President's Message
Dr Simon Gabe, BAPEN President
Hello and welcome to 2018’s final edition of In Touch! What a year it’s been for BAPEN – and it’s not over just yet! Here are my thoughts on the last few months – and, as ever, thanks so much for your continued support of all that we do.
UK Malnutrition Awareness Week 2018
The inaugural UK Malnutrition Awareness Week (MAW) kicked off on International Day of Older Persons, on 1st October.
We teamed up with the Malnutrition Task Force to bring MAW to life, and we were thrilled to be working collaboratively to raise awareness of the problem of malnutrition in older people. We were also lucky enough to have the support and participation of the British Dietetic Association, Hertfordshire Independent Living Service, The University of Hertfordshire, Home Instead and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
We conducted a very revealing survey with YouGov that exposed how little the public really know about malnutrition and that gave us a strong mandate to go out to the media. I found myself doing a media tour which was exhausting but at least a little bit fun! We spoke to endless BBC radio stations and I even found myself having a chat with Jeremy Vine! Our story also hit the national papers!
We developed a whole range of materials for health and social care professionals, as well as community leaders to use with older people who may be at risk, and we worked hard across our social media channels to signpost the public to the online self-screening tool (particularly critical since the YouGov survey we developed identified that just 3% of respondents had heard of it before MAW).
It was thrilling to see such a high level of engagement across social media, people posing for selfies and sharing their MAW displays!
We were also busy in other ways! We combined our final 2018 Nutritional Care Tool Data Collection Week with MAW, as we felt it made sense to bring them together and it’s something we may explore again next year. And we published a new report ‘Managing malnutrition to improve lives and save money’, which looks at the financial implications of malnutrition prevalence in the UK (see the MAG Update for more information).
What a week! Thanks again to everyone who contributed to UK MAW 2018 in some way, I really believe that this is important work and am thrilled that the nutrition community has taken this on and embraced it. Watch this space for plans for 2019!
Click here to see MAW highlights.
BAPEN Conference 2018
Our annual conference is finally here this month, and we’re so excited!
We’re at Harrogate Convention Centre for the main event on 20th-21st November, and a pre-conference Teaching Day on the 19th. We’ll be welcoming a multi-disciplinary audience of over 400 delegates: dietitians, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, surgeons, as well as patients.
With symposia topics spanning from invasive access to enteral nutrition, to the failing gut, nutrition and the liver and information technology for nutrition support, it seems set to be an educational and interesting experience for all involved.
As well as hearing the above and more, we’re looking forward to watching the presentations of some of the wonderful abstracts that have been submitted to us, as well as making the most of our annual dinner and awards ceremony. This time, this is including the Roll of Honour and Student Awards. Good luck to the nominees!
If you haven’t signed up yet please do so now! The conference is a really important date in the clinical nutrition calendar and we very much hope to see you there!
To read more about what’s happening at the conference, click here.
Not to mention…
We were thrilled that two of BAPEN’s Core Groups, PINNT and PENG, won New Product of the Year and Nutrition Resource of the Year respectively, at the Complete Nutrition (CN) Awards back in September. What’s more, BAPEN stalwart Dr Alison Culkin earned the Outstanding Achievement Award. Amazing work from everyone!
Finally, thanks very much to those who applied to our most recent vacancies – Education and Training Officer and Chair of the British Artificial Nutrition Survey. We will keep you posted!
A note from me
This is a rather special In Touch note from me, as it will be my last as President. After a wonderful and rewarding tenure, I am handing over to Dr Trevor Smith and I am delighted that the BAPEN Presidency will be in such safe hands. I am rather proud of what we have achieved together and think that the future for BAPEN and each of its Core Groups is looking very bright. I feel as though we are on the cusp of a sea change with malnutrition awareness following the introduction of MAW, and I look forward to watching that work flourish and develop.
On a personal note, I would like to thank the BAPEN Executive team, as well as Jennie Mort from Sovereign. There is so much that goes on and this is managed by a small number of selfless and dedicated individuals. It has been a pleasure working with you during my term as President.
Finally, I think that I have been involved in different roles for BAPEN since around 1996. I haven’t really thought about it but that is 22 years! I do think that BAPEN is moving with the times and has a bright future ahead. I would encourage you all to be involved in this organisation to help it develop and be relevant at all times. It is a really worthwhile cause, I promise.
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, and thank you again for the ways you’ve made 2018 a productive year for the malnutrition cause. See you in 2019!
Return to top