True - the show and tell thing at RESNA is really useful - I remember it
being a £50 thing - a bit like a trade show but just for a couple of hours
early evening over a glass of wine allowing small organisations,
individuals and students to demonstrate and chat about their projects which
were in the ideas stage or looking for partners stage.
colin
At 15:13 04/04/2005, you wrote:
>Aidan/Simon/Guy
>
>just to pick up on a couple things.
>Working across agencies on the ground seems to be relatively easy as long
>as you have the support from your organisation. It's a step further up the
>hierarchy where things go wrong - possibly because money gets
>involved. eg the council doesn't talk to the hospital about its
>"lifeline" services because "it doesn't involve them" , health doesn't
>invite social services when considering a new plan "because we don't want
>the meeting to be too big". And our professional SIGs don't seem to work
>well across agencies, perhaps because you can only attend so many.
>
>I always like the Central repository idea. I saw a recent article on Arup
>(I think) who centralised their information & guidelines & review it
>regularly, throwing out dated ideas.
>
>allright - three things
>REs do a vast amount of novel work in AT but don't get to share ideas
>nationwide. I think it's one of the RESNA meetings has a "show & tell"
>section where people can trade ideas without doing too formal a
>presentation. Always sounded like an encouraging format.
>
>Barry
>
>Barry Taylor, Clinical Scientist
>Medical Physics Department
>Tulley Medical Physics Building, Hull Royal Infirmary
>Anlaby Road, Hull HU3 2JZ
>Tel 01482 675928, fax 01482 675750
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals.
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Aidan Parr
>Sent: 04 April 2005 14:50
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: AT in Education
>
>
>Hi Simon,
>
> > --
> > I do feel strongly that the medical and the educational strands of AT
> > should
> > be working together more closely in a complementary fashion, rather than
> > working in parallel as you say. Some barriers need to be broken down and
> > we
> > all need to be communicating a lot better...
> > --
> >
> > It's impossible to disagree with this (like a Tony Blair soundbite) - but
> > what does this (taken as a summary of the previous conversation),
> > actually,
> > specifically, MEAN?!
>
>You've answered it here...
>
> > Every opportunity I get to work with anyone (not just education - i.e.
> > SCH,
> > VolSec, Access to work, ....) outside my current immediate environment
> > (that
> > happens to be health based) I jump at. In my assessments I make specific
> > efforts to invite anyone and everyone from other sectors... I try to be
> > involved in cross-sector projects... That said, i'm open to suggestions
> > where I could be working more collaboratively?
>
>Seems to be a very healthy way of working to me, but you are working in a
>very good environment! I'm not sure if everyone gets that sort of
>opportunity to work in such an open way, or they may be unaware of the AT
>needs of Education, or they feel they've got enough work to do without
>getting involved, or...
>
> > E.g. the recent accusation on this list about the perceived Telecare/Comm
> > Alarm/SCH divide. Fine, perhaps this divide is real, but what shall we DO
> > about it?! My reaction to this was to asking that the person highlighting
> > the devide be invited to talk at RESMAG, what else?
> >
> > The people that think there is a divide (and this includes me!) should DO
> > something about it! Invite people from other sectors to conferences, go
> > talk to them, read their magazines and mailing groups, highlight
> > non-collaborative practice, list specific constructive ideas for
> > collaboration on this list...
>
>You'll get no argument from me, that's the way to do it!
>
> > In terms of more resources for finding kit - i'm not sure how this ties up
> > with the cross-sector debate. In parallel with other industries there are
> > lots of (competing) sources of information on things and the skill of a
> > practitioner is to find them and exploit them. At the moment there are
> > lots
> > of sources of this information (across the sectors), if people want to
> > create new ones, great.
>
>I still think that it is quite possible for someone working in AT for
>education to learn from someone working in the medical strand of AT or
>vice-versa.
>
>Discerning what is good and bad about different companies and their products
>takes time. Most companies would claim that their particular product range
>is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but how do we judge that is true?
>We build up our skills through years of experience. What happens if our
>choice of equipment in our early days is incorrect or slightly off? Either a
>new device has to be purchased (waste of money?) or the equipment user is
>stuck with it (not ideal). A good example of this is in AAC devices. There's
>dedicated and computer-based. No-one has sat down and critiqued the pros and
>cons of each type and I've seen some misunderstanding and lack of knowledge
>about the differences. Even if it doesn't matter, wouldn't it be good to
>have a set of guidelines that state this?
>
>Personally, I'd prefer it if there were a small number of good resources
>that can give guidance to the young professional or can help existing one's
>keep up with the multitude of different products. It's better to have 5 good
>resources that work together and can be more consistent in their approach
>than dozens with a slightly different or contrary approach. Guy's idea of a
>repository of knowledge would seem to be the best way to go, but that
>requires people to get involved around a large table (physically or
>otherwise) and debate the pros & cons of equipment out there. This should
>ideally involve medical and educational AT providers. Even if medical and
>educational AT providers don't altogether agree on an approach, it might
>increase awareness of each others needs?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Aidan.
Colin Clayton BSc, CEng, MIEE, MIPEM
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children
The Wolfson Centre
Mecklenburgh Square
London WC1N 2AP
Tel: 020 7837 7618
Fax: 020 7833 9469
visit www.wisedx.com
email: [log in to unmask]
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