News

Planning to run a series of workshops in the new year, topics to include peer support, peer led working

some things about me

qualifications include:

Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Education with Teaching TQFE, Stirling University
Postgraduate Diploma in Community Education, Northern College (now Dundee University)
BA Administration Management, Fife College (now Adam Smith), 'best student'

experience flavour of:

Project management - funding applications, budgeting, promotion, evaluation, report writing
Action research into adult learning needs
Lecturing in Care subjects
Mental health recovery, personally and support of relatives
Advocacy work with individuals, groups - mental health, learning difficulties
Marketing - writing articles, radio broadcasts, photography, speaking
Events management
IT - designing documents - updating websites, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter,
Mentoring and peer support - student mentor project, workshops, befriending, training
Employability - work placements, jobs fairs, workshops, support into work
Delivering Training - creating, facilitating groupwork, feedback, reports
Managing Volunteers - recruitment, training, support and supervision
Youthwork and childrens' work - playgroups, playschemes, after-school clubs, youth clubs/groups

interests:

Recovery and Keeping Well

living life to the full

Peer Support

"Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared responsibility and mutual agreement on what is useful ..... This connection, or affiliation, is a deep, holistic understanding based on mutual experience where people are able to 'be' with each other without the constraints of traditional (expert/patient) relationships"

Quote from Defining Peer Support , Shery Mead, March 2003

Peer Led Crisis Alternatives

" .... people can begin to explore the subjective experience of the person in crisis while offering their own subjective reality to the relationship. Out of this shared dynamic in which a greater sense of trust is built, the crisis can be an opportunity to create new meaning, and offer people mutually respectful relationships in which extreme emotional distress no longer has to be pathologized"

Quote from Crisis and Connection, Shery Mead & David Hilton, 2003

Website MentalHealthPeers.com

Pathways to Recovery

Kansas University's, Pathways to Recovery strengths self-help workbook "guides readers through a process of self-assessment, self-discovery and planning that helps individuals set life goals and realize their dreams". It is based on the Strengths Perspective or Model where the focus is upon strengths rather than pathology (or diagnosis), the service-user directs the helping process and it supports the belief that people have the capacity to learn, grow and change.

This workbook is useful for confidence-building and in helping people to 'tell their story', so that their experiences of mental health problems can have positive outcomes for themselves and for others.

Wellness Recovery Action Plan

WRAP is a self management tool for staying well and for helping you to feel better when not well. Scottish Government's mental health improvement plan, Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland, promotes self directed approaches to recovery and mentions WRAP.

WRAP was developed in the USA by Mary Ellen Copeland, in response to her own challenges of living with mental ill health, and in consultation with others. It helps us look at what we are like when well, what we do on a regular basis to keep well, and action plans for coping with triggers, things that happen and are outwith our control. The crisis plan is a document that can be included in the Advance Statement and shared with supporters who may be friends, colleagues or family.

Mental Health Recovery and WRAP
The Copeland Center

books, articles, papers

Crazy Like Us

'Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the Western Mind' by Ethan Watters.
"A blistering and truly original work of reporting and analysis, uncovering America's role in homogenizing how the world defines wellness and healing." Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock
Link to book on Amazon: Crazy Like Us

The Glasgow Papers

Community Empowerment: Critical Perspectives from Scotland

"Community development in Scotland has a rich and diverse history. It has emerged from an ambivalent provenance: benevolent paternalism, social welfare (and control), and social and political action 'from below' in pursuit of social justice. It has been drawn upon to justify policies from left, right and centre of the political spectrum. It has been deployed in the state and voluntary sector and, more recently, has become embroiled in market competition. It is therefore a highly contested concept, with predictably unpredictable consequences."
Community Development Journal, September 2010, edited by Akwugo Emejulu and Mae Shaw.

Twelve theoretical texts that challenge the meaning of community empowerment and what practices people working in communities should undertake to achieve it - particularly in the current political climate. See complete Glasgow Papers

article

article

Training, Workshops, Events

paid and voluntary

2010

User Carer Involvement Workshops

Following the Mary O'Hagan May workshop on involvement there were 2 other user carer involvement workshops, the first on 29 October with guest speakers from the Highland Users Group - Graham Morgan and a HUG member who travelled from Skye, and friends from Dumfries, Glasgow, Falkirk, Crieff, Perth and Dundee. Read Graham's Talk and 29 October workshop report.
The 3rd workshop was held on 25 November with support and facilitation by Carolyn Little, User Carer Involvement Dumfries & Galloway

Peer Support Workshops

In Fife, funding from the Kirkcaldy & Levenmouth Local Mental Health Partnership enable PS workshops at Contact Point Kirkcaldy on 17 February and 24 March 2010, for people with mental health problems, carers and workers. And at Buckhaven Community Centre on 16 August 2010. Other PS workshops held at Perth in April and at Kirkintilloch in March.

Opportunities to discuss the peer support role, its relation to recovery, the benefits to those giving and receiving PS, potential risks and responsibilities. Participants came from a variety of settings and areas, including Edinburgh, Dumfries and Fife.

Mary O'Hagan Workshop

Over 40 delegates took part in the first user carer involvement workshop with Facilitator Mary O'Hagan, New Zealand Wellbeing Consultant,a leading international expert and original thinker in the field of mental health recovery based services, on 14 May 2010 in Cupar. Friends joined us from the Dundee, Perth and Falkirk areas, sharing experiences of involvement from a service user and carer perspective. Mary spoke of her own experiences using services and of being a leader with others in the planning and provision of services, challenging tokenism and setting agendas rather than fitting in with decisions already made. See 14 May Feedback Report

Promoting Inclusion Workshop

On the 10 & 11 March a workshop Promoting Inclusion, funded by Fife Council and NHS Fife, with facilitator Peter Bates, Head of Mental Health and Community Inclusion at the National Development Team for Inclusion. Peter wrote With Inclusion in Mind, a Scottish Government document on the local authority's role in promoting wellbeing and social development.

WRAP Training

A 2 day workshop was facilitated on 8 & 15 March 2010 in the Gateway, Perth. A mix of people who use services and service providers from voluntary and statutory mental health organisations joined together, to learn from each other and about WRAP.

At Going Forth, SAMH, Dunfermline, from January to March, a 6 week WRAP course with clients of the service and staff, also doing activities from the Kansas University's Pathways to Recovery strengths workbook.

2009

WRAP Training November

A WRAP 2 day workshop in an Arbroath based mental health organisation with people who use services, carers and staff, and an opportunity to complete their own WRAP plan.

October Event

United We Stand networking event for users and carers, held in Elmwood College, Cupar, on 14 October 2009. Over 80 people attended with and 14 workshops on offer. Here is the line-up - keynote speaker Graham Morgan MBE Highland Users Group; closing speaker Wendy McAuslan Voices of Experience; workshops from NHS Fife projects - Playfield Institute, Moodcafe, Gemini Team & Tidal Model developments; Angus Mental Health Association; Barony Contact Points; Fife Council Social Work Service; Going Forth SAMH; LINK Adolescent Befriending East Fife; Mental Health Network Greater Glasgow; Scotia Clubhouse & friends; User Carer Involvement Dumfries & Galloway.

Peer Support Workshops

In September a PS workshop at Going Forth, SAMH, Dunfermline

In January a day workshop on PS to Turning Point Scotland service users and staff

2008

Peer Support Workshops

In November two PS workshops at Turning Point Scotland in Glasgow

WRAP Workshops

WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Planning) workshop at Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, with 28 participants from Fife and other areas of Scotland. Co-facilitated by Eric Nicol of Turning Point Scotland.

See WRAP Poster 11 Aug 08

March - June

Action research project with Perth & Kinross Council to discover the adult learning needs in the Muirton and Fairfield areas of Perth, identifying barriers to learning and engaging with people who do not usually access learning opportunities. In the process of engagement I met with over 40 people individually, workers and residents, and with around 10 community groups to find out what it was like living and working in these areas, the hopes and concerns of people who cared about their locality and who had something to say.

first impressions (Blog entry)
*people care *sunny day *building going on *windows boarded *new beginnings *dogs running about *more building *colourful graffiti *rubble *old photos *good chat

See Action Research Report

April

Celebrating Recovery conference held in Elmwood College, Cupar and sponsored by Scottish Recovery Network. Over 120 people in attendance from many parts of Scotland and the north of England. Prof Phil Barker and Poppy Buchanan-Barker gave the keynote address, workshops led by Ron Coleman, Edinburgh Crisis Centre, Falkirk District Association for Mental Health, Horsecross Community drama group and Greater Glasgow Mental Health Network with final address by Susan Archibald, disability rights activist.

See Celebrating Recovery Programme

read all about it ...

website links

mental health

PeerSupportFife.org.uk
An emerging voluntary organisation working in mental health recovery to promote the peer support model - user, survivor and carer involvement - and peer advocacy.

Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance
SIAA promotes, supports and defends the principles and practice of independent advocacy across Scotland. It does this by:
* Providing a strong national voice for independent advocacy organisations
* Supporting the growth of existing independent advocacy organisations
* Promoting the development of new independent advocacy organisations
* Encouraging existing advocacy organisations towards independence

Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland
Scottish Government's mental health improvement policy and action plan.

SAMH
SAMH is the Scottish Association for Mental Health, Scotland's leading mental health charity:
"At SAMH we believe there is no health without mental health. We're here to provide help, information and support; to campaign on behalf of people with mental health problems and to raise money to fund our vital work. We're here for everyone, and we're here for you."

International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership
IIMHL seeks a future where everyone with a mental health problem and those who care for them have access to effective treatment and support from communities and providers who have the knowledge and competence to offer services that promote recovery. Conferences and exchanges are held every 18 months in one of 7 different member countries, in 2011 in San Francisco, USA.

other

www.scvo.org.uk
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations 'Stronger Together' works to support people to take voluntary action to help themselves and others, and to bring about social change.

www.moshersoteria.com
Dr Loren Mosher was instrumental in developing and researching an innovative, non-drug, non-hospital, home-like, residential treatment facility for acutely psychotic persons, in his role as Research Director of the Soteria Project.

DulwichCentre.com.au
Dulwich Centre is an independent centre in Adelaide, Australia involved in narrative therapy and narrative approaches. "Narrative approaches to counselling and community work centre people as the experts in their own lives and views problems as separate from people. Narrative approaches assume that people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments, and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives."