A balanced lifestyle enhances health, happiness and wellbeing. With practical techniques and strategies, this book explores how this balance can be found and how stress and anxiety, which are linked to being overworked and over busy, may be alleviated. It begins by examining the state of work-life imbalance in our everyday lives and discussing real life examples from a group of professionals working in health and social care. Their stories and experiences illustrate the problems caused by our modern, work-driven society and resonate with how many of us are living today. The author then provides practical tools and techniques to address this overwork culture and achieve a more balanced lifestyle. These simple, yet effective, strategies can be implemented quickly in everyday life. This practical resource addresses a problem affecting many professionals worldwide. It will be of particular interest to helping professionals, including occupational therapists, counsellors and therapists, and will allow them to apply the theories of work-life balance to real life in straightforward and tangible ways. The stories and techniques will also resonate with anyone interested in transforming their overworked or overburdened lives.

Many of today’s learning environments are dominated by technology or procedure-driven approaches that leave learners feeling alone and disconnected. The authors of Centring Human Connections in the Education of Health Professionals argue that educational processes in the health disciplines should model, integrate, and celebrate human connections because it is these connections that will foster the development of competent and caring health professionals. Centring Human Connections in the Education of Health Professionals equips educators working in clinical, classroom, and online settings with a variety of teaching strategies that facilitate essential human connections. Included is an overview of the educational theory that grounds the authors’ thinking, enabling the educators who employ the strategies included in the book to assess their fit within curriculum requirements and personal teaching philosophies and understand how and why they work.

"I know what it's like to care deeply about my work and yet feel utterly exhausted by it." Burnout is more widespread than ever before, and it's time to do something about it. Rooted in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), this book delves into the systemic, cultural, and economic contexts that contribute to burnout, and gives you the tools to exit the cycle. Exercises and reflection questions help you reconnect with your values to find what's really important, and disentangle yourself from unhelpful thought patterns. By engaging with your emotions rather than avoiding or suppressing them, ACT allows you to respond more effectively and become re-engaged in your own life again. This book will show you how to move out of the burnout cycle, reconnect with meaningful aspects of your work, and make changes that last.

A Guide to Compassionate Healthcare looks at how to maintain wellbeing in today’s challenging healthcare environments, enabling practitioners to make a positive difference to the care environment whilst providing compassionate care to patients. This practical guide focuses on strategies to maintain health and wellbeing as health care practitioners, in relation to stress management, resilience and positivity. Health and social care practitioners have been challenged over and above anything they have faced before due to the Covid pandemic. These situations have caused extreme trauma and stress to patients, their loved ones and those who have been struggling to care for them. The book highlights why resilience and good stress management are crucial, and how they can be achieved through a focus on wellbeing and positivity, referring to her RESPECT toolkit: Resilience, Emotional intelligence, Stress management, Positivity, Energy and motivation, Challenge and Team leadership. This is essential reading for all those working in healthcare today who are passionate about compassionate care and want to ensure that they remain positive and well, particularly newly qualified staff.

Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It’s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice. This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice that aims to help students become more confident in answering key questions, including ′what is reflective practice?′, ‘how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?’, ‘how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts?’. There are sections on writing reflective journals, communicating well with service users and carers and reflective practice while on placements.

Starting out in practice can be difficult and confusing. This guide for newly qualified occupational therapists provides an authoritative overview of what to expect in your role and work settings, and is full of practical guidance on how to make a good start to a successful practice. With chapters by experienced practitioners in the field, it offers insights into work in paediatrics, mental health, learning disability and the acute hospital setting. Vital information is also included on difficult aspects of practice such as legislation and data protection. It signposts sources for support and resources for furthering techniques in individual areas of work. Most importantly, the book offers tips for managing a busy workload, while building the positive relationships and resilience needed for a successful career in the occupational therapy.

The new edition of this highly regarded text will help you understand and apply the most appropriate psychological interventions and relaxation techniques for people experiencing anxiety, depression and psychological distress. Easy to follow for healthcare professionals, students and the general public across a variety of settings. The text provides evidence-based techniques for addressing the person's needs in a personalised manner, thereby achieving better outcomes. The range of strategies covered includes talking therapies, breathing techniques, mindfulness and physical activities. The text has been edited by Dr Caroline Belchamber to incorporate a new section on application in practice, which covers COVID-19, long-term conditions, palliative, supportive and end of life care. - Comprehensive and easy to follow toolkit - Relaxation techniques organised into somatic and cognitive approaches - Application to practice - Learning outcomes, key points, reflective activities and case studies in each chapter - Easy scripts to follow with step by step guidance - Three new chapters on COVID-19, palliative, supportive and end-of-life care, and long-term conditions - Fully updated references and evidence-base

Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It’s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice. This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice, its main aim being to help you as a student become more confident in answering key questions, including ′what is reflective practice?′, ‘how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?’, ‘how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts?’. There are sections on writing reflective journals, communicating well with service users and carers and reflective practice while on placements.

Drawing from first-hand discussions and interviews, this essential guide offers an in-depth, realistic overview of bringing up a child with complex and specific needs to enhance current practice and collaborative work with parents. This book supports the development of effective child-centred planning and family-centred approaches, by using the expert voices and lived experiences of parents to inform critical discussion and build the skills of professionals. Chapters provide strategies, guidance and suggestions to strengthen effective partnership work with parents, children and young people. Scenarios, key takeaways and questions for discussion are also woven throughout, offering a greater understanding of the barriers faced by parents of children with SEND and encouraging the reader to consider how they can more effectively co-produce with families. True Partnerships in SEND uses the voice of the parent and their lived experiences as the basis for narrative, research and discussion and includes wider concepts that can inform positive parent-professional interactions globally. It will be essential reading for SENCOs, teachers and other education professionals working with children with SEND and their families.

Whether you are a student, a trainee, or a newly qualified or highly experienced health or social care practitioner, you are always in a state of transition – progressing along a career path, coping with organisational change and dealing with the ever-increasing pressures placed on our health and social care systems. Transitions to practice provides a vital map to help you navigate your way through these changes. The book begins with an exploration of the fundamental aspects of professionalism. This is followed by a section on the importance of communication for effective health and social care practice. The third section focuses on quality in practice; and the final section discusses personal values, safeguarding, spirituality and professional resilience. Each chapter contains learning outcomes and reflective questions to help you apply the discussion to your own experiences and practice. These questions have been designed to challenge you and help you embed the content into your own professional journey, enabling you to uphold key values, like care, compassion and person-centred working, even under pressure. Throughout the book, the authors have highlighted how transitions at all levels of practice are affected by personal, professional, organisational and political agendas that create critical challenges. They have also identified how you can interact with and confront these to effect positive action and change, thus achieving the best outcomes, not only for your patients and clients, but also for your own well-being and that of your colleagues. Contents include: • Professional ethics, registration and fitness to practise • Being professional • A journey of professionalism: From novice to expert practitioner • Embracing professionalism: Becoming a responsible autonomous practitioner • Team working in complex organisations: Principles and practice • Partnership working • Communication in the digital age • The political and legal interface with professional practice • Duty of quality in times of constraint • Research in health and social care practice • Safeguarding vulnerable adults • Safeguarding children • Evidencing caring values in everyday practice • The place of spirituality in health and social care practice • The resilient practitioner