Welcome to Barry's Blog Academic Year 2018/19

Welcome everyone to my new blog for the academic year September 2018 to June 2019. And a warm welcome back to all regular readers and welcome to any new first year medical students who my look at this. In my School here at Leeds I have a Community Notice Board which is just outside the main office on level 7 of the Worsley Building and on this you can see a bit of what's going on in the voluntary sector in Leeds! As a community development officer I also share my work in the community with diverse voluntary groups on this blog plus I share the work of the school and medical students. In the fortnightly or so blog I also refer the reader to the week's British Medical Journal on-line and highlight a few interesting items in their 'News' and these are very informative punchy short pieces and you learn a lot plus they are on local and international health issues. For medical students, on our Minerva virtual learning environment as part of IDEALS 2 there are also a number of video podcasts in IDEALS 2 Inclusion Health - Equality and Diversity and these have been made by community organisations or workers and are on Alcohol (there are two), Domestic Violence, Living With HIV, and Homelessness. I also produce a Community Newsletter twice per year which goes to about 450 community contacts in my region and my latest edition was the 50th issue! So I hope you enjoy reading this Community Blog and I wish everyone success over the next academic year! With best wishes, Barry Ewart, Community Education Development Officer, Leeds School of Medicine.