I’m Abbie Wild (in the middle on the image). I am the programme manager for the Best 1001 Days programme, one of the pillars of the Children, Young People & Families priority areas for Bradford District & Craven Health & Care Partnership. I also chair the LGBT+ staff network at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, where I hold my substantive post as a midwife.
I live in Haworth with my wife Emma who is a nurse, 3 of our 4 children (my eldest is away at university) and our dog Tina, a King Charles Cavalier. We have a busy family life, the kids keep us on our toes! We love going for long walks, last weekend we went to the Lake District and managed 40km in total and some wild swimming too. We have a few camping trips planned over the summer (so praying for good weather!). When we have a child-free evening we enjoy going to our local pub quiz, comedy nights and live music. Our most recent gig was Christina Aguilera (not my choice – my wife is obsessed, hence our dog’s name Tina!).
I was honoured to be given the role of chair for the LGBT+ network, it has given me the opportunity to be involved in some really great forums, events, and have insight to challenges and opportunities for our community. Being the chair of the network enables me to be a voice for staff members and service users who sadly experience discrimination due to their sexual orientation or gender. We provide a safe and supportive space both in person and virtually where staff can feel welcome and encouraged to bring their whole self to work. I feel fortunate that I have had a very positive experience in my place of work, but this is not the case for everyone. Staff networks like ours are so important to raise awareness, provide education through initiatives such as the rainbow badge scheme and be a united front to tackle discrimination in any form.
We have recently formed an LGBT+ Network Collaborative across the district, bringing together NHS trusts, council, police and university. Together we celebrated LGBTQ+ History Month by organising a webinar ‘What about the +?’ and we are planning a presence at Bradford Pride so that we can showcase how our organisations are inclusive, accepting and welcoming places for the LGBT+ community to work and be cared for.
We are really keen to have a rainbow garden for staff and service users at BTHFT and are currently exploring ways we can fund this.
We always welcome new members to the network (allies too!). Staff and students at BTHFT can email LGBT.Network@bthft.nhs.uk and our twitter handle is @Bthftlgbt.