Celebrating Black History Month
To celebrate Black History Month, we have had the pleasure of speaking with a variety of inspirational people across our Trust, sharing their stories and opinions on diversity and inclusion.
Our creative Clinical Photography and Design team (CPAD) then have worked incredibly hard to produce an artistic series of portraits, celebrating the rich diversity and representation across our hospitals.
To accompany the photo portraits, we spoke with our Black History Month representatives, to create a series of video interviews speaking about their time at the NHS, where they addressed the importance of inclusion and reflection.
Our BWC Portraiture Project has allowed the Trust to capture many special moments with our representatives, recognising all of their contributions to the hospital's varying specialities.
You can visit our YouTube playlist online by clicking this link.
BHM Bites
We also celebrated cultural diversity with some 'Black History Month bites', courtesy of our fantastic Vital Services team who revamped our hospital restaurant menus to add a splash of colour to our lunch this month for our staff, children, women and families to enjoy.
Our staff have also been given the fantastic opportunity to bring some of the rich culture to their own home as we revealed a sumptuous selection of recipes.
A round-up of our BWC Black History Month events
Throughout the month there were a series of fantastic and engaging events, such as our Wellness and Physio Sessions and Birmingham and Solihull (Bsol) “Proud to be” Conference and Head of Physio Orthotics, Rekel Kerr hosted a virtual wellbeing session to reduce stress and get our staff members moving.
Rekel said, “Over the past 18 months a lot of staff have been spent hunched over computers in teams meetings. A lot of staff have worked extra shifts and walked extra miles as a result, some have worked with our colleagues in the adult Trust perhaps experiencing an increased manual handling load. This session is a gentle set of chair-based and standing exercises designed to mobilise the joints and activate the muscles. These exercises may help you to identify any tightness or weakness that has crept in over lockdown. The only equipment needed is a chair.”
We also attended the Birmingham and Solihull ICS Conference “Proud to be” coming together with other local trusts, general practice, local authority and Clinical commissioning groups, within the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System
The conference explored identity and representation, with speakers Anton Emmanuel, National Clinical Lead for the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Patrick Vernon, Independent Non-Executive Director of BSol Integrated Care System and Danielle Oum, Chair of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. We shared the importance of diverse representation across our Trust to provide an improved and equal healthcare system that accommodates people of all creeds, religions and backgrounds. This was an excellent opportunity for staff to engage and immerse themselves deeper into Black History Month to learn about the past and what needs to be done to create a brighter future.