Our 2024 Conference – A Celebration of Change-Making

As the British Association for Holistic Medicine & Health Care turned 40 (1984 – 2024), we looked to the:

• Past: with gratitude for the original people and vision

• Present: addressing the challenges and facing uncomfortable truths

• Future: seeing through new eyes what wants to emerge, and what it will take to get there.

This conference was both an in-person and live-streamed event and the day ended with prize giving and a fellowship award. We will be sharing more content in due course.

Professor David Peters, Editor-in-Chief of our Journal of Holistic Healthcare and Integrative Medicine summarises the day:

Our conference was a celebration of the BHMA’s 40th anniversary and its central theme was Health Creation. BHMA founders, current innovators and an incoming generation of change agents on the NHS frontline met in a spirit of co-creative collaboration to re-imagine what healthcare might look like if it were good not just for people, but also for practitioners and the planet.

Our one-day community of mind-body-spirit creatives set out to:

• appreciate 40 years of holistic developments in healthcare
• share concerns about current problems and the challenges ahead
• see the opportunities for creative change in our turbulent times
• consider how − personally and with others – we may act for ‘deep adaptation’

40 years of the BHMA!

In the heady days of 1983-4, while the Greenham Common Women’s Camp was being born, a group of idealistic doctors founded the British Holistic Medical Association. They wanted to halt mainstream healthcare’s slide into industrialised monoculture. They wanted to explore all that supports health creation and healing of body, mind and spirit. They wanted to free medicine from the grip of old institutions, from over-reliance on drugs and to be open to the potential of other therapies. They wanted practitioners to nurture their own wellbeing, to flourish in the arduous work of caring for others.

In 1984 we laid out five key principles for developing holistic healthcare and setting out on that journey in practice:

• concern for the patient as a being of body, mind spirit seen in historical, social and political contexts
• the patient as a potential self-healing agent
• encouraging appropriate power sharing between doctor and patient
• being able to offer a wide range of interventions
• ‘self-gardening’ − doctors’ responsibility for their own self-care and inner development.

It is no longer customary (in the UK at least) for newly qualifying doctors to routinely take the Hippocratic oath. If the oath needed a 21st century update, the five core commitments would be a firm foundation. The five seem less radical now than they were in 1984, yet on overstretched NHS frontlines in hospitals and GP centres can they being put into practice? If not what would have to change? The BHMA exists to ask the question, promote these values, and support those who are finding ways forward.

The future

Knowing that health, social justice and climate justice are intertwined, a more sustainable and compassionate health and social care is possible. But first we need to tell new stories. Because everywhere industrial medical systems face the same entwining crises of cash, care, cure and commitment; that ‘business as usual’ isn’t working. Medicine is a child of its time and it reflects the culture it grew up in. It will change direction as we all begin to understand Big Health − that the health of humankind, the health of the plant and animal worlds and the health of Gaia’s planetary systems are forever interwoven.

Next steps for the BHMA:

• curate and grow our network
• create spaces for active participation, connection and practice – events, webinars, communities of enquiry
• tell the story and build our networks – develop the field, through linking, sharing, learning, researching.

Key areas to explore together:

• promoting the causes of health + patient-partnered care
• creating healthy and humane doctors through their medical education
• building intimacy with the self and other and relational rigour, to build back trust in each other and the healthcare system
• healthcare as a practice not a profession, and how we move away from doctors alone driving it
• the role of community in the future of healthcare, responding to the Darzi report
• how we influence system design − education, service provision, community health creation.

THE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Opening the session, journeys towards holism and insights behind BHMA’s origins were reflected on by Professor David Peters, Professor Patrick Pietroni and Psychotherapist/Social Worker Marilyn Miller. At the eleventh hour due to illness, Patrick and Marilyn were not able to join us. Antonia and David read out their transcript.

Cross-bench peer Lord Nigel Crisp then addressed the question, can we foresee a time when health is made in the community and hospitals are only for repairs? While Hamaad Khan, currently working as Development Officer for the Global Social Prescribing Alliance, asked, does the upcoming generation of new doctors see a future of medicine beyond pills?

Dr Helen Kingston and Dr Tim Rigg Social further discussed social prescribing describing how a family practice in Somerset has revolutionised primary care and grown a whole co-creative community. The transformative power and healing shift of the WEL programme for wellbeing, health and happiness was outlined by WEL founder Dr David Reilly.

Dr Hugo Jobst, Professor Trevor Thompson and Professor Louise Younie dicussed what’s missing from medical education and why we need creative curriculum change.

In the session on the future of mental health Dr James Hawkins presented the potential of psychedelics. Dr Elizabeth Thompson suggested that integrating mind and body approaches could boost mental health. Dr Chris Johnstone proposed ways for sustaining health, hope and happiness in the climate crisis.

In these turbulent times there are opportunities to re-imagine new ways forward for creating health for working together as citizens and change agents. Round table discussions then considered:

• what’s missing from medical education?
• why are so many medical students ‘burned out’? How could creative curriculum change help new doctors not drop-out?
• the future of mental health and the place of psychedelics, would more integrated approaches boost mental health?
• can we sustain health, hope and happiness in the climate crisis?
• how to create health by working together?
• community-oriented integrated practice (COIP) which weaves a network of ‘safe spaces’ where participants can share different insights into life’s complexities and take meaningful, coordinated next steps.

Finally, two wise elders steeped in organisational development, Keith Humphrey and Lord Nigel Crisp, offered feedback and suggestions for BHMA’s next 40 years.

There has been a breakdown of trust because what’s being delivered is not been great…we have to build intimacy with the self and the other.

Keith Humphrey, founder of Core Context Consultancy

A healthy community of younger and older generations. The theme of the day was people and relationships. I came away reinforced in my view that future health professionals need to be exposed to this wide range of ideas and approaches as part of their education so they can be true professionals and understand these wider aspects of health, healthcare, disease prevention and health creation even if they will ultimately practice only in some of these areas. We need to build our networks and develop the field, through linking, sharing, learning, researching and telling stories.

Lord Crisp, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health co-chair

Speaker Bios

Professor David Peters

Read David’s biography on the BHMA Team page.

Professor Patrick Pietroni

BHMA’s first Chair, Patrick has been a long term advocate for holism. He is author of several books including Holistic Living (1986), The Greening of Medicine (1990) and his latest published this year The Tyranny of Identity. He has been Director of the Centre for Psychological Therapies in Primary Care at the University of Chester and Public Health Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Shropshire. Also theDean of General Practice in London and head of the Primary Care and Community Health Department at the University of Westminster.

Lord Nigel Crisp

Nigel Crisp is an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords where he co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health. He was Chief Executive of the English NHS and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health from 2000-2006. He now works and writes mainly on global health with a focus on Africa. His current focus is on creating health – promoting the causes of health – developing the health workforce, and improving health globally.

Hamaad Khan

Hamaad Khan is a graduate medical student, currently working as Global Development Officer for the National Academy for Social Prescribing. He’s keenly interested in developing global health systems with a vision of health promotion and disease prevention, and researching international models of social prescribing implementation. He authored the first global report on social prescribing in collaboration with the WHO, detailing advancements in the health policy across 31 different countries. And is passionate about championing this learning in his clinical capacity to affect wider systemic change in the future health workforce.

Dr Helen Kingston

Dr Helen Kingston is a primary care physician in Frome, Somerset, England. Together with Jenny Hartnoll, she set up the Frome model of enhanced primary care project in 2013. The project has grown since then and it began to expand across the Mendips in 2016 with the supportive involvement of Dr Julian Abel and compassionate communities UK. The project was designed to better connect and support patient and improve working lives for those in health care. Integration and collaboration across our community were key to this development. By working together we enable individuals to build on their strengths, creating a vibrant and supportive local community.

By supporting one another and making it more possible to take a holistic approach to the whole person this can help improve wellbeing across our community and across those working within health and social care.

Dr David Reilly

David is currently Director of The WEL Programmes, and The Healing Shift Enquiry, Founder and Director of TheWEL Charity. Until 2016 he was a Consultant Physician in The NHS for Centre for Integrative Care in Glasgow, and Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board’s Lead Clinician for people with chronic fatigue syndrome / ME. As a doctor, David combined his head and heart in helping people, widening his learning and enquiry to look at other healing systems and holistic approaches. He blended his work as a clinician, teacher and researcher to then focus on exploring better ways of approaching medicine and human caring that emphasise the innate healing capacity in people, the factors that modify the healing response and their interaction in the therapeutic encounter and relationship.

Dr Hugo Jobst

Hugo is a junior doctor passionate about reconnecting with nature to flourish and heal. He’s an editor of The Journal of Holistic Healthcare, alongside David and the founder of the Humanising Healthcare Forum, a platform run by students at the University of Glasgow for innovative humanistic projects to improve medical education and healthcare.

Professor Trevor Thompson

Trevor is an inner-city GP and educative creative with a strong track record in sustainability, lifestyle medicine, medical humanities, communication skills and organisational leadership. He As a GP, he sees his goal is to help people find the resources they need to get well, to stay well and, if that is not possible, to learn to live well with existing conditions. Trevor works at Wellspring surgery in Bristol, and is a Professor of Primary Care Education at Bristol Medical School (PHS).

Professor Louise Younie

Louise is a General Practitioner and Professor of Medical Education at Queen Mary University of London where she leads on faculty development, innovation and flourishing. She has extensive experience with creative enquiry methodologies in medical education for humanising medicine, professional identity formation and human flourishing. Louise is co-chair of the Royal College of GPs Creative Health Special Interest Group (SIG).

Dr James Hawkins

James qualified as a doctor in 1975, and in the 80’s he studied acupuncture in China, helped start the British Holistic Medical Association and founded a small Edinburgh-based charity – Good Medicine – which he worked through for many years. After initially specialising in both pain problems and psychological difficulties, more recently James simply works as an independent integrative psychotherapist with an interest in both helping to decrease distress and also increase wellbeing. He is intrigued & hopeful about the increasing evidence that psychedelics can be helpful in a range of difficult-to-treat problems including trauma & addictions.

Dr Elizabeth Thompson

Dr. Elizabeth Thompson trained in Medicine at the University of Oxford and completed her clinical training at Guy’s Hospital in London. Whilst training in Palliative Medicine to Consultant level, she also trained in a range of integrative approaches including Medical Homeopathy. In 2014 she set up the National Centre for Integrative Medicine (NCIM) which focuses on both clinical and education services In 2019 she stepped out of the NHS to focus on her work as CEO of NCIM. Elizabeth is passionate about supporting a transformation of healthcare towards a wellness and empowerment model that combines conventional, holistic and lifestyle approaches to support health and wellbeing, as well as creating diversity and choice for patients and practitioners.

Dr Chris Johnstone

Resilience specialist Dr. Chris Johnstone has a background in medicine, mental health promotion, and the psychology of change. Chris is known for his work pioneering the role of resilience training in promoting positive mental health, developing self-help resources and setting up the Bristol Happiness Lectures. He is author of Seven Ways to Build Resilience (Robinson, UK, 2019), and runs online trainings for resilience, wellbeing and active hope at CollegeOfWellbeing.com

Professor Peter Reason

As Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice at the University of Bath, England, Peter was an international leader in the development of participative approaches to action research. He published widely, co-editing the Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice and co-founded the journal Action Research. Since retiring from full-time academic work, Peter has focused on writing books and articles that link the tradition of nature writing with the ecological crisis of our times, drawing on scientific, ecological, philosophical, and spiritual sources.

Professor Paul Thomas

In 1989, Paul led the Liverpool Primary Care Facilitation Project. This trained Local Multidisciplinary Facilitation Teams to facilitate cycles of collaborative learning and coordinated change. It had an empowering, transformative effect. He developed a similar approach in the West London Research Network (WeLReN). This too empowered people, suggesting that this approach could be useful in various contexts. He has summarised learning from these in two books: Integrating Primary Health Care – Leading, Managing, Facilitating, and Collaborating for Health.

Since 2015 he has been a Carer and is now contributing to initiatives that help Carers to be catalysts for community-oriented integrated practice, stimulating local collaboration for health and care.

Keith Humphrey

For the last 30 years, Keith has worked with boards, Chief Executives and Directors, formulating business strategies, designing culture and customer focus change initiatives and consulting on organisational change. His work also includes executive coaching and counselling, board and top-team development, working with intact work groups and virtual teams to ensure group and organisational success. Keith’s clients include Coca-Cola, Royal Dutch Shell, HSBC and Allianz Global Investors.