drbalsamahmad.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Just received a message from my trainee who is on a train back home: it is over. So relieved on her behalf & all who sat the FPH Diplomate exam this week: it is over. Freedom-all the time one gets back. It is definitely the worse exam I have ever sat. I still get nightmares when I think about it.

submitted 15 hours ago • 1 comment

@touretteshero.bsky.social helpful posts & blogs have helped my son/family a lot navigate life with a wheelchair. I am full of admiration and respect to Jess and anyone who advocate & share lived experiences to help others on similar journeys & to make their lives easier.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Happy new year Wishing all health in 2025 Praying for peace and love to prevail over violence, revenge and hate. My hope is for a reunion with loved ones in my homeland after my long absence.

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

#NewYearsEve As 2024 draws to a close I look back, especially over the last 4 years & note how far my family have come.This year attending two work colleagues’ funerals reminded me again how fragile life is. I pay tribute & quote Katie’s daughter words in her eulogy: “Broken Crayons still Colour”.

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

What was your biggest learning in 2024? Mine👇 I learnt the hard way after #Burnout To give time to #Selfcare every day & not wait until nothing is left. It is not selfish. I disagree with the self care metaphor: ‘to put one’s oxygen mask 1st before helping others’ as suggests it only in emergencies

submitted 65 days ago • 1 comment

Need something to read in 2025? Why not pick from recommendations of books published very recently in this year (and just one published in 2023!)? A list and link is below:

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

My last solitary walk this year at the coast. I really needed to be near the sea today. Lucky to live near such beautiful coastline #Cullercoats #Tynemouth #NorthEastEngland Wishing health, happiness & peace to all in 2025.

submitted 67 days ago • 1 comment

I had not been to Cullercoats & Tynemouth for some time but today seeing👇 & families with young children cycling was positive. I observed a few with mobility limitations or disabilities walking or pushing wheelchairs. The new pavements on the seafront felt safer to do so #SeafrontSustainableRoute

submitted 67 days ago • 2 comments

Gosh.. this is grim, especially for those of us who have children planning entry to university soon

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

And that is a wrap: my final #Parkrun #JesmondDene of 2024 #Volunteering helps with each of the 5 components of mental #wellbeing 1) connect with other people; 2) be physically active; 3) learn new skills; 4) give to others; 5) be mindful Look out for my blog re-parkrun soon Happy new year all

submitted 67 days ago • 1 comment

No matter how I try memories of this day will stay with me forever. 27 Dec 2020: my son was paralysed within the hour, admitted to PICU & in hospital 35 weeks. 27 Dec 2021: 2nd day on holiday to Abu Dhabi UAE he was admitted to ICU with COVID-in hospital for 5 weeks 💔 A better day today #hope 🙏

submitted 68 days ago • 2 comments

The association between socioeconomic deprivation and surgical risk factors in patients on the elective surgery waiting list in the North East and North Cumbria region of England: a retrospective analysis of linked cross-sectional data www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Gorgeous sunset today. Lucky to have quality green space & nature on my doorstep #PaddyFreemanPark “Originally the farm & mill of Patrick (Paddy) Freeman in 1795. The lake is used by the Heaton & District Model Power Boat Club who celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2010-still active until today”.

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Teamwork👇with my 16 year old. 1st time he helps. It turns out he is good at it & has mastered the skill of preparing vine/cabbage leaves fast. I convinced him it’s a good skill to have 1. impress his future girlfriend & 2. can sell by piece in the future if he needs to #HomeCooking #HeritageFood

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Last picture of my son walking with his dad at Cullercoats, Christmas Day 2000. Two days later at home he was suddenly paralysed from the waist down & spent 8 months in hospital. He was an avid runner & loved #parkrun None in 2000 because of COVID. I missed him today. Now I take nothing for granted.

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

Thanks to Ross, our amazing Parkrun leadership team & all volunteers who enabled the Christmas #Parkrun to happen: ~400 runners. Beautiful weather & course #JesmondDene My final run in 2025 as volunteering for next one (bitter sweet: happy but fought tears for loved ones who can’t make it anymore).

submitted 70 days ago • 2 comments

On this Christmas Eve I would like to wish all my followers on Blue sky a joyful #Christmas I pray for peace worldwide but especially the Levant, the Holy Land where Jesus was born. We have more in common than that which divides us. Photo: The Early Byzantine Church of Saint George, Madaba, Jordan.

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

This is one of 3 short films produced by the NHS Race & Health Observatory. Quite poignant. They highlight the high prevalence of #suicide in the Gypsy, Roma& Traveller communities; the unmet mental health needs & barriers in accessing NHS services. Reporting by Jake Bowers youtu.be/VyjoFXlczw4

submitted 73 days ago • 1 comment

Celebrated #WinterSolstice doing my 75th #Parkrun at my favourite Jesmond Dene, beautiful course with a steep hill & 21 steps. I love it as scenic. For me it is more than physical activity but brings a sense of belonging & community. The last photo is my favourite spot when I see the finish line!

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

This review highlights seven interventions and programmes with the strongest evidence base of addressing health & care #inequalities. www.heec.co.uk/resource/sev...

submitted 74 days ago • 1 comment

“Transitional #justice cannot truly be achieved while the fate of tens of thousands of Syrians remains shrouded in uncertainty….. It will require the international community to step up and commit to supporting Syrians in their quest for accountability and closure” #Syria odi.org/en/insights/...

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

#ClimateChange #MentalHealth #Wellbeing Timely paper I identify👇 #Solastalgia is related to ecological grief-defined as ‘grief associated with physical ecological losses, such as the physical disappearance, degradation and/or death of species, ecosystems & landscapes, driven by climate change’”

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

7 days: Counting down to the 4th ‘anniversary’ of my son’s paralysis/spinal cord injury. With his permission I shared his 1st song with the audience in the NHC Talks event “Arts in Healthcare”. Engaging in creative arts (music & writing) helped us cope with a tough journey 💔 youtu.be/CM8rOJo-7m0

submitted 75 days ago • 3 comments

A timely paper. Last 4 years being a mum of a young person with #SpinalCordInjury we have lived experience of most themes in graph below. We: as a carer-not only the person living with a complex condition are at risk of #burnout For my son transition from paeds to adult services has been a nightmare

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

A lovely Newsround piece with @annaholligan.bsky.social and some Dutch schoolkids telling us why Dutch kids cycle - because they have the infrastructure and because it’s fresh air, energising, non-polluting, good for the environment, liberating, exciting, happy & fun! www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/vi...

submitted 82 days ago • 7 comments

In a TV interview with the HTA led interim government spokesperson #Syria he says certain professions-e.g. defence & legal aren’t compatible with women’s biology & psychology! In a country where women have sacrificed a lot & led from the front in all professions this message is worrying. #hope📉❓

submitted 78 days ago • 0 comments

There is a body of literature to evidence the +ve impact on health and wellbeing. See a scoping review undertaken by the WHO iris.who.int/handle/10665... A shame funding for the creative arts in general has been cut over the years in England including in schools. There is inequality in access too

submitted 79 days ago • 0 comments

Everyone in this picture would be able to walk if the polio vaccine had existed in time for them.

submitted 80 days ago • 367 comments

“Cities should be ideal places for enabling active travel with shorter distances to the things we need or want on a regular basis, including supermarkets, places of leisure, work or healthcare,” Professor Whitty’s report says. By @carltonreid.com www.forbes.com/sites/carlto...

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

#Syria Perhaps it will take generations to heal the trauma that runs so deep. 👇”Their shared trauma should not be forgotten by the world. The images of Sednaya prison are almost too horrifying to contemplate”. “The ‘West’ ultimately failed but the Syrians finally & with too much bled shed won”.

submitted 80 days ago • 1 comment

My main take home: increasing deprivation = decreasing vaccine uptake. Decreasing vaccine uptake = increasing deprivation/inequalities. We cannot address vaccine uptake without addressing existing structural health inequalities. Some other thoughts below

submitted 83 days ago • 1 comment

Absolutely👇 I have been awaiting such paper for a long time & shall be quoting it often. For PH trainees revising for the DFPH exam (paper 1) it can be quoted for examples of opportunity costs; allocative efficiency (or lack of it) & priority setting (?) in healthcare. A tough one this #dilemma

submitted 82 days ago • 1 comment

I finally picked myself up-first this week and baked an orange cake.. this👇 is the basic version though I made a small effort to decorate with rose petals. It tastes yummy though

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments