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Read the latest insights and topics related to child and young person-centred communication. Have ideas for a future article?  Write for us!

Communicating with children and young people who have severe learning difficulties

26th May 2017

Communicating with children and young people who have a severe learning disability can be extremely challenging, especially when trying to involve them in choices and decisions about their health or social care. The Me first principles of child and young person centred communication apply to most situations involving a child or young person, regardless of…

January #CYPMefirst Twitter chat report

30th March 2017

Chat date and time: Date: Wednesday 25th January 2017 Time: 8-9pm   Focus of the Twitter chat: – Our third Me first Twitter chat – still building our followers and chat participants – Focus is to discuss why we need CYP-centred conversations in health care. – It is also to raise awareness and to get…

Setting and Achieving Goals

27th February 2017

For me, using goals is not only motivational but also puts things into a realistic order; something I can sometimes struggle to do when my pain or mind don’t allow me to think in order. I myself struggle with chronic illness physically, and also mental health issues. In both therapies for these conditions, goals have…

Our second #CYPMefirst Twitter chat

23rd January 2017

We had our second Twitter chat on November 28th 2016 from 8 – 9 pm and the evening was a great success. The main aim of the twitter chat was to talk about communicating with children and young people with learning disabilities or communication impairments. The team members that took part had a fantastic time and the…

Not ‘mini adults’: Communicating risk with children and young people

6th January 2017

Shared decision making is a process which enables people to make decisions about their health – including the care, treatment or support they receive – in partnership with health and care professionals. One of the most important, but also most challenging aspects of shared decision making is the communication of risk. Most, if not all…

The Sorting Task: A useful tool to tackle challenging communication

22nd December 2016

The Sorting Task: A useful tool to tackle challenging communication   I’m a paediatric physiotherapist working in mental health with children and young people. This job has its challenges. A key aspect of my role is to facilitate and support children and young people to do their own physiotherapy to help them get better. This…

Our first #CYPMefirst Twitter chat

17th November 2016

We had our first Twitter chat on September 13th 2016 from 8 – 9 pm and the evening was a great success. The main aim of the twitter chat was to spread awareness of Me first to a wider audience and to discuss the importance of and tips for successful children and young person centred communication.…

Celebrating Me first

5th October 2016

If anyone has been within an inch of Twitter recently, you’ll have probably been bombarded with tweets from the Me first team and #CYPMefirst.  We’ve not only just had our first, incredibly successful Twitter chat (thank you to everyone who made it such a great conversation!) but we’ve also been shortlisted for three more awards.…

The Value of Goal Setting

31st August 2016

I work in the Me first team as the project coordinator and I am also a freelance medical role player (actor) in various NHS medical education communication training settings for exams and communication skills practice. My experience in medical education (from the perspective of playing a patient) has been quite illuminating. I was surprised to…

Ollie and His Super Powers come to support Me first Healthcare Professionals

18th July 2016

Alison realised that emotions needed to be something a child can see as well as feel, in order to take control of them. By creating Ollie and making his emotions in to super powers, Alison has given children a simplistic but powerful method of deciding what they feel and when. Ollie and his super powers…