I am Jocelyn Reid, lead midwife sonographer for our scanning and screening team at NHS Highland. I would like to share why ARC has been an invaluable resource for both staff and families in North Highland.

As a team of sonographers and screening midwives, we cover all of North Highland for both scanning and screening services. I am responsible for ensuring that women in North Highland receive their two diagnostic screening tests and when life-altering news has been given, women are given evidenced based information and ongoing support to aid them in their decision-making. It is key that our screening team support our women and families throughout their journey, ensuring that we give appropriate help and support in this vital stage in their lives to help reach the best outcome achievable. Each decision will be different for every family, based on their current and future needs.

As a team, we always ensure that we are non-judgemental when supporting our families throughout their journey. Each decision can take different lengths of time for the family to reach. The support required will often also be given with additional assistance from ARC, other charities and National support groups. Knowing that ARC can be there for our women and families at any time, on the phone, seven days a week is of great reassurance to us as health professionals.

ARC have been and remains a valuable resource for both staff and patients when ensuring that we give information in a professional, non-judgemental way that uses appropriate language and remains evidence-based. It is paramount that as health professionals we stay up to date in our advice, language, resources and support groups that can be offered to women and families who require additional support. As a team, we have accessed ARC for staff training numerous times. This has always been beneficial to staff when ARC come and gives us training. They share updates on the national support groups, and changes in the use of language and give us all detailed accounts of families’ experiences when given life-altering news, both positive and negative.

The impact of giving life-altering news in a negative way that can affect families is a position that our staff would never want our families to be in. These memories can be life-long for women and their families so it is imperative we give life-altering news in a way that shows empathy and professionalism. ARC share excellent resources for both professionals and families which we can all access. Leaflets for both staff and families are available to download online, they also have posters and contact cards that we can share with families. This allows us all to remain aware of our verbal and non-verbal language, knowledge updating and skill set. ARC has remained an invaluable service for our women in Highland, especially given our demographical area.