Chinese teaching delegation visit the Tavistock Centre

Delegates from the Shanghai Mental Health Center and the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University visited the Tavistock and Portman on Thursday 10 October to learn more about our academic work and education offering, as part of an international teaching collaboration with the region.

They were welcomed by Professor Mark Freestone, Chief Education and Training Officer and the visit was attended and chaired by Dr Paul Dugmore, Director of Education.

The delegation were shown a presentation of our online teaching approach by one of our course leads, Gwen Hanrahan, and a current student, who along with our Business Development Manager, Qingxi Zhang, spoke with the delegation in Mandarin.

The delegation were very engaged and curious about our work and we will see how these relationships develop. There was enthusiasm and thinking about our online offering and how it could be translated (linguistically but also logistically) into the Shanghai context.

Professor Mark Freestone

The visit is one of a number of upcoming visits planned to discuss collaborative working. In March, Chris Abbott, Chief Medical Officer, and Paul Dugmore, visited China as part of a trade delegation selected by the Department of Health and Social Care, where it was agreed that we would launch a blended teaching course that would take place both virtually and face-to-face in China.

This collaboration forms part of our Trust’s investment in clinical staffing and provides us with an opportunity to gain insights from Chinese healthcare systems.

We also recently hosted a delegation from the National Center for Mental Health China (NCMHC) who visited the Tavistock Centre to take part in a round table discussion focusing on collaboration and shared learning.