Fuelling the flames of humanising health and care
08 January 2024
Jessie shares her journey of commitment to humanise healthcare through her personal and professional stories. She reflects on the importance of creating space for everyone to feel seen and heard in health and care settings.
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The beginning of a new year is an important time for many people. A time for refresh and renewal. For me, it is also an important milestone in my life and work story.
As I start my new and exciting role as CEO at the Point of Care Foundation, I have been reflecting on my personal and professional commitment to humanising healthcare and the power of stories to help us to do that.
My story
My story starts 27 years ago on January 2nd, when I gave birth to my eldest daughter Maisie at Guys and St Thomas’ hospital. We had wanted a home birth, but an anomaly in Maisie’s kidney presented an increased risk of Down’s syndrome. I suppose it is here that the embers of my fire began to glow.
Living with chronic endometriosis, I had already had a miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy. We thought long and hard about the risks and how we would feel if we had a child with Down’s syndrome. We carefully balanced this with the risks of miscarriage associated with an amniocentesis and made a very important decision, that we would go ahead with the pregnancy without the amniocentesis and if our baby had Down’s syndrome that would be ok by us. From this point on, things changed with how we were treated and made to feel by the medical professionals looking after us. We were made to feel immature, that we didn’t really understand the issues, that our decision was a dangerous one and – to be honest – that each time we tried to speak up we were a bit of a nuisance.
To cut a long story a bit shorter, I’m pleased to report Maisie arrived without complications.
The paediatrician looking after her in the days after her birth, asked if I would be interested in sharing my experience to inform improvements and so I found myself at a Maternity Services Liaison Committee meeting (the predecessor to the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnerships).
I could immediately see the opportunity to bring a different perspective to the table and how the voices and experiences of women and families could play an equal and powerful role in how maternity and neonatal care could be in the future. My fire was lit!
The director of Midwifery found funding to cover the cost of my childcare (I had another baby within 15 months!), and resources to help me enrol in an MSc in Community Development. I went on to Chair the committee for 3 years. This recognition of the value of experience-based perspectives, and the acknowledgement that health and care is a collaboration between those providing and those receiving care, provided the necessary oxygen to fuel my flames. I am forever grateful for the belief and support given to me at this time.
Fuelled by fire
My early story is one in which I found my voice because I was lucky and privileged to be heard and seen by the team at Guys and St Thomas’. Over the following 2 decades, I have been truly privileged to meet and work with some of the most courageous and wonderful people all striving for better more human experiences of health and care. Many of them have found strength through great adversity to make incredible impacts and improvements in health and care.
Too often these people have had to fight to be seen and heard. But fuelled by their own fires, they have never given up. We have much to thank these people for. They show us what is possible, but often at significant personal cost.
But, between the privileged and the angry, there are thousands upon thousands of voices of people involved in health and care who don’t feel seen or heard. Imagine if we changed this?
Rooted in lived experiences, people who are seen and heard at the point of care can bring new ideas, energy, solutions, and wisdom.
…Between the privileged and the angry, there are thousands upon thousands of voices of people involved in health and care who don’t feel seen or heard. Imagine if we changed this?”
Everyone needs to feel seen and heard
In order to see and hear others, you have to feel seen and heard yourself.
A system of health and care that doesn’t allow people working within it to feel seen or heard, risks minimising and diminishing those it cares for. The interventions and solutions we offer, therefore, must acknowledge the importance of creating space and time for all involved to fuel their fire.
We must recognise that the point of care is fundamentally a human endeavour, achieved together through a relationship of equals that exists between those providing and those receiving care. When this happens, we can all feel seen and heard.
We have some particularly exciting events coming up at the Point of Care Foundation. Do check out our inaugural Humanising Care Fellowship programme, our upcoming event with the Q Community and our trusted programmes of humanising care and improving patient and staff experience through Schwartz Rounds, Courageous Conversations, patient experience and co-design.