1. Palliative Care work in Shenyang
In April 2010 Margery Collin and Elaine McManus went to help to develop skills in providing spiritual and counselling support to the terminally ill and people with HIV/AIDS, and their families. They worked with the palliative care specialists in Shengjing Hospital of the China Medical University in Shenyang and with members of the Catholic Social Services Centre of Liaoning Diocese in Shenyang. Margery has a degree in Theology and is a qualified Counsellor and now works with the NHS providing education and training in spiritual care for healthcare professionals and nursing students, and she is currently completing a research project in enhanced palliative care practice for a Masters Degree at Stirling University. Elaine is a Lecturer in palliative care at Strathcarron Hospice, she has a Masters Degree in Nursing and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, her substantial community nursing experience has proved an excellent foundation for working with primary care groups in palliative care, and her current interests include communication training, emotional and spiritual support, clinical supervision and palliative care in non-malignant illness.

2. Help with Spinal Injury treatment.
Now, in response to a specific request, Dr Ba Fang and Dr Liu Da from Shengjing Hospital, are on three weeks placement at the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, shadowing staff there Previously, in April 2010 Sally Boa and Joan Murphy spent a fortnight in the Hua Xiang Branch Hospital Rehabilitation Unit of Shengjing hospital, providing training to staff working with stroke victims and others who are unable to communicate orally. They used the Talking Mats system (see http://www.talkingmats.com ) that was developed at the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Institute by Joan Murphy. Sally is a member of a community multidisciplinary team, in which she provides a service for adults with acquired neurological conditions and has researched the concept of goal setting in a community rehabilitation context for people with communication difficulties. She has a BSc in Speech Pathology and Therapy and a certificate of clinical competence in Adult Acquired Dysphagia and is proceeding towards a PhD degree. She is also currently working with the Talking Mats Research and Development Centre of Stirling University. Joan holds a number of senior positions at the same centre. As a Speech and Language Therapist, she Mastered in Linguistics and, most pertinently, in 1998 developed the innovative low-tech communication tool, Talking Mats, and has projects published about their use (see http://www.aacscotland.com ) with various groups and for differing purposes; just in March 2010 she was awarded her PHD at the Radboud University, Nijmegen in The Netherlands.

3. Care for the elderly - Shanghai
We have been asked by Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian of the Catholic Diocese of Shanghai, to host two people from the diocese who will focus on Scottish provision of services for the elderly and those with learning difficulties. This is awaiting visas and other arrangements to be finalised.

4. Talking Mats at Shengjing Hospital
We have two people returning to Shenyang in September. They are likely to be working with patients in the Shenjing hospital while Chinese staff observe and note the procedures, then they will be observing the Chinese staff using Talking Mats themselves, and together there will be discussion and learning about the use of Talking Mats in the Chinese context.

5. Help with spiritual care
In response to a request from Shenjing Hospital we hope to be able to send two people later on this year with the skills to provide workshops on various pertinent topics, for the staff of the hospital in Shenyang and of the diocese in Liaoning. This is a follow-up after a previous successful visit. Details still to be finalised.

6. Capacity building for Amity staff
We have, in cooperation with the Friends of the Church in China. enabled Tan Hua, the vice-director of Disaster Relief, to study in Britain to improve her facility with the English language, which help when communicating beyond China itself.

7. Amity Children's Development Centre
In November 2009 Alison Ross went for a short visit to offer some staff training. Chu Chaoyu, the Director of the Centre, and the staff had high expectations and the parents hoped that the children would be taught how to talk - this is often the expectation initially held by parents in these situations. Some of her input to the staff was theoretical, but the consequent practices were demonstrated in the daily classes. The mostly young and certainly enthusiastic staff were trained in Special Needs education. The Centre was already familiar with many approaches to teaching, including the PECs (Picture Exchange Communication) system, but there is still a long journey of learning about the theory and the expectations by the staff and by the children's parents. Alison is a Speech and Language Therapist from Stirling In March 2010 Shirley Paterson went to this Centre for a fortnight to continue the input of the SCCG, working with the children, staff and parents. The Amity Foundation, a Chinese NGO, opened this Centre in Nanjing at the end of 2007. It is for children with autism at pre-school and lower primary school levels. There are almost 10,000 children affected in Nanjing alone. The Centre aims to provide timely professional assessment, rehabilitation training, early education and support for the parents of the children with autism, as well as to offer training and group activities to help children with Autistic Syndrome Disorder (ASD) cope with their learning and development. Shirley’s first degree is in Psychology, but she is a qualified teacher (Maths and Chemistry) with Masters degrees in Education and in Applied Science and Educational Psychology. She has worked for almost 30 years as a senior psychologist, more recently specialising in dealing with children with ASD, and now works with children in the age range 2 to 12 years old.