Update from Mary O’Kane, Prof Rachel Batterham and Maureen Boyle Integrated Health At BOMSS council, it was agreed to rename the allied health professional membership to integrated health as this reflects the diversity in the group and includes AHPs, nurses, psychologists and physicians. This is the approach taken by IFSO and ASMBS. ASMBS Certification of Bariatric Nursing Course -update from Jeremy Gilbert and Jenny Abraham In the last edition we mentioned that we were in the process of looking into working with the ASMBS Certifi- cation of Bariatric Nursing Course team with the view to improving education in the UK for Bariatric Nurses. We have put together a working party of 3 bariatric nurses Jenny Abraham (Coventry and Warwickshire), Lisa Rickers (Oxford) and myself (Cornwall), Maureen Boyle (Specialist Dietitian and BOMSS rep) and Jill Shawe (Senior lecturer at University of Plymouth). Lisa has put together ques- tionnaires to be distributed once approved so that we can find out what the roles of the specialist nurse are and what we (the specialist nurses) and the MDT feel are important aspects of the specialist nurse role. As we all know from attending BOMSS and communicating of the forums all our roles differ slightly. In order to develop or adopt a training programme/module that is relevant to us all we need to understand what roles we undertake as part of the MDT. I look forward to seeing you at BOMSS Conference in Jan- uary. If you have any questions or comments please email me jeremy.gilbert1@nhs.net or call on 07789 615828. Update on the BOMSS endorsed guidelines for psy- chological support pre and post bariatric surgery. Jane Ogden, Denise Ratcliffe and Vanessa Snowdon-Carr Research teams have argued that some bariatric patients require psychological input pre and post-surgery and that weight loss surgery should only be undertaken by a multi- disciplinary team (MDT) that can provide psychological support. To date, although there are guidelines for the nutritional management of patients post bariatric sur- gery, how weight management services should be struc- tured and a quality statement by NICE on the need for appropriate follow up care after surgery, no guidelines ex- ist for the provision of psychological support pre and post bariatric surgery. The authors were approached by British Obesity Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS) council in September 2017 to produce guidelines for psychological support pre and post bariatric surgery. These guidelines were developed using evidence review, feedback and consultation and the following 7 stages: i) Review of the evidence base; ii) Expert input; iii) Feedback from the BOMSS delegates; iv) Feedback from the Special Interest Group (SIG); v) Service user feedback; vi) Presentation to BOMSS council; vii) Presentation to the UK Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO). The resulting guidelines describe two service models for the delivery of psycho- logical support pre-surgery and 6- 9 months post-surgery using a stepped care approach with three steps: online resources, group based workshops and 1:1 contact with a clinical psychologist. The guidelines detail how different psychological issues should be managed pre and post surgery and are found- ed upon the following principles to reflect both the ex- isting evidence and the feedback we received: i) A living document which can be modified over time; ii) Flexible and pragmatic guidelines to promote a service which is feasible across NHS and private sector services; iii) Advisory rather than prescriptive; iv) Broad based content involving a range of different types of psychological support delivered face to face, online, workshops and groups; v) Skills based delivery based upon evaluated competencies rather than just by professional label. These guidelines are feasible for use across all services and should provide a structure of care to minimise patient risk and maximise patient health outcomes. The guidelines have now been endorsed by BOMSS and are currently under review in a referred journal. Once accepted a position statement will be uploaded onto the BOMSS website to be freely availa- ble for anyone wanting to include psychological services into their bariatric clinic. AUGIS Winter 2018 Newsletter 20 BOMSS Nurse and Allied Health Professionals Update Bariatric Nurses Google group If you are a bariatric nurse who would like support from other bariatric nurses please email me as I can add you to the Bariatric Nurs- es google group where you can ask any questions that will help support your patients care. Jeremy jeremy. gilbert1@nhs.net or Jenny Jenny. Abraham@uhcw.nhs.uk Bariatric Dietetic Google group This group is open to dietitians work- ing in bariatric surgery or supporting people before or after surgery. Please contact Mary O’Kane mary.o’kane@nhs.net to join. People First Language In line with other professional soci- eties, BOMSS has agreed to adopt people first language when speaking about people with obesity in its pub- lications and at conferences. BOMSS also requests that the use of stigma- tising pictures in publications and presentations is avoided. Please bear this in mind when presenting at BOMSS 2019 http://www.bomss.org. uk/people-first-language/ Vitamin and mineral supplementa- tion BOMSS responded to NHS England consultation on over the counter supplements. It is BOMSS view that people who have bariatric surgery fall into the exception group and should have access to vitamin and mineral supplements as treatment. http:// www.bomss.org.uk/position-state- ment-on-over-the-counter-supple- ments/ OBSMUK Tweetchats These tweet chats are held on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 8pm. Recent topics have included body im- age after bariatric surgery led by Dr Denise Ratcliffe, weight loss prior to bariatric surgery led by Dr Abd Tah- rani and the challenges of Christmas and other holidays on weight man- agement. The chats are fun and also a good way of networking across the globe. Join us by following #obsmuk , Mr Zaher Toumi @ZaherToumi and Mary O’Kane @mpmok IFSO Integrated Health BOMSS members are automatically members of IFSO. For those of you active on Facebook, please join the IFSO group. On the IFSO website, you can access a number of educational webinars. These include “Necessary Supplements Following Bariatric And Metabolic Surgery” by Dr Silvia Laite Faria and “The role of physical exer- cise in pre- and post-bariatric surgery” by Dr Cristina Aquino. Highlights from IFSO 2018 are also available. IFSO MENAC hosted a journal club on 8th December on the conversion of gastric bypass to distal gastric bypass. This included a discus- sion of nutritional issues. All of these activities are free to BOMSS mem- bers. Further webinars are planned. Please do consider participating. IFSO 2018 At IFSO 2018, there was a strong Integrated Health (IH) presence. In addition to dedicated IH sessions, IH speakers spoke in the postgraduate courses and plenary sessions. Sally Abbott, BOMSS member and dieti- tian, was the successful winner of the IFSO European Chapter scholarship enabling her to attend the conference. IFSO 2019 will be in Madrid and there are plans to make scholarships available again. NDR UK resources A reminder that diet sheets to sup- port patients undergoing bariatric surgery are available for purchase to dietitians. These include the pre-op- erative diet sheet, post-operative diet sheets for patients undergoing the gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy and gastric band. These are available as both hard copies and electroni- cally. In addition, there is a bariatric cookery book “Recipes for Life.” Pa- tients can purchase the cookery book directly if they give the name of their dietitian. For further details, please visit the NDRK website. https:// www.ndr-uk.org/browse/c-Bariat- ric-Surgery-9/ AUGIS Winter 2018 Newsletter BOMSS Nurse and Allied Health Professionals Update 21 Your views please Please get in contact to let us know how we can best repre- sent you on Council. We look forward to hearing from you. Rachel Batterham, Maureen Boyle and Mary O’Kane. Email: Mary.o’kane@nhs.net