Burnie: What we're aboot

A quick tour of the facilities and activities offered by the Burnie Day Center in Buckie.

Cedarwood Day Centre

A look at the Cedarwood Day Center in Elgin.

Welcome to Archiestown

This project was put together by the Archiestown Junior Council. They wrote, filmed and presented this short film about the landmarks in their village.

Blurghhh!

Sarah Waterfield tells her carer story

Moments with Mum

Sarah Waterfield gives an insight into life as a carer for her mother.

Greenwards Primary School Bell Ringing

Morag's Story

Morag describes life with her husband has alcohol took hold of their lives.

Positive Experiances

Four members of Moray Council staff share a positive experience that they have had in their recent work. This short film was made for a staff conference what took place in 2009.

My Struggle

Terence Gill shares what it is like to live with his growing disability.

My Armour

Robert Bruce talks about becoming a Drug & Alcohol councilor.

Is this my Child?

Pauline Knox gives an insight in to her turmoil and guilt about giving birth to a son who turned out to be autistic.

Cleanlieness

Sheila Bruce talks about her work inspecting the cleanliness of local hospitals.

Red Handed

Sheila Bruce shares a personal experience of being in hospital and being faced with a member of staff who was not taking cleanliness seriously.

Thanks to My Special Son

Manuela Hassall shares the life experiences that prompted her to be come a carer working in a day center for people with learning difficulties.

The World is My Oyster

Leah Rossvoll suffered from learning difficulties that sapped her confidence, but she was able to get help.

My Skin

Jacqueline Bennet shares her problems with eczema.

Kirkwood Klean Up

Alan Kirkwood has a go at cleaning up the mess in his office and getting the document management message across to the staff of the Moray Council.

X & Y

TC wished to remain anonymous but was willing to share her experience of being in a domestic violent relationship.

A Day in the Life of a Carer

Joan Gamble shares her experiences of being a carer.

Rocking the Boat

Nancy Robson tells the story of how Dr. Grey's Hospital got is M.U.M. (Maternity Unit Moray), through a lot of campaigning and hard work.

Getting Home

Sheila MacPherson talks about her return home from hospital after her legs were amputated. Her occupational therapist Anne Seaton explains some of the process of preparing Sheila's home so that she would be able to gain access in her wheelchair.

Grief and Loss

When I was called into work with Jo Dean we knew that she did not have much time left. I was asked to try to make a recording of her recollections of her early life when she had lived at Moy House. Sadly she passed much sooner than any of us could have anticipated and the project never really got started.

About a month after Jo had passed I was contacted again by her husband Prof. Dixie Dean and asked if I would record this thoughts about the surroundings of Jo's passing. We made this short film.

Miscarage: My Story

Rhonda Stewart shares her experience of miscarriage.

Coping with COPD

Bett Stevens and her husband have been smokers all their lives. Her husband passed away a few years back from COPD and Bett no suffers from the same condition, but she will not give her cigarettes.

Domesticated Bliss

A short film about domestic violence from the perspective of an abuser.

If Life Gives You Lemons

Jazz McDougall suffered a stroke and one year on is learning how to walk all over again. Most people would see this as a major set back, but Jazz approaches everything with an inspirational positivity, "If life gives you lemons", he tells me "make lemonade".

Memories of George

I was introduced to Dorothy Donald through the Tower View Day Centre in Forres. Little did I know when I first sat down to talk to her about the recent bereavement of her beloved friend George did I suspect what a hit this short film would be. It was simply intended as a way for Dorothy to express her feelings.

In 2009 the staff at Tower View submitted the film to the Mencap Snap 2009 awards, and to everyone's surprise and delight it won, not just a prize, but it scooped the National Gold Award! Dorothy had to travel to London to see her film presented in a gallery next to the other finalists and was present at the formal awards ceremony.

This is Dorothy's film, but I am proud and privileged to have been there to help her to make it.

Living with Diabetes

Living with any kind of long term condition is a constant challenge. I interviewed Jeff Brett very early on in the digital stories project and found him to be a wise and likable person. He lives each day as it comes and remains positive despite his illness.

My Journey

Ashley Hay is a young man with learning difficulties, as a result of his learning problems he turned to alcohol as an answer, his life fell apart. Now having climbed out of the hole he found himself in he tells his story. This was one of the first digital stories I ever made.

Online Library of Digital Stories Content

The Digital Stories Project ran for 18 months, with two Project Officers (Christina Tatlow and myself) and produced 120 short films covering a whole spectrum of NHS and Social Care issues. Some of these films have been approved to be made publicly available and I have now begun the slow process of uploading these films.

So here is the first of them.

A Healthy Outlook with Isobel Lumb

Here is the fifth video in the series, comments are welcome.

Healthy Outlook with Lois Worden

Here is the fourth video in the series, comments are welcome.

Healthy Outlook with Jacqueline Duncan

Here is the third video in the series, comments are welcome.

Healthy Outlook with Russell Redman

Here is the second video in the Healthy Outlooks series.

Healthy Outlook with William Burns

Over the last month I have been working on a series of short films to collect peoples experiences of using the MET Office Healthy Outlook service. This is a program that uses telecare resources to advise sufferers of COPD of impending bad weather. By making them aware of bad weather the patient can make an informed decision about the risks that cold weather can have upon their ability to breath.

I will be posting these films over the next few days.

Social Care Presentation

The embedded audio file is a recording of a presentation made by Rona Woodward and Iain Ferguson on Friday 16th of April 2010.

Rona Woodward

Rona Woodward is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Stirling. Her practice background is in social work with children and families and she has a long-term concern for the needs and rights of troubled children, especially those looked after or involved in offending. Her research interests are in the areas of looked after children and radical/critical social work theory, practice and education. Currently, she is involved in participative research with young people in foster care and in exploring (with her colleague, Kathryn Mackay) student social workers’ understanding of values and structural discrimination. Recent publications include her first book, Radical Social Work in Practice (Policy Press, 2009), with Iain Ferguson, and articles on values in social work (Journal of Social Work Education, 2010 – with Kathryn Mackay) and on the 21st Century Review of Social Work in Scotland (Critical Social Policy, 2009 – with Anne Ritchie).

Iain Ferguson

Dr Iain Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Before coming into social work education, he worked for many years as a social worker and community worker in the West of Scotland in fieldwork and psychiatric hospital settings. His main research interests are in the areas of mental health service user perspectives, globalisation and social work, and radical social work theory and practice. Recent publications include Reclaiming Social Work: Challenging Neo-liberalism and Promoting Social Justice (Sage, 2008) and Radical Social Work in Practice (with Rona Woodward), (Policy Press, 2009.) He is a founder member of the Social Work Action Network in the UK and one of the authors of the Social Work Manifesto (www.socialworkfuture.org).

Testing, testing

Just like the title says, this is a test.

There isn't anything interesting to read at the moment, but if you would like to check back later then perhaps there will be.

The plan for the blog goes something like this. I represent the Digital Media & Film department within the Moray Council, and we are doing some experimentation with blogs, podcasts and other media channels. This blog is intended to tie everything together so that you (the interested party) can find links to all our content.

Most of the content you find here will be short films (called "digital stories") but from time to time I also make informative or PR related films for the council. Podcasting and other forms of new media are also on the cards now too.

So lets see how all this works out.