UNDERSTANDING VOICES
The new website www.understandingvoices.com was launched on September 11th with a public symposium in Newcastle upon Tyne on Hearing Voices: What do we need to know? The site has been designed by Hearing the Voice (Durham University) in close collaboration with voice-hearers, their families and allies, and mental health professionals.
Content includes: what it is like to hear voices; what’s happening in the brain; the pros and cons of medication; CBT; and peer support. It presents practical techniques and sheds light on the various links between voice-hearing and other factors such as inner speech, trauma, creativity and spiritual/religious experience.
The website is designed to change according to new research and new points of view. This means you can still potentially influence its content by submitting your comments here.
WHY WE NEED A REVOLUTION IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE
New book by Peter Kinderman
The Mad in America podcast this week is an interview with Peter Kinderman, about his recently published book A Manifesto for Mental Health, Why We Need a Revolution in Mental Health Care
UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOSIS & SCHIZOPHRENIA
BPS booklet now freely available as a download here
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DO YOU #KnowYourHumanRights
To support people to use human rights in their everyday interactions with public services, this new web-based tool has been developed by the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), and can be accessed online at www.knowyourhumanrights.co.uk. The site was developed with and for people with mental health issues to be able to know and use their human rights as a way to ensure they are treated with dignity and respect in health and care services. BIHR are encouraging people to use #KnowYourHumanRights when using social media to share information about their new resource. Posts can be shared from Facebook: @BHIRHumanRights and Twitter: @BIHRhumanrights.
DROP THE DISORDER! CHALLENGING THE CULTURE OF PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS
The book is finally here!
In 2016 Jo Watson hosted the very first ‘A Disorder for Everyone!’ event, with Dr Lucy Johnstone, to explore (and explode) the culture of psychiatric diagnosis in mental health. Since then, they have delivered events in towns and cities across the UK, bringing together activists, survivors and professionals to debate psychiatric diagnosis. This book takes the themes, energy and passions of the AD4E events – bringing together many of the event speakers with others who have stories to tell and messages to share.
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LHVN TRAINING
This 3 day training course equips you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to set up a new Paranoia & Beliefs Group or to co-facilitate an existing one.
About Paranoia & Beliefs Groups
Hearing Voices Groups are internationally established, and a valuable source of support. But in 2011, Mind in Camden piloted a new and innovatory project (based on the work of Peter Bullimore in Sheffield) to develop Paranoia & Beliefs Groups. These groups can provide the same benefits as a traditional hearing voices group, but with the emphasis instead on exploring alternative realities and differing beliefs. There are currently 15 Paranoia & Beliefs peer support groups in London.
It was an excellent course, the content was sophisticated and clearly explained. A great mix of learning about technical models etc in a comprehensive but not patronizing way, combined with sharing of real experiences. (Feedback from trainee in 2018)
Who is it for?
Anyone with the motivation and aptitude for working collaboratively and non-judgementally: professionals, service users, people with or without lived experience of voice-hearing, psychologists, MH nurses, O.T.'s, social workers, housing support workers, volunteers, NHS peer workers.
Introduction
Those of us who support children and young people who hear distressing or difficult voices are constantly developing, finding new ways to approach voice-hearing with young people and support them towards their self-defined recovery. Each young person and family is unique – one size does not fit all.
About This Workshop:
We require applicants to have attended either our ‘Supporting Children and Young People who Hear Voices’ training course, or our ‘Voice Collective Group Facilitation’ training course. Using examples drawn from attendee’s prior experience of working with young voice-hearers, the workshop explores the following topics:
- Developing trust and therapeutic relationships with young people who may not trust easily
- Understanding ‘taboo voices’ (voices that talk about things the young person – and society – find very difficult, including violence & sexuality)
- Finding safe ways of talking about voices and visions with young people in distress
- Working with different, and often conflicting, perspectives on a young person’s experiences
- Working with alternative belief systems (e.g. cultural or spiritual perspectives)
- Using creativity to support conversations
- Applying this learning within the workplace
About this workshop:
This workshop will provide an innovative approach to understanding and supporting young people experiencing paranoia or unusual beliefs. Through a combination of discussion, practical activity and role-play, it will cover:
- Understanding paranoia and unusual beliefs & the impact these experiences can have on young people
- Making sense of the different explanatory frameworks for paranoia and unusual beliefs
- How to open up conversations with young people about their experiences
- Practical coping strategies for managing distress
- Supporting recovery and resilience
Who is it for?
It is open to young people with lived experience, who are aged 16 or over. Also open to anyone supporting or working with young people.
ELIGIBILITY
The course is free for those who work within a prison, IRC, medium/high secure forensic unit with people who hear voices, see visions, experience extra-sensory phenomena or strong beliefs. Please register quickly to avoid disappointment. Please note, you must be able to attend the whole day.
About this workshop:
Talking about race & racism can be difficult. For those of us working in prisons, immigration removal centres and forensic units we might be aware that rates of incarceration are higher than they should be for racialised people. Is race something we need to talk about, to have meaningful, healing relationships with the racialised people we're working with?
- The structural realities that shape our awareness of racism
- Concepts to do with racism
- How both black and white bodies hold racialised trauma, especially in forensic settings
- How to work with our anxiety when it comes to responding to issues around race
- How we can engage with race in a meaningful way for the people we work with
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LHVN NETWORK MEETING
Wednesday 11th December 2019
2pm - 5pm
VENUE ADDRESS
Mind in Camden
Barnes House
9-15 Camden Rd
NW1 9LQ
Please let us know if you will be attending, and encourage your group members to attend. It is a meeting for group members, and anyone interested, as well as facilitators.
Speaker: DAVID NAPTHINE
18 months ago, David's play The World Is Never Quiet premiered as part of the exhibition in Durham Hearing Voices: Suffering, Inspiration and the Everyday. The play tells real stories of voice-hearing from real people, and he described his writing process thus: Conversations began with a series of prompts on cards. I made notes as we talked. I then sat at my desk, opened a beer and scribbled, crossed-out, re-wrote, washed the dishes, took the dog for a walk, stared out of the window, watched Wales lose at rugby, grunted at family, opened more beers and so on.
As Writer in Residence for Hearing the Voice, he has worked alongside the poet Gillian Allnutt on Writers’ Inner Voices - a project that tries to understand writers’ and storytellers’ inner speech, and the role that the inner voice (or voices) plays in the process of literary creation.
VOICE COLLECTIVE
For children and young people who hear voices, see visions or have other sensory experiences that others don't.
Peer support group for 16-25's who hear voices
Wednesdays, 5.15-6.30
Self-referral form here
The group is co-facilitated each week by 2 members of the Voice Collective team to keep it safe & confidential.
Any questions get in touch on in...@voicecollective.co.uk
Online forum for young voice hearers (up to 25)
More info here
Download flyer
Also for their families, and professionals who work with them. The forum is moderated 365 days a year by the Voice Collective team to keep it safe, confidential & anonymous - you can choose a nickname when you apply to join. The online discussion spaces for young people, families and professionals are 100% separate.
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26th September, London
The speakers will be Elisabeth Svanholmer, Rufus May & Charlie Heriot-Maitland
Miserable Bitches
9th October, London
Standup comedy featuring overtly mental comics: Emily McQuade, Pol Penter & Kym Winstanley
The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia
10th October, London
Nathan Filer will present his recently published book of the same name, at an event at the Royal College of Nursing
Life Stories: Surviving Suicide
10th October, London
Directed by Jeremy Weller and hosted by Talk for Health, “Life Stories” is an examination of suicide, based on a series of workshops with those that have survived. These raw and honest personal experiences remind us how important it can be, to talk and reach out when in crisis.
Mental Wealth Festival
8th-12th October, London
The festival provides a forum for informative, challenging and inspiring discussions and workshops exploring mental health issues and takes place across different venues in London.
Whiteness and Race Equality Network workshop
14th October, London
This event is a celebration of the work of cultural journalist, Martin Shaw, and of the Whiteness and Race Equality Network towards civil and political rights of young children, and BAME men and families’ experiences within mental health and sport.
Working with Gender Diversity: trans, cis, non-binary and beyond
19th October, Ireland
This day will endeavour to clarify what gender is, and how it relates to mental health. It will consider what gender-affirmative therapy might look like.
Supporting Voice-hearers in the Workplace
23rd October, Oxford
This Seminar will cover: employers who provide inclusive workplaces; the role of Employment Law and the Disability Discrimination Act; developing ‘Reasonable Accommodations’ for voice-hearers; issues of stigma and discrimination.
The future of Hearing Voices Network Cymru
23rd October, Llanelli, Wales
Recently Hearing Voices Network Cymru was established as a not for profit company. Therefore we want to bring together voice hearers, family members and mental health workers to discuss and plan the future of HVN Cymru.
NSUN 2019 Members' event and AGM
24th October, York
To be held this year in York, with the theme: The Value of User-led Groups. Featuring AGM business, presentations, music and entertainment, workshops, plus the ever-popular soapboxes. Stalls for organisations are available at a cost of only £50 each and are FREE for user-led organisations. To book one, email in...@nsun.org.uk.
World Hearing Voices Congress
11-13th November, Montreal, Canada
The 11th World Hearing Voices Congress will be hosted by The Quebec Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation as part of its 19th biennial conference. The theme will be Uniting our voices – to face the future! A flyer is available that you can transmit to your networks. As with previous conferences, the first day will be dedicated to Intervoice’s member networks on 11th November.
Beyond the Medicines/Drugs Dichotomy: Historical Perspectives on Good and Evil in Pharmacy
5-7 December 2019, Johannesburg, S.A.
"The dichotomy between pharmacologically-active substances considered legitimate (and therefore worthy of regulation as medicines, and also provided as public goods) and those considered problematic (and therefore deserving of moral and legal opprobrium, prohibition and sanction) has informed global regulatory regimes for decades." (Andy Gray, 2017)
How Does the Power Threat Meaning Framework relate to those who perceive their experience in spiritual terms?
17 January 2020, London
Come and take part in an inclusive, non-hierarchical ‘Open Space’ innovative event – organised by Emerging Proud - have your voice heard. Every attendee will have the opportunity to speak.
Compassion Focused Therapy
for people with attachment trauma and a diagnosis of personality disorder
24 February 2020, Milton Keynes
This one-day event will feature one of the UK's leading clinicians in CFT, Kate Lucre. Attendees will be shown the science, clinical applications and latest research findings of Compassion Focused Therapeutic work with people who have received a personality disorder diagnosis.
REGULAR EVENTS
Compassionate Mental Health
Compassionate Mental Health is part of a growing worldwide movement calling for a more integrative approach to mental health – one that relies less on diagnosis and prescription drugs, and more on empowering the person and engaging their social networks. Regular events are held every six months or so.
Drop the disorder: a disorder for everyone
Discussing the critical questions of the day around the biomedical model in mental health. Multiple events upcoming all the time. Next up will be Birmingham & Cardiff. You can find out more here.
Melancholy & Raving
Provides a space for people with personal experience from either inside or outside the mental health system to share and connect through performance. Meet 8pm–10pm on the last Monday of the month in the upstairs dysfunction room at The Ship pub, 68 Borough Road, SE1 1DX.
F.E.E.L. (Friends of East London Loonies)
Meet the 3rd Monday of the month at LARC 62 Fieldgate St, Whitechapel E1 1ES Campaigning for fairer & compassionate mental health care since 2007. Humane therapy, not drugs tyranny! Working together, greater results can be achieved.
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