President's Message
Dr Trevor Smith, BAPEN President
Happy New Year 2020! A big hello to everyone reading my first column of the year, and decade!
BAPEN had a very successful time in the ‘10s’. We celebrated our Silver Anniversary – marking 25 years of operations and launched our new five-year strategy. We started the decade under the Premiership of Professor Mike Stroud, who handed over to Dr Tim Bowling. My predecessor in the role, Dr Simon Gabe took his turn, and I was delighted to sneak in some time in the role at the end of the decade! There have been so many highlights for BAPEN in the last decade. Some of mine include the launch of the Nutritional Care Tool and the Malnutrition Self-Screening Tool in 2015, the success of our two Malnutrition Awareness Weeks in 2018 and 2019 and ‘MUST’ reaching its 16th birthday last year!
I’m pleased to say that when I look around at the team involved in the work behind the scenes at BAPEN now, many people have been involved for many years in one way or another, which I think goes to show the fondness people have for our organisation. However, I’m equally pleased to see lots of new faces and new ‘BAPENers’ from different and diverse backgrounds. Hopefully this decade will bring many more people into the fold. Running an organisation like ours and focusing on making our case to policy makers and influencers takes a lot of hard work, and the energy and dynamism of people in our community, from all relevant disciplines, will continue to be needed.
I hope and trust that in this decade we will see a meaningful change in the way nutrition is considered within health and social care structures. I believe over recent years our message about the importance of screening and nutritional care planning has been heard more, but we still have some distance to travel if we are going to ensure this is mandatory or universal by 2030. What a different world we would all be living in if that shift could be made. Professionally, our ways of working would be enormously enhanced. Personally, for those of us who rely on nutrition support, and for the rest of us who are all potential future patients, this would revolutionise our care. It is a goal worth fighting for.
To drive that change I believe we need not only to concentrate on growing our own reputation, reach and influence, but also on collaborating with others. I’m pleased that over recent years we have developed a stronger and closer relationship with the Malnutrition Task Force, a formidable organisation which has achieved a great deal. Our work together on UK Malnutrition Awareness Week has also led to us forming a new relationship with ASPEN in North America, which is hugely exciting. Last year’s campaign had the support of many great organisations, including those representing people living with specific health conditions, and we look forward to collaborating with many more as our awareness work continues.
I certainly got the sense when I was at conference in Belfast last year that BAPEN is going from strength to strength and all our efforts to raise awareness, promote good nutrition and provide education and training are being recognised far and wide throughout the nutrition community.
At the conference we launched our exclusive animation – Nutrition Matters, BAPEN Matters – and if you haven’t seen it yet, I would encourage you to have a look! The animation underlines our core ambition to see that ‘every individual receives safe, timely and appropriate nutritional care in every care setting, every day’. Take a look at it in our pinned tweet, and please share it!
Please don’t forget to mark this year’s annual conference in your diary! We are looking forward to welcoming you in Brighton on 17th-18th November 2020. But before that we have an action-packed year to get stuck in.
As always, keep an eye out on our social media – Twitter @BAPENUK and Facebook @UKBAPEN for information on upcoming events, publications, statements and training and education meetings.
I do wish you all a wonderful 2020 and look forward to meeting up with many of you over the coming months. Stay in touch and best of luck this year with all of your endeavours.
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