The Aspen PPG met for a development session on Wednesday 20 October at Aspen. This session was facilitated by Becky Parish and Katherine Holland from the CCG Patient Engagement Team. For some of the members this was their first face to face meeting in two years and in some cases a challenging meeting to attend due to Covid and the anxiety of mixing with members again. Well done and thank you for taking those difficult steps.
To facilitate this session we also provided the opportunity for members who could not attend to join via Zoom, so we could run a hybrid session for everyone. Getting down to business we covered introductions and this included sharing what members bring to the group, why they joined and something about Aspen. Once the ice had broken we looked at our constitution and the role of the PPG. The discussions and ideas were flowing from the sub groups and it is clear there will be some changes needed to fit our model, but also some invigorating ideas to think about. Moving into part two, we looked at two stands of work, the Armed Forces Veterans and the Communication, digital engagement group. Through meaningful discussions we have a road map that is forming and agreed to focus on small steps going forward. We are looking forward to tackling and supporting Aspen under some immense demands from the health care systems but most of all we are looking at how we develop the Aspen community. On behalf of all members we would like to say a big thank you to Becky and Katherine for helping us develop our road map. We are planning another session in January 2022.