Posted on: 2 March 2021
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership is set to launch their Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Knowledge Exchange in partnership with West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit from Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 March 2021 in a unique three day online event.
With a focus on adversity, trauma and the importance of protective factors, the event will discuss the growing evidence of the impacts of adverse and traumatic experiences and toxic stress throughout life. Traumatic and adverse experiences increase the risk of later development of poor mental health, adverse behavioural responses, and increased risk of physical illnesses.
The event will highlight how joined up working and the development of trusted compassionate services from preconception through to adult life can support the development of protective factors and improve resilience. It will emphasise the importance of organisations working better together to prevent negative life experiences whilst creating a society that is more connected and healthy.
Guest speakers include:
- Sir Norman Lamb, Chair of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition
- Anna Hartley, Director of Public Health, Wakefield
- Chief Superintendent Jackie Marsh, Director of the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit
- Catherine Knibbs, Online Harms Consultant, Author, Clinical and Academic PhD candidate
- Cybertrauma and Child/Adult Epigenetic Psychotherapist
- Darren McGarvey, 2018 Orwell Prize-winning, bestselling author, musician, social commentator and journalist
- Dr Sohail Abbas, GP/Strategic Clinical Lead, NHS Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group
- Dr Warren Larkin, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Visiting Professor at Sunderland University
- Graham Allen, Founding Chair, of the Early Intervention Foundation
- Jim Leyland, Operations Director-Inclusion, Touchstone
- Kersten England, CEO for Bradford Council
- Mark Burns-Williamson, Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire
- Richard McCann, Motivational Speaker, iCan Academy
- Rob Webster CBE, Chief Executive of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Lead Chief Executive West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership
- Sarah Fox, Coproduction Coordinator, Touchstone
- Sharon Prince, Strategic Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy, Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Personality Disorder Services, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Sue Northcott, West Yorkshire Finding Independence Programme Manager
Event attendees will be tasked over the three days to listen, respond and share evidence, knowledge and practice. There will be an emphasis on how grassroots expertise can underpin the shifts in culture and practice needed to achieve the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership vision of ensuring the area is trauma informed and responsive to people’s needs. The event workshops, led by specialists in the field including those with experience of trauma, will highlight how when organisations come together to support people at the right time in their life they can support them better to lead a long, healthy life where possible free from the impact of trauma.
Kersten England, CEO for Bradford Council said:
‘I am delighted to be the chief executive champion for this work across West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership.
This is an exciting programme of work with the opportunities to bring real change across all sectors in order to improve outcomes for people living across the area. It is really positive to see all areas across West Yorkshire and Harrogate coming together for such an important area of work’.
Rob Webster (CBE), CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership said:
I would encourage all of us to think about ways in which we can increasingly develop a ‘trauma informed’ approach to our work, particularly with children and vulnerable people across our communities.
I am grateful that such an approach is being adopted across West Yorkshire and Harrogate’.
West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) Director, Chief Superintendent Jackie Marsh said:
‘We take a unique approach to responding to serious violent crime in West Yorkshire, which is primarily public health led, with a partnership emphasis. By better understanding the motivating factors and triggers, which stem from childhood adversity or trauma, we can identify the best ways of providing support across a number of agencies.
This is what makes the knowledge exchange so important, as it means we can all bring our expertise to the table, recognising how we can co-ordinate and maximise the effectiveness of our interventions’.
West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Mark Burns-Williamson OBE said:
‘It is essential that organisations come together to act as one, if we are to develop a case for change, which recognises the landscape of possibilities, interventions and good practice.
We can only do this by listening to and working with people who have experienced trauma, identifying early interventions and building protective factors and resilience. This is a key area of work for the Violence Reduction Unit and also all organisations across West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership’.