Copy
View this email in your browser
NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2021


What's been happening?

  • Shifting Ground Sunday Meetings  -  This informal, agenda-free forum for doctors started in May 2020 to offer support for medicos at the front line of pandemic response. Initially fortnightly, a core cohort spread across Australia and New Zealand continues to gather via Zoom monthly on a Sunday morning. New participants are welcome. Our discussions are always topical and thought-provoking. Forum facilitators are Di Nash, Bill Betts, and Hilary Ash. 

    The next meeting will be on Anzac Day. Doctors wishing to join can email admin.bsanz@bigpond.com 

     
  • Immediate Response Initiative - Online Balint Groups Meetings -  This initiative is coming to a close in June, having successfully launched several co-leader pairs and a variety of online groups.

New Initiatives - What's in store?

  • Leaders Group - a collegial group to safely explore leadership concerns - the parameters for this are yet to be determined.
     
  • Balint Weaving Seminar Series 2021 builds on the success of the 2020 series of seminars.
     
  • Round Table Discussion - Date and topic TBA Possibles - Cultural Diversity, Professional Identity Formation, The Art of Clinical Practice and Experience in Balint Groups
     
  • Ethics Workshop (online) - Last year Leonie Sullivan presented a valued workshop on Ethics and there is a lot of interest in further exploration and learning to be had. Leonie has kindly agreed to offer a second workshop. Date TBA
     
  • November Balint Group Weekend Workshops - Christchurch and Brisbane - Plans are under way to offer face-to-face!! weekends of Balint Groups both in Australia and New Zealand at small venues. A possible additional venue is Melbourne. Date TBA 
     
  • Hub for Introductory Balint Group Workshops and ’Taster Series’ - Recently the Society has been approached by several organisations to run Balint Group workshops or ’taster’ series’. It would be helpful to convene a discussion group to draw on the experience of members to develop an effective model or suite of models that could be available as a resource for accredited leaders.

Announcement of Medical Student Essay Prize 2021

This is our fourth competition.   We invite medical students in Australia and New Zealand to submit an essay to the 2021 BSANZ Reflective Essay Competition.

See further information here - The BSANZ Writing Competition for Medical Students 2021.pdf
https://bit.ly/3fZT3h1 

News of Balint Group Initiatives

Balint in Medical Schools

We are pleased to be sponsoring further opportunities for online clinical reflection groups for medical students in Australia and New Zealand.   We will be offering three rounds of groups starting in March, June and August this year (dates tbc).  There will be no cost to medical students.  More information on this initiative is available at this link:

See - BOMS 2021  -  https://bit.ly/317G9oB


Two further initiatives:
 

Balint for Social Work Students; 
Balint for Child Protection Workers 

 

If any of these initiatives interest you please email:   admin.bsanz@bigpond.com    

From the BSANZ President

I have stepped up to the Presidency of the BSANZ after eight  years on the Board with some trepidation. Chel Quinn has left big shoes to fill, and I want to pay tribute to her work in holding 
the Board and the organisation so ably in the last four years.  

Events planned for 2021 will carry on with and extend the  programmes of 2020, and I encourage all our members to keep watching for newsletters and emails with information about these. Balint work in the service of the welfare and wellbeing of our leaders and our members is the ongoing commitment of the Society. 

It is an exciting and uncertain time to take up the role. There are so many unknowns to negotiate around, but the Board last year responded energetically to the challenges of the Covid environment, and created a number of lively initiatives for our members and leaders which have been well received and useful in a time of stress for health practitioners.  The newsletter will tell you about these, and provide links to information for those interested.

Take Care

Di Nash
BSANZ President

Tribute to Ruth Dunn

Ruth Dunn recently stepped down from the Accreditation Committee having been a member since its inception, and its Chair for three years since Frank Meumann resigned. She contributed substantially to the development of the Leader Pathway Training. Ruth resigned from the Board
at the AGM last year. She was a founding member of the Board, Vice-President of the Society for many years, as well as our Treasurer for seven, and we are grateful to her for her dedication and valued involvement in the growth and development of BSANZ. Ruth has given countless hours to the Society, particularly as Chair of four annual Intensives and as Chair of the AC, supporting and guiding trainees from the inception of the LAP training.

Link to UK Balint Society Journal

 
The current issue (Volume 48(1), is a special issue on the theme ‘COVID-19 and the Virtual Group’.  This issue also marks the Journal's 50th anniversary as it was first published in 1971.  The link below gives access to the current issue plus earlier issues of the Journal.  

Journal of the Balint Society (UK)

Online International Balint Group Experience
- By Hilary Ash

Based in Europe, last year's IBF Leaders’ Conference - with the theme Transition in Balint/ Balint in Transition - was re-configured and offered as a series of Zoom activities. As a result many people who might otherwise have been unable to participate could join different elements. 

All participants were invited to view an interesting selection of short YouTube videos on the conference theme. We were allocated to small groups which met four times over several weeks in advance of the full weekend. During two hour sessions, small groups had time to converse, to present a case or co-lead with another member, and to participate in reflection on the leadership under the aegis of the group’s appointed facilitators who observed our case discussions. The model resembled the way we work at an Intensive. Full weekend activities included large group discussions, fishbowls, plenary sessions, and a social event on the Saturday night. 

Participants located in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia came together in configurations as their time zones permitted.

Following on from our small group, I teamed up with Isabelle, a French GP, and Shake, a British GP and medical educator, to create BIGO - Balint International Group Online. About 15 of us meet monthly, and take turns to lead, present, and observe. Members Zoom in from Brazil, the UK, Ireland, Portugal, France, Kosovo, Hungary, and Australia. Judy Griffiths and I have been delighted to be part of this innovation. Not only do we hear snippets about the trajectory of the pandemic, vaccinations and life in general in distant places, we are also able to experience often subtle differences in our Balint models as they have evolved in those countries. 

There is a plan to share aspects of this innovation at the next IBF conference.

Check out the new developments on the BSANZ website and Welcome to the Twitterverse!


www.balintaustralianewzealand.org

Make time for Small Talk in your Virtual Meetings

This article make some interesting points. Does it fit for your Balint Group? 

Make Time for Small Talk in your Virtual Meetings
 
Newsletter editors: Kerrie Collings-Silvey & Hilary Ash
Copyright © 2021 BSANZ, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp