Who are the NHS Lanarkshire AHPs?
In Lanarkshire, the allied health professions (AHPs) consists of dietitians, occupational therapists, orthotists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, diagnostic radiographers, and speech and language therapists. However, in Lanarkshire, audiology and spiritual care are also aligned to the Lanarkshire AHP cohort.
What is AHPs Day?
AHP day is an invitation to join allied healthcare professionals to celebrate AHPs Day (#AHPsDay & #AHPSDayScot), which is taking place on Thursday 14 October 2021.
As with previous years, we join with other allied health professionals in a day of collective action. The first-ever AHPs Day was held in October 2018 to celebrate, appreciate, and recognise the extraordinary work of the AHP workforce.
In 2019, it was all about sharing why we were proud to be an AHP. We were joined by AHPs from across the globe, including Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, making it a truly international social movement. Â The celebration in 2020 was somewhat curtailed due to the pandemic.
In 2021, the value of coming together globally as an allied health professional community has never been more critical. The past 18 months have been extremely challenging, but it has also been inspiring, seeing the daily positive impact AHP make on people’s lives and how AHP practice has been adapted to meet the demands of a pandemic.
Peter McCrossan, NHS Lanarkshire director for allied health professions, said, “I have never been prouder of the NHS Lanarkshire AHP team for the commitment and dedication shown over the past year. Staff continued to support numerous final year AHP students to enable them to complete their courses and graduate.”
This year AHPs want to use AHP day to stop, think, and ponder on the contributions AHPs have made in the past year and reflect on the importance of working together as an allied health professional community and working in partnership with the other clinical teams and colleagues to assist the people we support.
A new and exciting AHP compendium has also been developed to help people understand who allied health professionals are and what differences they make and all the work to support allied health professionals in Scotland was created and can still  be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/4acpyxe8
Celebrate, Appreciate, Inspire, Connect
This year the four key areas of focus will continue to be:
Celebrating: who we are as allied health professionals, the people we work with and the impact we can make every day. Why not have a virtual get together to share and celebrate all your successes – you choose how! #celebrate
Appreciating: our skills and impact on care and support in our local communities is essential. Do you have local stories to share? Maybe you will be hosting AHP appreciation awards? We know relationships and people are at the heart of everything we do. #appreciate
Inspiring: our future workforce and ensuring we can continue to grow the AHP workforce fit for the future is everyone’s responsibility. This theme is about supporting people looking into a career as an AHP, a career of choice. You could share how you are inspiring our future workforce or maybe how you are offering new and innovative models of practice placements #inspire
Connecting: with others by building relationships and conversations to include the AHPs into workforce transformation and pathway redesign in your system? How are you connecting research with clinical practice? How are you sharing success and joining the dots on quality improvement and local and national policies? How are you connecting across the system on the shared ambition and aspiration of Scotland’s National Performance Framework? #connect
On the day itself, we are aiming for #AHPsDay to be a social movement. AHPs seek to share the hashtags #AHPsDay & #AHPsDayScot on social media and get the AHPs trending on social media platforms.
Resources are available here:
