit would be to extend and enhance the information in the New Generations resource and enable students to actually meet an AHP in person and to ask more direct questions of interest to them.

If you would like to make contact with a regional coordinator of visits, please click on your locality in the list below and send us an email.

Within your email, please state:

1. Your name.

2. Your position in the school.

3. The schools name and address.

4. A contact telephone number and an email address if you have one.

Each of the Allied Health Professions have a professional body, therefore, where no contact email address is given you can contact the body(ies) for each of the professions that interest your students (e.g: Speech and Language Therapists). Contact details for each of these bodies are given in the Links section of this site and they should be able to help you arrange an ambassador visit to your school.

• South West London region
• South East London region
• North West London region
• North Central London region
• North East London region
  
  
• Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire region
• Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire region
• Birmingham and Black Country region
• Cheshire and Merseyside region
• County Durham and Tees Valley region
• Cumbria and Lancashire region
• Devon and Cornwall region
• Dorset and Somerset region
• Essex region
• Greater Manchester region
• Hampshire and Isle of Wight region
• Isle of Man region
• Kent Medway region
• Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland region
• N & E Yorkshire and North Lincs region
• Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire region
• Northumberland, Tyne and Wear region
• Shropshire and Staffordshire region
• South Yorkshire region
• Surrey and Sussex region
• Thames Valley region
• Trent region
• West Midlands South region
• West Yorkshire region

• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales

If a scheme is operating in your area, a coordinator or New Generations Ambassador will be in touch with you in the next few weeks, either by email or letter.

Session 1

Aim: To introduce pupils to the roles of Allied Health Professionals.

On-screen, pupils will be offered nine reversed playing cards – these will reveal the nine professions. You could investigate each profession with the whole class. Or you may prefer to divide your whole class into smaller groups and ask each group to cover the nine AHP roles. Although pupils will have some general knowledge of the roles, we make no assumptions about the level. Pupils will learn about the roles by reading the profiles.

Each AHP role comprises a cluster of three profiles. Each cluster, in turn, comprises:

• male and female professionals
• someone in a managerial role.

Further, we have across the whole nine clusters, kept in mind:

• diversity
• mixture of NHS, local government, charity, self-employed working models.

Pupils are asked to turn over cards until they find the AHP role they're looking for. They will need to read three cards to build the full information on the role – Profile Summary Sheets will help them with note taking; one summary sheet (profile_summary_sheet.pdf) assists the note taking of each profile, a second (conc_summary_sheet.pdf) assists with 'pulling the information together'. Download the Profile Summary Sheet using the link below.

Profile summary sheet - PDF: 71kb

The Concluding Summary Sheet (numbered 4) says

'If your AHPs have very different jobs you could consider separating your answers out'.

This is relevant to the group of arts therapists, for instance – who are art, music, drama. Also to radiographers – diagnostic and therapeutic. Less clear, though significant, differences occur among speech and language therapists – our professionals are a student, a therapist in the community and a researcher in prison. Your pupils may need guidance on whether to separate notes or not; there's an exercise in note-taking here. Download the Concluding Summary Sheet using the link below.

Concluding summary sheet - PDF: 42kb

Pupils are encouraged to share within small groups (or as a whole class) the knowledge they have gained in order to create the whole picture. At any point during this process, pupils can access a Formal Fact Sheet about each professional role – this contains a role summary, qualifications and career path details and the navigation leading to these can be found to right of the screen when students are reading the various professional profiles. (The links to the Formal Fact Sheets have also been included below. These will open in a pop-up window. They are designed to be printer friendly.)

• Arts Therapists (Art/Drama/Music)
• Podiatrists/Chiropodists
• Dietitians
• Occupational Therapists
• Orthoptists
• Prosthetists/Orthotists
• Physiotherapists
• Radiographers (Diagnostic and Therapeutic)
• Speech and Language Therapists

One-line summaries of the nine AHP roles can be downloaded from the link below: you might wish to hand these out at this stage or use them only for Session 2.

AHP Short Definitions - PDF: 39kb

Session 2

Aim: To encourage pupils to use the knowledge they have gained in Session 1 to create a care team for specific case studies.

There are nine case studies. You might like to share these among smaller groups or work through a smaller number with whole classes.

In brief, case studies are as follows:

• Josh, aged 8, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, who falls from a roof
• Doris and Joe, elderly African-Caribbean, Doris is diabetic and Jo has Alzheimer's
• Tom, young graphic artist, knocked off his motorcycle and has a lower arm amputated
• Annie, 86, has a stroke
• Grace, young chef, diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease
• Salma, 10, lives with her mother, personality changes when her mother is diagnosed with skin cancer
• Sarah, 13, active at sports and in dance, sprains her feet and ankles
• Akeem, 9, refugee, eye problems after living in a country at war
• Andy, 16, diagnosed with a brain tumour
• Edward, a father of two, suffers from schizophrenia
• Keri, aged 13, has learning difficulties as a result of having Down’s Syndrome

All of these case studies have positive outcomes, though this must be seen in context. Motor Neurone Disease, for instance, is always terminal; the positive ending is that Grace is able to live out her life as fully as possible.

Members of the umbrella steering group creating this resource were all professionals within the Allied Health Professions. After the site was up and running they felt strongly that two additional case studies should be added; these would deal with two important but challenging issues. The case studies centre around a person with a mental health issue (Edward, who suffers with schizophrenia) and a person with a disability (Keri, who has Down’s Syndrome.)

Some feedback from reviewing teachers expressed a need to be more prepared and informed about some of the illnesses included in the case studies, particularly schizophrenia. We have therefore included some useful websites in the Links section of this site, which will give more detailed background to some of the illnesses covered.

There is a growing incidence of mental health illness and yet the topic is still surrounded by misunderstanding and misinformation, prejudice and fear. The reality is that such illnesses are going to impinge on the lives of more and more of us.

It’s in order to help break this cycle of ignorance and prejudice that we’ve included the Edward case study. Much of the feedback we’ve had on the case study has been positive. We have received some feedback, though, that teachers are concerned that discussions around the case study will lead to name-calling and bullying. Teachers will be aware that the abuse happens because of ignorance, and the ignorance because we don’t talk about the issue – perhaps because we’re worried about name-calling and bullying. Another vicious circle.

In this case study, therefore, we have not only focused on the father (Edward) but also on the effect his illness has on his young children. This is a challenging case study, and teachers may particularly want to prepare pupils, sensitively, in advance; you may wish to have your session led by a PSHE specialist. (One teacher was extremely enthusiastic about this case study and told us ‘This is exactly what we should be talking about; and it’s a strong argument for PSHE being taught by specialist teachers.’) This case study has a clear positive resolution.

Teachers who have had sight of the Keri case study have been most enthusiastic. They have pointed out uses for this study beyond the PSHE curriculum noting, in particular, possibilities in RE, English, and Health and Social Care. One teacher, who works with mixed ability groups, said she would use this case study in tandem with the Standard version to prompt discussion. Another commented: ‘A sensitive subject is handled well and would be likely to prompt a mature and considered response from students.'

If you are working with small groups we would suggest that groups present their findings and suggestions back to the whole class. Others might offer suggestions for treatment, support or assistance, too.

Below, for your information, is a table indicating AHPs who might be involved in each case study. Pupils may or may not suggest all of these, but we would stress that your pupils' exploration of the cases and their thinking about care and support scenarios, are more important than your pupils' ability to apply AHP roles correctly at this stage. The exercise should be seen as a means of investigating PSHE issues – such as care for elderly people, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, foot health, cancer treatment, implications of depression and the fact that AHPs exist and the sort of work they do.

Early trialling of the case study stories with Year 9 pupils prompted some lively discussions. Pupils did not find, for instance, Grace and Motor Neurone Disease too depressing to consider but said: 'It's important to know about things like this.' They became engaged in discussing what you would say to someone who knows they are going to die.

The first of the exercises on the Empathy worksheet (Turning case notes into empathetic stories) derives directly from these discussions. Some wanted 'more about people's feelings', some wanted 'more blood': you might like to have a discussion on the place of such detail in case notes and fiction or non-fiction – which, in turn, leads to the worksheet.

Year 9 pupils became much engaged on the Case Study of Tom the artist who has his hand amputated after a motorcycle accident. An arts therapist helps Tom overcome depression; we do not say whether the arts therapist is an art therapist or a music therapist (Tom is both a graphic designer and a musician); we believe this might be a point of discussion for your pupils.

WORKSHEETS

Empathy

Aim: To encourage young people to put themselves in someone else's place. To encourage young people to write about feelings.

The first exercise suggests people rewrite the case study in the first person. Two forms are suggested (story or diary). If pupils choose to write a diary, they are encouraged to explore possibilities like writing the diary as if it's recorded or 'in the person's head' and to use language appropriately. You may find this particularly useful if working with lower ability range pupils.

The second exercise asks them to write to a close friend about the serious illness of a mutual friend. It is suggested they write this as a letter, email or poem.

Empathy worksheet - PDF: 113kb

All Language is Special

Aim: To encourage pupils to value the many different ways we use language and to realise that understanding is a key element in communication.

Various language short-hands are used in the twenty-seven profiles. For ease of discussion these are divided into acronyms, technical and jargon.

The emphasis on this worksheet is to have fun.

The first exercise asks pupils to list acronyms, technical words and jargon that might be used in an activity of their choosing. 'Might be used' offers the possibility of pupils inventing language.

The second part offers individual spoken or group acted work. The aim here is to enable pupils to 'blind us with science' in their use of language – thereby showing that shared understanding is crucial if good communication is to take place. Although this is a serious topic, keep the activity light-hearted.

While discussing language with your pupils, you might find the following interesting. It's difficult to say how many words are in the English language – do you count obsolete words? do you count acronyms that stand for words? do you count opposites that are created by adding 'un' or 'im'? These are just some of the questions that have to be considered. At a rough guess (really rough!) it might be considered that there are about one million words in the language; if you count all scientific and technical words you get closer to two million.

Language worksheet - PDF: 258kb

Beyond the Screen

Aim: To enable pupils to begin to analyse and comment on an episode from a TV series.

This provides a useful opportunity to analyse popular culture – specifically TV hospital series. Pupils will need to follow the dramatisation of a story and be critical of it. A prompt sheet is available to help them. (The prompt sheet is available at the end of these notes.)

AHPs rarely appear in dramatisations. The question is Why not ? In discussion with your pupils you might encourage them to realise that it's not lack of knowledge (none of these scripts is written without research) but that AHPs generally are not 'dramatic'.

Stories must be fast moving, so for instance, a diagnostic radiographer might be included in an A&E section, but a therapeutic radiographer would probably not be. In an entire screenplay about a terminally ill patient, a therapeutic radiographer might well appear. Content is dependent upon the needs of the drama. You might like to pursue the morality of this.

Pupils will need to understand the concept of a character's 'back story' (a 'forward story' doesn't exist in the same way.)

Beyond the Screen worksheet - PDF: 89kb

FURTHER WORK

Pupils who are particularly interested in the work around Allied Health Professionals might like to explore the area in other mediums.

Some recommended books are:

• Boss of the Pool, Robin Klein
• Gideon Ahoy, William Mayne
• Memory, Margaret Mahy
• My Brother, Barry, Bill Gillham
• Red Sky in the Morning, Elizabeth Laird
• Summer of the Swans, The, Betsy Byars
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime, Mark Haddon
• The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
• Warrior Scarlet, Rosemary Sutcliff.

Pupils may be interested to hear of:

• Jamie Andrews, a rock climber who lost limbs to frostbite and now climbs using prostheses
• Baroness Rosalie Wilks, who damaged her spine in a traffic accident; she is now a quadriplegic but became the first invalid presenter of See Hear programme
• Heather Mills, who has a prosthetic limb but carried on working as a model
• Gareth Gates, who suffers from a stammering condition, won 2nd place on 'Pop Idol'
• Julie Andrews, singer and actress having to overcome the impact of throat surgery on her vocal cords.