Volunteering and the Tom Bowen Legacy Fund
The Bowen Technique has been established as one of the therapies offered by the Complementary Therapy Service (CTS) within Whipps Cross Hospital, London.
The CTS primarily supports cancer and palliative care patients and carers. Neil Browne heads up this unit with an enthusiasm that is rare to find these days and oversees a body of volunteers who give one day a week to make the service tick. The volunteers provide skills in various modalities.
At the CTS you will become familiar with the workings of an NHS establishment, gain instruction on the protocols of a hospital environment, the key issues patients will be dealing with, how medical treatments will work in tandem with your therapies, the medications and so much more.
CTS is based within a wholly NHS environment, providing a much sought after service for patients (some 800 referrals a year). Each case assigned will complete a questionnaire at the start and at the end of a set of treatments (around 6). All data is confidential and the results of the therapeutic work are captured using an established clinical scoring protocol, MYCAW or Likert Scale; which uses a 1-6 scale on questions of pressing issues, pain and general well-being.
The Bowen Technique community would greatly benefit from a base of data that gives insight on how and when Bowen can be used and the evidence of benefits in a cancer and palliative care setting. Bowen now has a service operating in a clinical environment and it will take time to grow data – unless we can introduce more Bowen practitioners. We now need new Bowen Therapists working within the CTS so that we can deliver a vital benefit to patients and gather an important review source sooner.
If you are a Full Member and interested in becoming part of this, please let Neil know by contacting him:
Neil Browne Clinical Lead Therapist,
Barts Health NHS Trust Margaret Centre,
Whipps Cross University Hospital Leytonstone,
London E11 1NR
Telephone: 020 8539 5522 Ext. 5840
Email: neil.browne@bartshealth.nhs.uk