Falls plan

When I was researching into what to do after an incident and the process carried out, I came across the idea of a falls review. Because i didn’t really know what this was, i decided to do some extra research into it as it could aid me in my work and give me some direction. Using falls plans could be a way to also encourage people to get a medicines review, along side informing them of ways to prevent it which would overall reduce the number of falls.

 

What is a falls plan?

If a fall occurs at home and you are alone, its important to have an action plan. Your falls plan should be discussed with your GP and family members to ensure that the plan will work. I came across the website ‘Stay On Your Feet’ and found an example falls plan.

SOYF_falls_action_plan_web_ready_FV

https://www.stayonyourfeet.com.au/home/what-if-i-do-fall/falls-action-plan/

This example of a falls plan seems like a flow chart style on what to do. It highlights the important factors on what to do if you have a fall and takes you through the process of assessing weather you can get up safely or not and what to do if you can. It also highlights different things to do if you have fallen and how you can get up.

Generally with a falls plan, its the process of assessing what to do and how to do it in the safest possible manor. its important to plan what you’ll do and who you’ll contact and how they will get to you. The quicker someone gets help after a fall, the less likely they are to become distressed.

Calling for help – having a falls plan ensures that you can call for help and that the person you call knows what to do and how to get to you. You can call people by phone or by using an alarm or by shouting for help and raising the attention of others. If you use a phone, remember to keep it topped up and charged and on you at all times, making sure people have your number and you have theirs. It could also be useful to assign certain contacts to speed dial for emergency’s.

Letting help in – once help is coming, you now need to think about how they will get in and help you. if you lock doors and windows when you’re home, it could be difficult for people to enter, which may result in forced entry. to avoid this, you could leave a spare key with a family member, a trusted friend or neighbour or keep a spare key in a safe. If you keep a spare key in a safe, make sure you only give out the code to people you trust.

Once your action plan has been created, its important to inform others and make sure you all understand what to do in order to help.

 

Anxiety about falling?

Fear of falling can be a serious concern in the elderly. People ear of falling can be a serious concern in the elderly. People worry about falling and its consequences and how this will impact their quality of life. This is something that had never occurred to me as its quite a niche topic. it was interesting to read up about what people can do if they feel like they have anxiety about falling as it really laid out the process. As someone who suffers with anxiety, I imagine its extremely useful to know what to do if you suffer from anxiety around falling. Things can often get muddled up in panic so having some straight forward steps on what to do is very useful.

What can you do:

 

• Keep active
• Practice relaxation techniques
• Identify why you’re falling and try to reduce risks
• Medicines review
• Falls plan
• Talk to someone
• Set small goals to gain confidence
• Challenge any negative thoughts

Keep active- Keeping active is a really good way to maintain strong and healthy muscles which help reduce the risk of falling. Doing exercise also has a positive impact on how we feel and can increase productivity.

Relaxation techniques- There are many different techniques which can be used to calm your mind and reduce anxiety and muscle tension. Most of the time, we cant totally eliminate the worry but we can do breathing exercises and visualisation to help relax muscles.

Identify why you’re falling and how to reduce risks- Sometime falls can be cause be external and environmental factors, but sometimes they are due to health. If you are prone to falls, its important to identify the issue and resolve it. Make sure there isn’t any clutter or mess and avoid slippery or uneven surfaces.

Medicines review- Some medications can have side effects which could contribute to a fall such as feeling dizzy or lightheaded. Its important to get a medicines review if you are on multiple different medications as these could be impacting your falls. Its also important to remember to continue with your medication until you see a doctor.

Falls Plan– A falls plan will help you establish what to do what you have a fall. It means that you will have an action plan on what to do and who will come and help if you do fall.

Talk to someone– Its really important to try and maintain a healthy and positive attitude if you’ve had a fall and not dwell on it. Talking to someone about your fears and problems will make you feel better and make everything seem more manageable.

Set small goals- Being anxious can stop you doing things you enjoy so its important to tackle it in a manageable way. setting small goals will help you gain back your confidence. Getting out the house everyday and making sure you progress will benefit both your physical and mental well being.

Challenge negative thoughts- getting into a routine and thinking positively will help combat negative thoughts, its important to reward yourself for you achievements.

 

Other tips to reduce anxiety

• Reduce amount of caffeinated drinks, a bad sleeping pattern can make anxiety worse
• Eat a well balanced diet and be active
• Avoid drinking alcohol
• Don’t rush and remember to take your time
• Concentrate on one thing at a time

Medicines review

Medication reviews are recommended for those taking long term medication and those who are taking multiple different medications. Its really important to have your medication reviewed at least once a year to make sure they’re still suitable for you and are not being wasted. Sometimes, if the amount of medication, or just your medication in general, impacts the amount of falls you have, you may be put on a lower dosage or even stopped from taking the medication. Medication reviews are intended to optimise the use of medicine for people, review medication to ensure the right amount is being taken and to identify if new or different medication is needed or could be a better alternative.

Alongside medication, there are other things that can effect falls such as:

• Physical problems
• Environmental problems
• Motor Problems
• Cardiovascular problems
• Neurological problems
• Cognitive problems
• Behavioural problems

During a medications review, you need to discuss all current medication and supplements. If it has been a while since a last medication review, its highly recommended to book an appointment at your local GP asap. Its very important to be honest with your doctor, voicing any concerns or problems that you may have so that they can totally understand how the current medication is working. Booking a medications review ensures that you get the most out of your medication.

After an incident

After looking at falls and the prevention’s, I then thought it would be a good idea to look at what to do if you see someone fall and how to help after the incident. Because I feel like theres a gap in the target audience, it would be interesting to see how others can help and if theres some kind of way to get younger generations aware of whats happening in order to help others.

The first thing to do after an incident is to make sure the casualty and you arent in any danger, and if you are, make it safer. Next you need to asses the casualty and maybe call 999 if necessary. When assessing a casualty you need to think of 3 things, Airways, Breathing and Circulation (ABC).

Airway

If unresponsive after an incident, its important to check their air ways. Ask them if they are okay and if they are, they can be left in the position they are in until help arrives. when waiting its important to check that they are alert, respond to your voice and to pain.

If the patient is still unresponsive, try to open their air way either in the position they are in or laid on their back. In order to ensure the tongue is away from the back of the throat, tilt their head back gently, placing one hand on the forehead and lift the chin slightly using two fingers, this should help with breathing.

If the person has a spinal injury, you must carryout the jaw thrust technique, place your hands on either side of their head and gently lift the angle of the jaw forward and upwards, without moving the head to other the airway. Do not move the persons neck as this could increase risk of injury.

 

Breathing

To identify if a person is breathing, look to see if their chest is moving, listen over their mouth for breathing sounds and feel their breath against your cheek. If breathing is fine, after an icident they should be placed in the recovery position so their airways remain clear.

Circulation

Chest compression’s need to be carried out immediately if the casualty still isnt breathing.

After ensuring the person can breathe, you need to check injuries to figure out where the person is hurt. Take a few minutes to check for pain, scrapes and any wounds, its important that the person, weather it be you, family or a stranger, remains calm to prevent further injury.

 

Getting back on your feet

If the person seems fine and well enough to get up, you should assist them as safely as possible. Roll them onto their knees, and slowly help them up, using the surroundings and objects to also help them, making sure they have a sturdy support. If the patient seems prone to falling perhaps you could recommend to them either vising their GP, getting a personal alarm so that family and friends can help or reading up about how to prevent falls and reduce risks.

Having a personal alarm or a mobile phone will help people call for help. Ensuring someone they trust such as a friend or a family member has a key to the persons house will allow people to get to them quickly in order to help them in the future.

Keeping warm and keep moving are other essential elements to remember if you, a friend or a family member have a fall that they cannot get up from. if you fall and get too cold you could be at risk of hypothermia. Moving onto a carpet, rug or other soft surface will keep you warmer then staying on hard surfaces such as stone or tile which are much colder and take longer to warm up. Make sure to avoid wet areas too as these will make you cold. If possible, use duvets and blankets to cover and move away from any drafts or open and exposed spaces. Keeping your body moving as best as you can will also help you heat up quicker. Lying in one place for too long can also make you sore and stiff. Even slight movements in your body will keep you warm and calm, however, if it hurts to move stop and only move if you feel able to.

Whether this if the first fall or not, it is essential to tell your GP. There are many different things that contribute to a fall health wise and its important to get them checked out and treated.

 

First aid courses

Basic first aid training courses are run regularly in the UK.

fist aid courses can be provided by; St John Ambulance, British Red Cross, NHS Ambulance service and St Andrews First Aid.

 

Group tutorial – 5/10/18

Today we had a group tutorial with Neil who spoke to us about how our projects were coming along. It was mainly based around getting to know what we currently understood about the brief before speaking to the client and we also spoke about what to do in preparation for our client meeting and also different things to research and do in the meanwhile.

The biggest point we touched upon was the client. Because we haven’t had a client meeting so far, we dont truly know the main focus and main point for the project. We needed to think about what we could ask our clients in preparation for our meeting so that we can find out whats already known and exists and how we can use it. Clients are rich resources, so we need to communicate effectively and draw them in to our work in order to gain as much information and feedback as possible

• Future facing design – what skills can we use to deal with the issue?

We  then discussed the idea of how to get around the issue. We can’t just tell someone to stop taking medication as a way to stop falling because this would have a very bad impact. We don’t want to scare people as they still need to take medication in order to be healthy, so we dont want to make them to scared to take them in case of falling.

 

My brief initial idea from the public health wales research

When I was researching Public Health wales, I was amazed about the different work that they do in order to help people and keep them healthy. As a student, falling due to medication isn’t something I had ever thought about which I thought was quite strange considering how severe the situation can be. This then got me thinking perhaps maybe there is a target audience missing who would also benefit knowing about the topic in order to help other people who are suffering and need help. Weather you know someone who takes lots of medication and is prone to falling or you witness someone fall, you may be able to point someone in the right direction in order to get help. I feel like as someone who isn’t directly effected by falling and taking too much medication that its important to be able to help people and support those who need it and spread the message to potentially save someones life.

Neil thought that the idea of avoiding the main target audience to get people to engage and encourage others was a strong idea. Looking at relationships that surround people, you get a sense of belonging and comfort which is a powerful message for people who feel helpless due to the dilemma of them taking medication and falling.

In order to successfully overcome the dilemma, there needs to be a successful mid way point, so that people can take the right amount of medication which is safe in order to reduce falls. There needs to be a solutions that focuses on the person as a person and not a problem that we need to fix. Its impossible to create a design solutions to fit everyone, we’re designing for individuals, so we need to be able to understand them and be empathetic.

We need to know what the person is experiencing, how they feel, what medication pushes people over the edge, what happens before people fall and the process of falling. It’s not a single element, it’s multiple different factors that effect people different

What is the core thing and route issue?

1. After deciding on a target audience, we need to figure out how to encounter that person, the message needs to be repeated and encountered all throughout the day.
2. How do you capture their attention, what will they experience? you can get attention by using empathy and seeing what they respond to.
3. Experience, can only understand if you know what’s meaningful to them. Empathetic design process is important, it’s about the people and it’s a different way of designing.

 

During this tutorial I thought about some different ideas and ways I can approach my project via the research I do. Things I intend to research after this tutorial include:

• Long term effects of falling, people might think that falling is pretty minor until it happens.
• what happens when you faint, how do the people feel and what medication pushes them over the edge.
• who can help/ how people suffering get help and their process
• Target audience and how to encounter them best, what are their interests and what do they do?
• how to capture target audience attention
• empathetic design, how we can help people, research those effected, including relatives and friends. what is meaningful to them?
• as we get older our friendship circle gets smaller, why? also how to target that small group diversely.

Overall, this tutorial was incredibly useful as I didn’t really know what I needed to research beforehand and use it to inform my design. In order for me to make empathetic design and design to help a cause and design for good, I need to understand their point of view and their feelings.

Falls research – NHS

Because a signification part of this project is focused around people falling, mainly the elderly due to taking 5 or more medications, I thought I would look into the whole process. Looking at what happens, how people feel about it, who it effects and why and how it can be prevented. Health conditions often effect how often people fall, 1 in 3 adults over 65 who live at home have falls at least once a year. Some falls can be harmless, but it can also have a hard impact on peoples quality of lives if the fall is serious.  The NHS website highlights multiple different areas surrounding the topic. One thing that I noticed was that straight after the introduction on the page, it had instructions on what to do if you fall which I thought was a really important aspect and really well situated on the website for easy access.

What should you do if you have a fall?

• Stay calm- if you’re not hurt and can get up, do so slowly to avoid further injury.
• Look for something sturdy to hold on to and roll on to your hands and knees.
• When you feel ready, hold furniture to support yourself and slowly get up.
• when you can, sit down and rest before doing anything else.

Its important to try and get someones attention if you’re hurt or unable to get up, if possible call an ambulance for help.

Causes of a fall

Falls are most common cause of injury related deaths in people over 75, due to the natural ageing process. Older people may have balance problems, muscle weakness, poor vision or a long term health condition. Other things that can effect falls includes wet or polished floors, uneven floors, sliding rugs, dim lighting, rushing. Osteoporosis is a common problem in older people, making falls problematic.

 

Preventing a fall

Ensuring you’re home isn’t full of hazards is one way to prevent a fall. Mopping up wet patches, using non-slip mats, making sure everywhere is lit, removing rubbish and clutter are a few of the different ways to reduce falling in day to day life. Falling is very serious and can have huge consequences on well being and health.

If you are prone to falls its recommended to:

• have an eye test – good vision will help to see clearly to avoid walking into objects and falling
• have and ECG to ensure your blood pressure is good
• doing a bit of exercise to improve strength and balance to prevent falls
• have a home hazard assessment

Some people dont bother bringing up this concern at a GP because they think they will be overlooked and not taken seriously. You’re health and balance can be tested by a GP to reduce falls in the future and they can also refer you to local services who can help. One of the ways to prevent falls is to do some strength and balance training, this can take form in different ways such as walking, dancing or training programmes. In order to monitor an individual, the training course needs to be appropriately tailored for that person. Tai chi is also known to help reduce risk falls as it focuses on balance and coordination. It does not involve physical contact making ideal for older people who wish to attend sessions.

 

sight test – if you feel like poor vision is increasing your risk of falling, make an appointment for a test, not all problems can be cured but it might help in order to reduce falling.

Home hazard assessment – if you or a relative had a fall or know someone who had a fall, you can get a home hazard assessment. This will identify hazards and explore how someones surroundings affects their falls. A healthcare professional will visit the home and identify hazards, e.g. slippery bath and advice on how to deal with them e.g. install bars in bath to make access easier.

Alcohol – It is recommended to not drink excessively if you are prone to falling as alcohol can lead to loss of co-ordination and can have bad effects on some medicines.

Knowing about falls and what happens will inform my work and help me develop ideas that can aid and inform other people about the risk associated with falls. its really interesting to see what happens when people fall and what they should do if they fall. After doing this research I now know that theres sometimes more then one factor that can effect the amount of falls. Sometimes its a combination and in order to prevent it and raise awareness, we need to understand all of the different elements and factors that can contribute to falls.

Public Health Wales

Public Health Wales is a wales based public health agency that aims to reduce health inequalities and protect and improve health and wellbeing. They provide advice and specialist services to the Welsh Government. Public health wales works closely with health boards and local authorities to promote public health in what ever way they can, using particular strategies, methods and techniques to reach the desired audience. Their service provide the public with health knowledge, scientific expertise and intelligence to make change and drive a focus to ensure improvements to public health.

After discovering what public health wales is about, I then looked into their strategy which was on their website. The idea of their strategy is so that they can focus on how is best to work with their partners in order to have maximum impact on health and well being in wales.

 

1. Influencing the wider determinants of health 

• aim to collaborate with others to improve and understand things that impact everyones health, taking into consideration all different aspects
• key factors and health and well being rely on a number of things such as; family, friends, housing, safety, education, work, financial status and money and also our surroundings.

Their aim by 2030 is that the people of wales have a equal chance to live a long happy life without preventable illnesses.

This includes:

• helping young people reach their potential
• supporting the NHS to reduce poverty and low income to influence good health
• reducing falls because of poor health
• promoting good housing and working with others to prevent homelessness
  

2. Improving mental well-being and resilience

• aim to help everyone realise full potential and cope with difficult life challenges
• help them work productively and contribute to family, society and communities

Mental well-being can also impact physical health so its and important fact to take into consideration, their aim by 2030 is:

• general better mental well-being
• society and communities that support each other and are aware of others

 

3. Building and mobilising knowledge and skills to improve health and well-being across wales

 

4. supporting the development of a sustainable health and care system focused on prevention and early intervention

• Aim to work collaboratively to support improvements including; population based screening, timely intervention, continuous improvements and care

 

5. protecting the public from infection and environmental threats to health

• protect population from serious infection and diseases
• apply expertise and resources to protect from air pollution and climate change
• need early detection, good planning and application in order to be successful

6. securing a healthy future for the next generation

• ensure best start in life for children by working with parents and services
• early years are key for children to develop and have a more fulfilling life

Aim by 2030:

• increase in children achieving full potential
• increase number in better childhood experiences
• support parents in raising children

 

Exploring the website and looking further into the strategy gave me a stronger ideas about public health wales and what its about. From what i can tell and already know, it covers alot of different factors within the health and care system, from mental health to disease and focuses on different strategies, technique and campaigns to improve public health in wales. With a high budget, strong board and over 1500 staff, they work with communities, housing, education, police, fire and rescue to promote a health lifestyle and encourage people to be healthy! This information is really useful because ill be able to use some of it in my work. Although some of the things on the website didnt apply to me, its really interesting to dive in and see what public health wales do and to know what their aims are as a team.

Creative brief

Doing a creative brief helps us to break down the information we have already been given and organise it into a more concise way of looking at the task as a designer. After reading through the brief, I did an initial bit of research to get some facts and information about falls and preventing them so that my creative brief made sense to me and had facts and figures to back it up. All the important pieces of information surrounding the inital client brief we were given need to be processed with key facts highlighted to make it simple and straight forward to understand.

Because I dont quite know what form and style this project is going to take yet, Ikept my creative brief quite straight forward and simple so that its easy to read. Using slight hints of colour to break up the text to make it seem a little less daunting. Alot of the information was originally provided in the client brief, backed up by some research so it was more of a case of re-wording things into a way that I would understand. My design is minimal with a path for the eye so that points can easily be picked out when I come to use it as a reference. I also chose the orange colour for my brief because the whole idea of this project is to encourage people to get a medicine review in order to reduce falls to improve quality and way of life, which I think is a very important and positive end goal, reflected in the vibrant and bright orange colour – brighter future!

1000 lives brief

When reading through the different briefs, this was one of the ones that intrigued me and sparked my interest the most. As a student, falls in the elderly and people taking multiple medications isnt something that you hear much about, which could suggest that there is some form of demographic missing in their already existing audience. Although the situation doesn’t apply directly to me, it will be useful to know all about it in case I can help someone – this applies to other people too!

Going over this brief in detail means I can highlight key parts, ideas and generate some potential solutions to the task. One of the keys points in this brief is that there is a clear relation between the number of fall and the number of medications taken in the elderly. The brief also introduced some new words to me such as ‘Polypharmacy’ which is a term used to describe people who take multiple medications, which could be an interesting route to take in terms of gathering research and information surrounding the topic.

It is clear from the brief that the purpose is to promote, encourage and raise awareness so it could be interesting to possibly look at some different techniques in order to make my design and project successful and suited for its purpose. It also talks about medications review for those who are on 5 medications or more. This is really important not only to make sure that people are on the right medication for them in order to stay safe and reduce falls, but also to make sure that medication isnt being mis-used or wasted. One of the points that i picked out that i quite liked was the idea of the aftermath, a fall can be devastating and have life changing impacts, but on the other hand, it could be prevented by a medications review, potentially making them more independent and confident.

The target audience for this is fairly straight forward and simple because of how specific the brief. The whole project is based around raising awareness for falls prevention campaign and encouraging people on 5 or more medicines to have a medications review, which is mainly targeted at the elderly. However for this project it will be interesting to see the different approaches i can take to expand the target audience so that more people are aware of the issue.

Main messages:

• A Medications review could prevent fall and help maintain independence
• Important to have a Medications review if taking 5 or more different medicines
• Falls can have devastating effects and impact on quality of life

Design for real life intro

How can design practice and processes meet the health, safety and wellbeing challenges in the 21st century? The aim of this project is to equip us with methods and tools to develop our own personal responses to this task. Working directly with clients and mentors, whos work and research has like changing implications, to demonstrate how graphic communication can transform lives.

Before totally diving into this project, we first went over important dates for the next academic year.

The most important being Graduation (15th-19th july 2019)

we also looked at term dates:

term 1: 24th September – Friday 14th Dec – mainly subject and constellation

term 2: Monday 15th Jan – Friday 5th April

term 3: Monday 29th April – Friday 14th June

 

alongside when we will be doing field and constellation and how it fits within the different terms.

 

Team Work

Although this project requires us to produce individual outputs in response to the brief, we need to operate as a team throughout. The role of team members is important to support each other, and as part of a design team we will need to use good communication to resolve situations of complete the brief to the best of our ability. Our outcomes for the project may stem from ideas within the team so its crucial to communicate. In order to be successful, we need to be well prepared, use a variety of media and be concise with ideas. When reading through the information about this module on moodle, it said that two notetakers are required to take minutes of all the client and mentor meetings – this is something I will discuss with my team and am happy to do.

The new brief we were given is called ‘Design for Real Life’, given to us by a variety of different health related groups, surrounding sensitive and very real topics. The 7 different briefs were all posted on moodle and at 4pm on Wednesday 26th September, we all had to sign up for our favourite:

• Antimicrobial Resistance
• Food Safety is in your Hands
• Is your fridge keeping your food safe?
• Let’s Communicate Effectively
• Medicines Reviews & Falls Prevention (Multiple medicines can create balance issues)
• Reopening Horizons
• Your Medicine, Your Health

For this I decided to pick the Medicines Reviews & Falls Prevention which looks at encouraging people to get medicine reviews and raise awareness that multiple medicines can create balance problems. I dont really know too much about this issue and the topic isnt really handed to you directly at first glance. I feel like this brief will be a challenge to myself to not only create something that communicates effectively, but also because its a completely new topic so theres different and new things to explore.

Although im really looking forward to diving into this new project, im a little bit apprehensive about working with clients again due to the stress I was undergoing last time. However, because I missed this chance last time, im now really looking forward to the opportunity to not only work with clients, but work with mentors and peers.

 

ADZ5888 reflective writing

After undergoing and completing these two field modules, I feel that I have learnt a lot from both of them! Although I definitely preferred one project to another, I definitely think that they have both improved my skills as a person and as a designer. I took part in Home truths and Teaching in art and design both of which i got to meet new people and learn exciting new skills and look at different styles of working. Coming into both of these projects with no experience in the field what so ever was a massive wake up call to open my eyes to what i could actually achieve when im pushed outside my comfort zone. Although the experiences were a little strange and new for me, i am very thankful to have received opportunity’s to explore some of my interests.

My first project was Home truths. This project was an eye opening experience for me because it allowed me to expand and develop my knowledge to familiarise myself with new materials. Although i was initially apprehensive about starting a project in a new material that i had no experience with, it was a very enjoyable module. It was an incredibly engaging module and the first project that i have come into uni to complete in my own personal time on a regular basis. As a Graphic designer, initially it was hard to see how this project was relatable to my practice. However, after learning all the different skills i was able to bring in my own style of working that i use within my practice – looking at geometric shapes and images in a ‘logo-like’ style. Within this project i was able to push myself and my imagery to create 3D forms as a way of telling a story and using my skills on other platforms. Being pushed out of my comfort zone meant that i came to this project with an open mind and willingness to learn new things which i believe i have succeeded in. Getting to know the students and lecturers within this project was a massive help to me. Socialising with people isn’t something that i tend to do very often so having the opportunity to do this was nice and also very informative. It was interesting to see what people though of my ideas and peer to peer feedback was useful. One of the main things i liked about this project was actually building an 3d, physical and functional thing for my work. Actually having made something gives me a lot of pride knowing that every part of my objects was something which i had done personally and expanded on what i could already do, taking my work to new medias that i can use to express it.

The second project within field was Teaching in art and design. I chose to do this topic off a bit of a whim. Teaching has always been something that had interested me but ive never been brave enough to look into it further until this opportunity came. At the time, had i of known that this was the first time the module was being ran then i probably wouldn’t have picked it. However, i still completed it and gained valuable experience along the way. It has definitely made me think outside the box as a graphic designer and shaped potential future ideas that i have within my subject area. I have learnt so many different skills during this experience that i will use both within my everyday life and my practice to achieve my full potential. This module has encouraged me to grow and approach situations with new ideas that are transferable and relatable to my course and given me a deeper understanding of transdisciplinarity within field in a context outside of my normal practice. Although I didn’t get an opportunity to actually teach, I can safely say that I dont think i want to be a teacher. I really enjoyed helping the students on a more informal level and i think it improved my communication skills so i think if i did find that i wanted to  down a teaching route i feel like being a teaching assistant would be the way forward.