Will you fit in at the School for Radicals?

Worried you will be an outsider at the School for Radials?

So you have no medical or care sector background or training but you want to engage with SHCR because you want to make difference and join in the conversation and learn about bringing about change….

I fit in to this category, I am a video director and software developer and describe myself as a “creative problem solver with a warm heart” but being dyslexic I have no formal qualifications as I learn experientially and am just not wired for the academic approach to learning.

My biggest fear was that I was not going to fit in, that my lack of experience, training and qualifications in the field of health and care would make me “the odd one out” and that my voice wouldn’t have value amongst so many “experts” and yes that I might make a fool of myself.

For me going back to school after 45 years was in itself a personal challenge so when I started to engage with the SHCR team it came with a lot of preconceptions and a strong sense that I would be and outsider as a “citizen radical/rebel” so yes I was actually quite shy, nervous and daunted about enrolling.

How wrong I was! From the very first contact with SHCR I was welcomed by all, I very soon felt part of something important and valuable. A lovely surprise was to discover we were all there for the same reason “we care” and wanted challenge the conventional wisdom in positive and innovative ways to improve health and care at all levels.

I got a huge amount of personal support and encouragement from the SHCR team to join in and then throughout the term and I soon found myself chatting people I would never normally have contact with, doctors’, surgeons, nurses and people from all sorts of specialties and backgrounds. In short I felt part of the family, part of something that has no hierarchy, where everyone is equal, where views are both respected and validated and as you will find the sense of “energy” is quite tangible and lasting.

There is no such thing as an outsider at SHCR, so no matter what your background be it patient carer, advocate, third sector or you just want to be part of bringing health and care into the 21^st century …come on in the waters lovely. 

The school needs people like us because we don’t know what we can’t do and so our perspective on things can really add to the conversation and challenge entrenched thinking. If anyone had said to me over the last 45 years I was going to be on the faculty advisory group for a school, I would probably have asked you how much you had had to drink?

As I have found the skills you acquire and the new friends you meet carry on and develop and can be used in all sorts of ways to understand and bring about change.

Feel free to chat to me @chicustard it’s a unique experience and you will come away inspired and motivated at being part of such and amazing and truly global conversation with people who care in the same way you do. It’s a fantastic tool to have in your tool kit.