Welcome to the Spring 2015 PRIME newsletter. The work of PRIME can be challenging but it is also exciting, exhilarating and generally joyful. PRIME continues to advance, with increasing responsibility being taken by the next generation of PRIME lead tutors and overseas partners. One example is the work by Andrew Wilson and his small editorial team in amassing suitable papers to launch the new version of Developing Mental

Health in its electronic form – greatly assisted by Jo Clark in our office. It was also gratifying to receive a telephone call from Nigeria whilst crossing Waterloo Bridge to tell me that a meeting of two Nigerian members of the prisoners health group of PRIME (one based in Nigeria the other in UK) had resulted in plans for a conference in Nigeria for health professionals and church leaders on the health needs of prisoners and ex-offenders later this summer.In my report in October 2014, I concluded with the observation:The opportunities for PRIME continue to increase both geographically and in content, as does the number of people signed on as tutors and network members. The task over this next year is to find the right ways to build us as a truly international fellowship with overseas tutors and partnership being able to play a significant role in the design of PRIME’s activities and resources worldwide.This remains our commitment for 2015. The annual international conference in Lichfield in March (very well booked but still places…) will be a great opportunity for consultation with partners from around the world and with experienced and aspiring PRIME tutors. Do come if you can.Immediately before my illnesses took hold I was able with Sophie Thomson to lead the main teaching slots on the annual training day for the whole spiritual care team of St Thomas’ Hospital. The response was very encouraging and, coupled with the experiences of teams in Romania, the growing requests from Uganda and the experiences of PRIME Australia in Papua New Guinea of using the PRIME whole person model in the training of chaplains and church leaders, would seem to confirm this activity as a growing part of PRIME’s work and influence.

John Geater PRIME International Director

Who are we?

Over a billion people worldwide lack access to even the most basic healthcare, often because there are no healthcare workers: train a healthcare worker and you can help save lives.Train a healthcare educator and you can help save thousands of lives.PRIME is a charity committed to training, envisioning and empowering doctors and other healthcare workers to excellence in practice coupled with compassionate whole person patient-centred care.

Last year…In 2014 PRIME tutors delivered 61 separate programmes in 24 different countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North and South America involving over 75 tutors overseas providing 600 days of teaching and training to 3000+ individuals - this in addition to the ongoing work of our national partners proclaiming the whole person message in the daily work.

This year…PRIME already has 41 programmes planned, in discussion or being developed in India, Uganda, Portugal, Ukraine, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Middle East, UK, Sierra Leone, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Nepal, Far East, Panama, Turkey, Nigeria, Swaziland, Kenya, Russia, Ghana, Armenia, Albania…

In this issue:

www. p r i m e -­‐ i n t e r n a t i o n a l . o r g

N e w s l e t t e rSpring 2015

• International Director’s news

• Climate Stewards

• ‘I am not here by mistake’

• Sharing the Journey

• Africa Calling

• PRIME Annual Conference

• Can you help?…

• Love and Hope in Georgia

• Eva Kalvinska - a tribute

• PRIME Australia Updates

• “We’ll Be Back!”

• News from Albania

• News from Uganda

• PRIME Network

As I suggested in the introduction, ‘the work of PRIME can be challenging but it is also exciting, exhilarating and generally joyful’. Sometimes, though, there is also sadness. The death of Dr

David Chaput de Saintonge, whilst expected, leaves an enormous hole in many of our lives, and in PRIME. We thank God for the 15 years he served as Educational Director with PRIME. His contribution to the materials and methods that form the basis of our work was huge and the lives he touched numbers many thousands. He joined us when we were a tiny team and played an incredible part in helping the vision to become a reality. He will be sorely missed – but his presence lives on in so many ways in the on-going teaching of PRIME, the manuals and materials he created and in the inspiration he has been to so many.

Sadly, we also have to report in this newsletter the death in a road accident just before Christmas, Dr Eva Kalvinska, Head of Spiritual Care in the giant Motol Hospital in Prague. It was a privilege that PRIME could partner with her in 2006 and 2007 to persuade the authorities to allow a chapel to be built and have two half-time chaplains appointed.

By the time of her death, that team had grown to nine chaplains, mostly with a background in healthcare, who had provided over 25,000 in-depth spiritual care consultations to patients and staff. She came to the Annual Conference last year and held PRIME in high affection.

For me, the time since my previous report and now has been marked by two episodes of major surgery and prolonged convalescence, with several months of chemotherapy still. May I take this opportunity to thank the many people around the world who have sent messages of encouragement and those who have have prayed for me. There is an extraordinary bond of affection and shared purpose between PRIME members! I received many assurances of prayerful support from our partners and contacts in many countries and some brought tears to my eyes. I could actually feel the ongoing prayer of both my church family and the larger PRIME family. It made my time of pain and adjustment not just endurable, but one of the greatest spiritual experiences of my life. Thank you.

John Geater PRIME International Director

PRIME Carbon Offsetting Programme

PRIME is already committed to reducing our environmental impact through recycling and other policies. We have to recognise, however, that our single biggest impact by far is from the travel essential to our work. All PRIME programmes seek to become eventually self-sustainable - training up local tutors to take the message forwards. One of the positive outcomes of this is that in doing so we are in the long term reducing our impact on the environment. In the short and medium term we are already committed to avoiding unnecessary trips and are actively developing alternative delivery methods for our teaching programmes and providing training at, or in conjunction with, existing national, regional and global healthcare conferences.

Reduce what you can and offset the rest

We do recognise that very often there is no realistic replacement to spending time in country, engaging in face-to-face teaching and consultancy. PRIME is pleased to be able to recommend to our tutors that they might like to use Climate Stewards to offset their carbon footprint.  Climate Stewards, in partnership with local people, is planting trees in Ghana. Trees which restore topsoil and resist erosion, shelter crops from wind and sun, provide fruit and eventually timber and provide vital habitat for vulnerable wildlife and trees also capture carbon dioxide - the main cause of climate change.

More here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU9z18GmKBw

Further news…

‘I Am Not Here By Mistake’

To be honest the thought of flying all that way (to the USA) to spend time teaching a group of missionary healthcare workers about compassion and wholeness in medical care seemed to me a bit far fetched. Seeing Karen’s shirt message as she and her husband prepared the foyer for the conference was both a challenge and a comfort.

I arrived at South Eastern Church to meet up with the teaching team an hour early and was a bit overwhelmed. The main venue houses 7,500 – they do three main services. They have four basketball courts, six baseball fields etc, more teaching rooms than you can shake a stick at, a fantastic coffee shop - oh, and a weekly newspaper… The sheer physical scale is a bit off putting to someone from a small island.

I had some down time between workshops, so whilst lazing in the coffee shop got chatting to one of the delegates, I asked him if anyone in the teaching group was likely to have a gun. He replied, “Well, I had two with me in the workshop.” I asked, “Loaded…?” He replied, “I find that an unloaded gun isn’t a very good hammer.”

There was sharing of stories in and around the workshops, and these stories included some harrowing ones of pain and loss along the way. Somehow the workshops, the discussions, sitting together you could see changing all of us - no, more than that, healing. Those were the words of more than one workshop delegate too.

One of the main plenary sessions at the conference was Dr Laura Lederer talking about human trafficking and sex trafficking. She introduced working in this field (she advised the US senate for eight years) as ‘like a prayer’. The stories she then told from trafficked sex workers and her work with others in bringing ‘freedom to captives’ will remain with me, and her description of it being like a prayer, whilst initially a bit startling, I now understand.

The term ‘team-based ministry’ gets bandied about such a lot these days. Behind that, however, is the reality of imperfect people, hard work, trust and a need for humility… PRIME teaching teams usually land somewhere, tired and a bit (sometimes a lot) unsure about who and what they are teaching and who or what the people they will be teaching with are. This was no exception. Yet… through support, a pooling of talents, inspiration, laughter, example and some hard work we were able to get together a programme and deliver it - and saw deep learning in the workshops.

A young clinician approached us in the conference and said, “What do you do when it feels that you’ve no compassion left?” We were able to hear her story of how care systems can brutalise those who work in them, of her heart to care and we remembered the need to spend time by still waters to be restored.

Andrew Wilson’s reflections on the Global Missions Conference in Kentucky, USA

“There was sharing of stories in and around the workshops, and these stories included some harrowing ones of pain and loss along the way. Somehow the workshops, the discussions, sitting together you could see changing all of us - no, more than that, healing. Those were the words of more than one workshop delegate too.”

The entrance…

A young clinician approached us in the conference and said, “What do you do when it feels that you’ve no compassion left?”

After another of the sessions in the conference where Richard Vincent had spoken on PRIME, we hung around and amongst the many conversations a healthcare worker who worked in East Africa said to me, “I’ve been in another session but felt prompted all the way through to get up and come to this one, but I didn’t get here till now – what is PRIME?” I shared the statement “Medical education that seeks to restore the heart to healthcare”. She put her hand on her heart, and close to tears said, “I needed to hear those words.” We talked and she took some teaching materials and was especially delighted with copies of the Values Added material which she took back to East Africa to use with the nurses there.

What strikes me now looking back was how this experience echoed my experience teaching for PRIME in an secular context in Lithuania – yes, as Christians the themes of compassion, care, presence and wholeness have a deep resonance, but my observation is so it is with non-Christians too.

The workshops’ evaluation scores were all 9s and 10s but you just know, and I think the stories above tell you, this isn’t how we measure grace. In the mess that is healthcare systems in the wealthiest and the poorest countries there is a deep need for God’s grace and healing and we are humbled to be invited to play in that space.

Pictured here are my colleagues Sharon (from Australia), Richard and Janet. As well as a superficial addiction to Macs we shared a deep desire to be good role models in our teaching and work, and to inspire that in others and be inspired again in turn along the way. It was an honour to teach with these folks.

As for me … Well, after years in this doctoring job I’m learning not to drop my ‘h’s as much as I move more often beyond the art of medicine to the heart of medicine.

“PRIME teaching teams usually land somewhere, tired and a bit (sometimes a lot) unsure about who and what they are teaching and who or what the people they will be teaching with are. This was no exception.”

The PRIME Network now has over 700 members in 56 countries all committed to practising and teaching whole person care. Network Members receive regular emails and information, relevant research and encouragement and we hope to ‘go live’ with our teaching resource library soon.

We now have trained teams of tutors in Australia, Kenya, Nigeria, Scandinavia and the UK... and over the next year we will also be training PRIME tutors in the USA and Ghana. Plans are also developing for tutor training in China, India, Malaysia and several other countries.

Values Added materials have now been distributed to more than 68 individuals for teaching programmes in Australia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Czech Republic, Kenya, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the UK and the USA.

Highlights of 2014

There was standing room only for many who joined family and friends in Pembury to celebrate the life of David Chaput de Saintonge. David had been a physician, researcher and educator of longstanding renown; but at the dawn of the new millennium he took early retirement to explore a life embracing values that had been squeezed out of the frenetic business of academic medicine. His new professional calling emerged rapidly as a pivotal leader in PRIME – a calling that has brought enduring benefits and delight to thousands.

On 30th December David crossed over to ‘that land’ – a land of magnificent light and peace he had watched draw steadily closer since the day of his diagnosis with an irreversible malignancy. That five-year journey brought him gnawing pain, yet also unexpected and expansive joy; sometimes troubled by perplexed searching, he had also found remarkable peace. The journey was accompanied by

deep love and prayer, within the family home - and across the world. It also released from his creative spirit a powerful and inspiring collection of poems and pictures that touched life and death, personal meaning and eternal futures.

David has left a generous, world-wide heritage: unfading memories of his teaching – informed, masterful and passionate, shrinking the student-teacher distance to zero; lucid writings from the sharply academic to the lyrical and heart-warming; a towering example of strength interwoven with an unapologetic humanity. What a clear and accessible model he displayed of a whole person, the topic of his writing at the core of PRIME teaching since it began.

Tributes from across the world echo his skills, his achievements, his wisdom, and his humility. Here is a small selection:

All who knew David will miss but never forget him. Our lives have been touched, our understanding advanced and our spirits lifted by his words and warmth. Our own journey, whatever path it takes, will gain from his insights. The possibility of ‘that land’ is a feature on the horizon for everyone.

Richard Vincent

To get a copy of David’s book, click herehttp://grieftohope.co.uk

Sharing the Journey - a tribute to David Chaput de Saintonge

David Chaput de Saintonge

In That Land

To view a copy of the PRIME tribute book, click hereDavid Chaput - a tribute

… a truly inspirational person - he will always be remembered - his spirituality came across to all who met him - exemplified the organisation - a person who clearly lived what he taught - a model of compassion - a great teacher, physician, mentor and friend - humble, warm, open, enthusiastic, passionate in nature, great intellect and wit, respected by all - a great teacher - one of the most generous and inspiring people I have met - an amazing person - a joy and inspiration to work with - a brilliant communicator - a great role model - he treated ALL people with the same huge amount of respect, which is a real gift and sign of a godly man - he loved the people …

Africa Calling

In November 2014 I travelled to Uganda for two weeks with a friend called Carol. I have been there a number of times before, but this was Carol’s first experience of a country I have grown to love. We spent the first week in Kampala, and the second week in Kagando, near to the Democratic Republic of Congo border in the beautiful Rwenzori Mountains, where there is a small but highly effective mission hospital.

Carol and I sponsor a girl who I found on a previous trip when I volunteered at an orphanage in the slums of Kampala, called Oasis of Life. She is called Racheal, is about 19 years old, has cerebral palsy, and she had very limited education purely because she could not walk the distance to school. We sponsor her through the charity Empower a Child (EAC), and she now boards at the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped during term time. She is learning so well that last year when I saw her we needed a translator, but this year she could hold a whole conversation in English! As Carol and Racheal had never met, although many letters had been exchanged, one of our main aims was to get them together. We also realised that Racheal did not know when her birthday was, like many children in Africa, so we decided to give her a birthday party, her first one ever! We decided on the day November 6th, and with the help of EAC (and some boda boda drivers!) we got her a big pink cake with candles, some party clothes, some soda and samosas for the children in her class and we all sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her gifts. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, us included!

Later that week we went to Oasis of Life Orphanage, where Racheal lives with her ‘family’ during the holidays. It is always crazy there, with 50 or so extremely excited children singing and dancing for us. They plaited my hair and we were able to gift them with a meal with meat, food for the store cupboard and money to empty the ‘long drop’ toilet as well as new plastic cups and plates, all from money donated to us for this from friends. We made loom band bracelets and heard some of their harrowing stories. Conditions there have improved as the government has intervened and reduced the number of children staying overnight to 30, although they still have challenges of food, having just one meal a day, and of paying the children's school fees.

Also during this week, Carol spent time helping out at Sanyu Babies Home, and I visited the charity African Prisons Project, who I spent a week with last year, to get some advice a tips for the second week of our trip.

Jo’s medical outreach team

We also realised that Racheal did not know when her birthday was, like many children in Africa, so we decided to give her a birthday party, her first one ever!

Jo Blaker’s update on her re-visits to Uganda, having being inspired by the African Prisons Project

Last year’s water tank - now up and running

Can you help us…

Last year PRIME teams delivered 61 separate programmes in 24 different countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and

North and South America. Over 75 tutors provided 600 days of teaching and training to over three thousand

individuals.

This represents a significant expansion of our work, increasing our need for office staff to support the growing number of

PRIME tutors and Network members.

With the development of the Values Added programme for junior doctors, expanding our teaching resources available

through books and electronic media and the development of a virtual resource library to support our tutors means we

have had to increase our office team. We need your help to maintain this level of activity - specifically we need to raise an

additional £8,860 every six months to support our much needed extra member of staff.

…to keep going forward?    

  Make a donation now www.prime-international.org.uk/donation.htm     

While we were at Kagando, we met a man called Godfrey who has committed his life to helping prisoners in five prisons in this area, giving education, legal support, promoting their welfare and a new plan to provide extra nutritional support to female prisoners with babies, and HIV positive prisoners, so they can tolerate their anti retroviral medication better, among many other things. He was detained in prison himself for 70 days a few years ago and it changed his life. He was asking for connections to others doing the same work, which I was happy to do, linking him up with African Prisons Project. He does not have a computer to be access emails and websites, so I have promised to get him a reconditioned laptop to help him in his work. I think this is where I will be helping in the future.

We visited Bayira Children's Centre, a small charity community school for under-privileged children and gave them lots of school bits and bobs and toys that Carol had been given, to their joy. There are 115 children aged between three and eight crammed into three tiny classrooms made of mud with a tin roof, busy learning English, reading, writing, maths and how to play.

Carol immersed herself in helping the physiotherapist at the Hospital, who cares for children with cerebral palsy and other conditions. She was able to pay for some of their medical bills with the donations given to us specifically for the Poverty Fund, which is a fund specifically for people who are desperately poor and have no way of paying for their treatment themselves. She also helped with play therapy in the ‘Rainbow Room’. This is a curious concept to people there where even the adults often don't know how to ‘play’, but who all joined in with the children with enthusiasm when they got the idea! She returned one day with a story of a man who had never seen a kettle before and was fascinated by it - he was taught how to fill it, plug it in and switch it on and was delighted with the ease in which he could get hot water, compared to boiling it up on a wood fire. He went around filling up everyone’s cups for them!

God protected our health, provided us with just the right amount of money and blessed us with wonderful friendly people who we have both taken to our hearts. We had a lot of fun as well as being able to hopefully make a small difference in some people's lives.

I think we will both be going back!

“There are 115 children aged between three and eight crammed into three tiny classrooms made of mud with a tin roof, busy learning English, reading, writing, maths and how to play.”

Jo and the outreach team

The school

Aims

• explore the nature and vision of PRIME

• equip participants with a thorough understanding of the PRIME model of whole

person healthcare including the dimensions of faith and belief together with

values of compassion and integrity

• examine the teaching methods and materials available to help both graduates

and undergraduates be inspired and equipped to practice compassionate,

whole person care

• look at the opportunities that exist at home and in other cultures to improve

healthcare through values-based education and practice

• explore strategies for being effective partners with our colleagues in different

situations that enable them to be more effective teachers of the above and

better able to influence healthcare for good in their own institutions

• be refreshed, encouraged and inspired to become agents for change

The PRIME Annual Conference

18th - 21st March 2015 Whitemoor Lakes Conference Centre

Lichfield UK

PRIME’s Annual Conference has become a wonderful place for meeting and encouragement. Last year we welcomed 52 participants, with as many as 14 coming from abroad (This year over 72 people have already booked their places). All levels of interest in PRIME were present, from those ‘just looking’ to those already involved in PRIME’s teaching in many different settings. We will be sharing experiences, learning from one another and taking part in our formal teaching sessions.

This year’s programme will follow a similar pattern, catering for the needs of these varied groups: an introductory day for those new to PRIME followed by a two-day split programme between those wanting to become tutors and those wishing either to extend their teaching skills or simply to learn more detail about PRIME’s way of working and future plans.  Our final morning will afford an opportunity for praise and prayer space, addressing participants’ questions, and to hear the last of the selected stories from overseas that will be a feature throughout the programme.

Delegate Options & RatesAccommodation and meals are included in the delegate rates.

PRIME Annual Conference 2015

Filling up fast, but places still available!

Shared Accommodation Single Accommodation

Full Residential Delegate £350 £425

Reduced Rate Residential Delegate £275 £350

Day Delegates Lunch only £40

Lunch and Dinner £50

Love and hope in Georgia

The first Georgian Christian Medical Conference, CMAG1, was held under a major theme: “Love and Hope”.

CMAG1 started at 6.00pm at the Small Guest House of Bakuriani, where 40 medical personals were gathered. They came from different parts of Georgia, but mainly from Tbilisi and Batumi.

The opening ceremony was started with wonderful worship, words of greetings and then Dr Maya Imerlishvili – CMAG’s CEO – introduced CMAG, its vision and aims. Then she introduced speakers, Dr Rick Paul (thoracic surgeon) from Netherlands, who is regional representative of ICMDA Eurasia, and also Dr Douglas Robertson (GP) and Dr Justin Burdon (GP) from UK who are PRIME teachers. Dr Kristina Alikhanyan gave a small presentation and encouraged all participants to be “bread givers” to the needy people which is our medical skills we have. At the end of opening ceremony all were invited to have dinner.

After dinner we had the first session and Dr Rick Paul talked about Challenges of Being Christian Doctor in nowadays. Then there was a time for singing, poetry, worship and it was great to see so many talented people among healthcare workers!

The plenary lectures were delivered by Dr Rick Paul under the title “Joshua as Leader” which was helping the audience to learn and to take home messages of being a good leader. Dr Douglas Robertson and Dr Justin Burdon delivered lectures about whole person medicine. During the conference we had also pure medical topic “Acute Abdomen” which was given by Dr Rick Paul.

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Dr Kristina Alikhanyan, ICMDA Caucasian area representative and Dr Maya Imerlishvili, CEO of CMAG, (above) report on the first Georgian Christian Medical Conference

It’s very difficult to forget the words of one nurse who said with tears in her eyes, “I have never been as happy as I am now.” It’s really great to hear many encouraging words from the participants and to look to their smiling faces.

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Every morning was started by prayer and it was good to see so many people who had a heart to pray for the conference. We had two daily morning devotional bible studies, which were carried out by our invited pastors from different churches in Georgia.

At the end of conference two certificates were given to participants: one was for attending “Whole Person Medicine” course which was delivered by PRIME and the second one for attending “Acute Abdomen” session which was signed by CMAG and ICMDA. Also, any participants who wanted to become a member of CMAG could fill and sign membership sheet and give it to CEO of CMAG, Dr Maya Imerlishvili. Almost all participants became the members of the newly registered organisation.

We had coffee-tea breaks once a day and during this time participants were able to talk to each other and find new friends.

At the end of conference we delivered evaluation sheets which were prepared by PRIME and asked attendees for their personal opinion and it was amazing to read their very high mark and appreciation to whole conference. It’s very difficult to forget the words of one nurse who said with tears in her eyes, “I have never been as happy as I am now.” It’s really great to hear many encouraging words from the participants and to look to their smiling faces.

We would like to thank Bato Tsintsadze who made the great job of translation during whole conference as well as Temur Gogitidze, who translated the medical session of Acute Abdomen.

The special thanks we would like to give to Dr Rick Paul and ICMDA who supported financially the conference which made the participation of many students and some others possible. We are very grateful to PRIME for their willingness to help and support our conference by their outstanding speakers.

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Dr Justin Burdon, Dr Maya Imerlishvili, Dr Rick Paul, Dr Douglas Robertson

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“We are very grateful to PRIME for their willingness to help and support our conference by their outstanding speakers.”

We are sad to report the death of one of our long standing partners and tutor Dr Eva Kalvínská, MD, Co-ordinator of Psycho-social and Spiritual Care, University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic, tragically killed in a road traffic accident on 18th December 2014.

Eva had been working as a paediatrician in Motol but became paralysed by a chiropractic accident and was predicted to never work again. However, during this time she drew very close to God and learned the importance of spiritual care in the healing process. As she slowly did recover she determined to do something about this. PRIME first met with Eva in 2005 when she had just been appointed to head up spiritual care – a seemingly impossible task with no chapel and no chaplains in a very secular country. PRIME was privileged to help her in these early days – a study tour in UK was arranged with help from MSM, a Christian trust, followed by two day conferences in the hospital – one for nurses and a second for senior members of staff and the board. Permission was given for a chapel (Room of Silence).

Since that time, Eva’s extraordinary energy resulted in two part-time chaplains being agreed - now expanded to nine, with almost all having medical or nursing background as well as theological qualifications. When we visited her department in 2012 she informed us that they had in the intervening five years provided 25,000 spiritual consultations to 10,500 partners and staff members. She had also run courses on spiritual care for nurses within the hospital. She continued to have close links with PRIME and last year attended the annual conference where she spoke of her work.

Truly Eva was a remarkable woman of God who overcame great difficulties to make a huge difference to the care of many people.

John Geater PRIME International Director

More about the spiritual care department founded by Eva can be found at: www.fnmotol.cz/en/o-nas/providing-spiritual-care

Eva Kalvinska - a tribute

PRIME Australia is an affiliate of the international body under an MOU with HealthServe Australia, the aid and development organisation set up by Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia.  PRIME has become the biggest personal involvement for Australians of all HSA’s projects. Whereas other HSA projects send financial resources to rural primary health clinics for example, PRIME Australia sends tutors to help with GP training in India and teaching trips for both medical and chaplaincy trainings to Papua New Guinea. Australian PRIME tutors also regularly take part various trips arranged by PRIME UK. We run an annual tutor training extended weekend each June-July and rotate the event between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. In 2014 we returned to Brisbane and enjoyed once again being on the tranquil campus of the Santa Theresa Spirituality Centre. Carolyn Russell has led these weekends over the past five years, but she gave way to rising medical education champion, Sharon Darlington. Every year we face new challenges of creativity and deep thought about the education process within ourselves and among those we teach.

Typically our trainings involve about 15, both seasoned and newbies. While medical folk predominate we have nurses and allied health people in every batch. A pattern of inviting guest participants has emerged. This year Cassie Zhou, a Chinese GP from Hunan, joined us. Australian PRIME member, Michael Burke has been building a connection with China over the past few years, especially through Cassie. We hope this will bear fruit in invitations to come teach in future years.  Jenny Bryden, a UK psychiatrist on her way to a stint in the Papua New Guinea joined us. So too, did Mark Crouch, an American missionary serving at Kujip, in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. For me as the organiser of these trainings, I look forward to them as a retreat and recharge at a spiritual level and always come away with fresh ideas and energies. An outlet for them is my regular trip to Chennai in Tamil Nadu where I tutor in the MMED Family Medicine contact programmes arranged by Christian Medical College, Vellore. Incidentally, we are always looking for tutors for the 10 centres across India, for contact programs taking place every four months…

Owen Lewis prime@healthserve.org.au

PRIME Australia Updates

Developing Mental Health Journal PRIME has been asked to take over and relaunch the Developing Mental Health Journal. This was previously a hard copy paper journal that was sent to around 4000 people in most countries in the developing world. The new version, which PRIME is developing, will be an electronic version that will enable many more to receive fresh insights into practical care of those with mental and psychological problems and share their experiences.

The first edition, which will feature an interview with Dr Andrew Sims, the previous editor of Developing Mental Health, is coming very soon.

developingmentalhealth.wordpress.com

Who would have thought it?

35 years after visiting South India on a medical student elective and six months after taking slightly early retirement from NHS general practice posts, jigsaw pieces slid quietly into place…

We had been actively listening and looking for opportunities to use our GP skills to serve in India and were encouraged to train as PRIME tutors in 2014, following a very positive experience from a GP colleague. This doctor had used her annual leave whilst still in practice to teach the principles of whole person medicine to a variety of groups in Asia.

We attended the PRIME conference in Manchester in March 2014 and saw the enthusiasm of people who had used the teaching material across several continents, and seen it to be effective. We waited...

Why would a rapidly developing, vibrant country like India with a satellite in space sending back pictures of Mars, and having some of the most influential businesses in the world, invite PRIME tutors from the West? What could we offer?

The answer came in an email requesting tutors to facilitate contact sessions for a distance education programme at the invitation of Christian Medical College in Vellore, the hub for an initiative to raise the profile of general practice in India - allowing GPs to "Resolve more, refer less". Cohorts of doctors enrol on this two-year distance learning programme and come together in a dozen centres spread across India to have short contact programmes on three separate occasions. It was a real pleasure to meet two groups of these doctors on our trip to India in October '14.

“Why would a rapidly

developing, vibrant

country like India with

a satellite in space

sending back pictures

of Mars, and having

some of the most

influential businesses

in the world, invite

PRIME tutors from

the West? What could

we offer?”

“We'll be back!”

Helen (and Tony) Cockeram, reflect on their recent visit to India to help with the CMC Vellore distance learning project

PRIME Support Fund The PRIME Support Fund, formed partly from PRIME general funds and partly from direct donations, is used to support healthcare professionals from low and middle income countries to run or attend PRIME courses and conferences. So far, the fund has been able to support 56 healthcare professionals from 23 countries.

Access to the fund is by application only. If you would like to make a donation to the Support Fund please visit our website to make an online donation (www.prime-international.org/donation) or contact the office for other ways to make a donation.

Please ensure all Support Fund donations are clearly marked.

Having expressed an interest, we were well supported through email and Skype contact by the PRIME team and previous tutors. Visas were obtained and we flew to Chennai with a view to spending a week shadowing experienced tutors at CMC Vellore, then returning to Chennai to have a more active role in the contact sessions there for the second week. It was fascinating to hear of the challenges many medical practitioners faced in their professional and personal lives. There were many similarities with UK practice and yet some profound contrasts with our own working situations and cultural norms. In particular, we were delighted to see that each morning started with a "Thought for the day", which proved a valuable starting point for conversation with doctors on the course from all faith backgrounds.

Schedules were altered as week one progressed - fewer tutors than planned had been able to obtain the relevant visas, so we were asked to fly to Delhi for week two of the course. The PRIME material we had brought with us swam in and out of focus - partly delivered by others in a previous session, to be revisited in clinical context as the course covered the equivalent range of topics that would feature in specialist training for GP in the UK. There were lively discussions on a range of topics, particularly ethics, and an element of preparing the delegates for demonstrating clinical skills - which neither of us had anticipated, but clear guidelines were accessible as long as the internet functioned, which it did the majority of the time!

We were looked after extremely well, with the admin staff in CMC Vellore dealing with the bureaucracy of making additional travel arrangements and registering us as 'aliens' with the local police.

We chose to extend our stay to visit a rural hospital in Madhya Pradesh and see some of the practical issues faced in delivering compassionate family care to a rapidly growing population.Throughout our stay we had delighted in the opportunities to forge friendships with the people we met, and to recognise our place in the universal church family. It was also a bonus to see a whole variety of wildlife and culturally important places we had previously only read about. In the immortal (paraphrased) words of Arnie - “We'll be back!”…

“It was fascinating to hear of the challenges many medical practitioners faced in their professional and personal lives. There were many similarities with UK practice and yet some profound contrasts with our own working situations and cultural norms.”

World Mental Health Week (6th-10th October 2014) was an exceptionally busy week for PRIME activity. The dates coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Elbasan psychiatric ‘Sadik Dinci’ hospital. PRIME personnel who have been involved with the work of the hospital over the years, were invited to a reception that was televised in Albania. Those of us who attended - Dr Niall Moore and myself - were awarded with a certificate of thanks for our support.Two teaching events on ‘Institutionalisation: treatment and support of psychiatric patients in long term hospital care’ were offered to psychiatrists and doctors; and nurses and other mental health workers. Over two days 30 people attended the training.The first of a series of psycho-educational leaflets was published and presented during this week; I have been working closely with the psychologists in the hospital to produce some effective and informative material for patients, carers and the general public. Work continues with the other titles in the series.Currently we are reviewing the training required for 2015, and in particular focusing on how we can better evaluate and follow up with participants to ensure that we keep a very practical approach and with appropriate support afterwards so that staff feel confident in making changes, or trying new ideas to provide greater attention to patient care.My work in Albania is also with ABC Health Foundation with whom PRIME has significant links. Email discussion has begun regarding the possibility of a conference at some point. My hope would be that we could combine both medical professionals and clinical mental health professionals at such an event to effect more collaboration between the fields.

Albania

Dawn Purver on her work in Elbabsan

Niall Moore and Dawn Purver receiving their certificates of thanks

51 programmes 24 countries 90 tutors 546 days of trainingover 3,000 individual delegates

Where did we go? Albania, Armenia, Australia, Bosnia, China, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kosova, Malaysia, Middle East, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Asia, Sweden, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA

What did we do?

A glance back to PRIME in 2014

Pat Holdsworth and I (both from PRIME Australia) travelled to Gulu, Northern Uganda where we partnered with PRIME International to assist in the delivery of a whole person medicine training course to 40 second year clinical officer trainees. It went very well and I was impressed by the calibre of the students and their interaction. Much of the teaching was on consulting skills and managing mental health disorders. Three doctors from the UK worked with us and two of our clinical officers from Kitgum, Richard and Peter, also participated and received certificates.

Back at the Yotkom project in Kitgum, an emergency medicine training day was undertaken as part of a weekend seminar.

It was encouraging to see the interest shown by the medical staff from Bregma Medical Clinic, St Joseph's Hospital and other local Kitgum clinics at the training day. Most of the staff had never seen a resuscitation mannequin or tried to resuscitate a patient. They were keen to participate in active involvement in practising their new skills in CPR on mannequins supplied from Australia.After lunch, a Ugandan surgeon,  Dr Moses helped in the training adding his valuable experience in shock management and fluid replacement. At the end of the day all were happy to receive a certificate of attendance with good feedback from the students interested in continuing training in the future. 

Read more about the Kitgum project here www.yotkom.com

Uganda

Andrew Wright (from PRIME Australia) on developing events in Uganda

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With the extraordinary network of relationships that PRIME has built up over the past few years with universities, national Christian medical and nursing associations, missions and other national and international bodies, it is possible is for us to play a significant role in spreading the vision of whole person care globally. There are many people in most, if not every, country of the world who share our calling. Now is the time to bring them together into a worldwide network.

The PRIME Network is open to individuals involved in any aspect of healthcare committed to practising and teaching evidence-based medicine that includes psycho-spiritual and relational dimensions and embodies altruism and compassion. Network Members come from countries all around the world who are committed to whole person, compassionate care in their practise, example, teaching and encouragement of others. They are all also in sympathy with the teachings and example of Jesus.

Join us and help make compassionate whole person

healthcare available to all www.prime-international.org.uk/

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