Rowan, who is a 17-year old visually impaired student at the Royal National College For The Blind (RNC) talks to Julia Goldsmith from Catcher Media and museum educator Carolyn Olney. We won't spoil the surprise of which object was chosen but suffice to say it relates to Rowan's own fascinating family history. 

NB: This is an extract.

A Catcher Media presentation for Herefordshire Council and Herefordshire Museum Service.

Technical: Rick Goldsmith

In this podcast Julia Goldsmith, from Catcher Media, talks to Kayleigh Hills, Safeguarding Matron from BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), to discuss young people’s choices in relation to pregnancy, with medically and legally accurate, impartial information on all options, including abortion.

The programme explores what most girls would would be thinking, including:

1. How do I know how many weeks pregnant I am?

2. Who should I speak to?

3. What are my choices and how do I decide what’s best?

4. Will my boyfriend/the father get in trouble?

5. Would it be any different if the girl was 16?

6. Myths around abortion e.g. will it make me feel depressed or guilty, and will it make it more difficult for me to have a baby in the future?

7. What happens when someone contacts BPAS?

8. Once a decision has been made what would the procedure involve

9. Does she need to tell anyone or bring anyone with her?

10. What happens after the procedure?

11. Contraception

If you have an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy you can contact BPAS on 03457 30 40 30 or www.bpas.org to make a booking for consultation for abortion treatment or to discuss all your options, including abortion treatment, adoption and becoming a parent.  BPAS is the UK’s leading abortion care service which provides local treatment which is paid for by the NHS.

Going direct BPAS is the quickest route. You can find a clinic here: https://www.bpas.org/contact-us/find-a-clinic/

Scans are given onsite to ensure pregnancy alongside pregnancy tests. Sometimes pills are posted out to take at home, always followed up by BPAS. They can provide treatment under 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Pre-treatment counselling can help with decision making process and post treatment counselling is offered for whenever the girl needs it could even be a year later.

Contraception is key and talked about at each point in the process.

Under 18 must have a responsible adult (18+) to be with them and to stay with them for 24 hours. But this shouldn’t become a barrier to accessing treatment. They do not need parental permission.

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Catcher Media would like to thank Mandy Hamilton-Smith (Marketing Manager, BPAS),

You can follow BPAS campaigns on Facebook and Twitter:

Julia Goldsmith of Catcher Media talks to Tanya Grainger and Samantha Brown (from Walsall Healthcare NHS) who are both highly experienced in delivering sexual health, pregnancy and contraception services to young people. In this podcast they share a wealth of helpful information and sign-post young people to services and websites.  

Content:

(1) Sexual Health services in Walsall and their response to Covid-19

(2) Different types of Contraception: Pills (Combined & Projesetrone), Patch, vaginal ring, Injection, Implants, Coil, Condoms

(4) Sexually Transmitted Infections (or STI’s) for heterosexuals/gay relationships incl. clamydia and Gonorrhea

(5) Sex and the Law

(6) Consent

'Sex is Like a Cup of Tea' video (Thames Valley Police)

(7) Sexting

(8) Pornography

Helpful sites dealing with the above topics.

Sexwise: www.sexwise.org.uk/contraception

(9) Pregnancy, Adoption and Abortion

(10) Emergency Contraception

Many of the links and more are available in the sign-posting sections of: www.easysre.net which are free of charge to school and health-workers in Walsall, with small charges for the rest of the UK. 

Sound recording and editing by Rick Goldsmith. Music by Ian Preece. Made with support from Walsall NHS Healthcare, Walsall Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

www.catchermedia.co.uk

In one of our most recent EasySRE films ‘Snagged’ we tackled the thorny subject of grooming, CSE (or Child Sexual exploitation), County Lines* and extremism. With an estimated 200,000+ young people ensnared in County Lines alone, Julia Goldsmith (from Catcher Media) speaks to Andy Thompson about: noticing the signs, helping young people to find a way out, how schools/parents/carers can be informed and what they can do to deal with this growing issue.

Andy Thompson is Operations Manager of Street Teams in Walsall and Managing Director of CYP First, a national training company. His training speciality includes Disruption, Contextual Safeguarding, County Lines, CSE and working with survivors of child sexual exploitation and child exploitation.

The podcast contains references to:

www.catchermedia.co.uk

* County Lines is where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs. The ‘County Line’ is the mobile phone line used to take the orders of drugs. Importing areas (areas where the drugs are taken to) are reporting increased levels of violence and weapons-related crimes as a result of this trend - National Crime Agency.

Arguably even more of an issue during Covid restrictions, this podcast explores the subject of young people’s mental health and well-being. Julia Goldsmith of Catcher Media speaks to Sallyann Sutton (Walsall NHS Healthcare) about how young people, schools and health-workers have been facing the challenges to well-being. Topics include:

Sallyann Sutton is the Professional Lead for School Nursing at Walsall NHS Healthcare. She has worked in School Nursing for 28 years and is passionate about child and family mental health. This is her lead area of work and she has worked in a variety of roles, on projects and work streams which promote emotional health and wellbeing. This work has focused on helping children and young people to understand more about mental health, how to look after their mental health and get access to support, helping to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

Notes to Self, which is mentioned in the interview, is a film and supporting resources which seek to challenge the myths and misinformation that surround mental health and well-being. It aims to equip young people with strategies to help keep themselves emotionally healthy, to guide them on seeking help and supporting others, and to encourage them to challenge stigma around mental health issues.

The film can be watched here free of charge to Walsall schools & health-workers, with a small charge for the rest of the UK.

Also referenced in the interview:

WPH Counselling: http://www.wphcounselling.org

Kooth online counselling: https://www.koothplc.com

Sound recording and editing by Rick Goldsmith. Music by Ian Preece. Made with support from Walsall NHS Healthcare, Walsall Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Leading on from our previous podcast about recording your own oral history interviews, in this programme we focus specifically on using photographs to elicit stories from people.

Julia and Rick, from Catcher Media, talk about their own experience of using photographic archives, especially in their most recent 4-year project: www.herefordshirelifethroughalens.org.uk. They are joined by Geoff Broadway who is an artist who has been using family photographs in his own project: Living Memory  which was set up to 'record, archive and celebrate life stories and personal photography collections from across the Black Country'.

Referenced in this interview:

Music by Ian Preece. May thanks for support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

In this episode we discuss how you could record oral histories with family or friends using low-tech equipment. We focus on how to engage people and prompts to get people talking. Topics include:

Check out some of Catcher Media's oral History projects on www.herefordshirelifethroughalens.org.uk

If you are working with groups of older people we have a set of downloadable resources to help you https://www.herefordshirelifethroughalens.org.uk/older-people/

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

NB: We had some lovely feedback from Jack about Episode One which he left as a voice message, which you can listen to. Please send us your messages.

Catcher Media's first podcast (recorded October 2020) brings together the team behind the long-running film and website project EasySRE. They chat about the challenges and excitement of working with young people, teachers and health workers to create films which deal with PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) subjects in sensitive and engaging ways.

Speakers: Carol Williams (Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Lead, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust), Therese Collins (Playwright and workshop leader) and Rick Goldsmith (Director, Catcher Media) with Julia Goldsmith (Producer, Catcher Media) as the presenter. Thanks to Ian Preece for his music and Jack Miller for invaluable technical assistance.

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund