The IIMHN have launched a position paper on Trauma Informed Practice at the IIMHN Annual Conference on 18th/19th May 2017 “Collaborative Relationships-Challenges/Opportunities for Mental Health Nursing”, which identifies core internationally accepted principles by which nurses can easily, within their scope of practice and organisational responsibilities engage in trauma informed practice:
‘In light of contemporary evidence we can expect that the majority of people using mental health services do so in part because of unresolved trauma. Therefore it is incumbent upon mental health nurses to take a ‘Trauma Informed Practice’ approach to their interactions with service users’.

IIMHN Position Paper Trauma

Simon McCarthy-Jones has just had a new book published on hearing voices entitled “Cant you Hear Them”. It is fairly focused on the role of trauma, the alternative understandings and support provided by the HVM, and includes stories from people such as Pete Bullimore, which are important for the public hear.  Amazon in its description of the book describes how the “…experience of ‘hearing voices’, once associated with lofty prophetic communications, has fallen low. Today, the experience is typically portrayed as an unambiguous harbinger of madness caused by a broken brain, an unbalanced mind, biology gone wild. Yet an alternative account, forged predominantly by people who hear voices themselves, argues that hearing voices is an understandable response to traumatic life-events. There is an urgent need to overcome the tensions between these two ways of understanding ‘voice hearing’.”  The book considers neuroscience, genetics, religion, history, politics and the experiences of voice hearers themselves. It challenge established and seemingly contradictory understandings and tries to create a joined-up explanation of voice hearing based on evidence rather than ideology.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cant-Hear-Them-Simon-McCarthy-Jones/dp/1785922564/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1490713249&sr=8-1

The IIMHN would like to congratulate Professor Agnes Higgins on her appointment as Chairperson of Mental Health Reform. This is a hugely prestigious appointment in the field of mental care.  Mental Health reform is the national coalition, providing a unified voice driving progressive reform of mental health supports in Ireland. With over 50 member organisations and 10,000 individual supporters, MHR provides a consensus voice to Government and its agencies on how to improve the mental health system. MHR’s vision is of an Ireland where people with mental health difficulties can recover their wellbeing and live a full life in the community. MHR conducts research, consults with stakeholders, develops good practice advice, informs policymakers and public agencies, and mobilises supporters to advocate for change.
Congratulations Agnes, it is fitting recognition and acknowledgment of the transformative work you have done in the field of mental health care. We in the Irish Institute of Mental Health Nursing wish you every success in your new role.

The IIMHN in conjunction with the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin are please to offer a Master Class on ‘Understanding “Recovery” in mental health and disability: Critical approaches to practice, research and professional education’, to be delivered by Kathryn Church and Danielle Landry, School of Disability Studies, Ryerson University.  Places are limited booking is required, email: Jeni Ryan ryanjen@tcd.ie to book a place.

Monday 7^th November 2016- 4pm-6pm

Room 0.54,

School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, D’Olier Street.

Kathryn Church is Director and Associate Professor in the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University. A sociologist by training, Kathryn uses cultural forms –most recently public exhibits — to link social science inquiry to public education. She is co-curator of Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember an award-winning exhibit of activist disability history now in the permanent collection of the Canadian Human Rights Museum.  Kathryn’s involvement as a Mad movement ally dates back 30 years to the first formations of “consumer participation” and the use of psychiatric survivor narratives in/against mental health policy formation. She is the author of Forbidden Narratives: Critical Autobiography as Social Science, and a dozen plain-text documents on psychiatric survivor-led economic development initiatives, and the documentary film Working Like Crazy.  Co-researcher for the study Mental Health Recovery: Users and Refusers, she is currently engaged in the activist project of blending disability and Mad studies.

Danielle Landry teaches Mad People’s History in the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University. She is also a PhD student in sociology at York University in Toronto. Her SSHRC-funded doctoral research aims to re-theorize how we understand accessibility for people with psychiatric disabilities in the workplace. This research will involve conducting a case study of social enterprises currently operating in Ontario that are run by psychiatric consumer/survivors. Danielle’s MA research used critical discourse analysis to investigate psychiatric survivor-led research in Canada and the UK. As an active member of Toronto’s mad community, Danielle was involved in the Psychiatric Disabilities Anti-Violence Coalition and she is currently secretary of the board of the Empowerment Council, an independent systemic advocacy group operating within Canada largest mental health and addictions hospital (CAMH).

Mental Health Ireland is celebrating its 50^th Anniversary and to mark the occasion are holding a two-day Conference which will be held on Monday, 21^st  and Tuesday, 22^nd November, 2016 in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

This conference is an important milestone for Mental Health Ireland and it marks a very significant milestone for the organisation.  The theme of the conference is “Resilience, Wellbeing and Mental Health” and the conference is supported by Mental Health Europe who are hosting a pre-conference seminar.

The conference will focus on resilience from the perspective of individuals, families and society and will feature keynote speakers Peter Kinderman and Ilona Boniwell.

Link to conference information

Jigsaw (The National Centre for Youth Mental Health) are running an event  on the 14th September 2016 in the Mansion House.   

The event features Frank DeAngelis, the former principal of Columbine High School in conversation with Jigsaw’s Dr Tony Bates.  After 35 years as an educator Frank has many lessons for parents and anyone concerned about or working with young people. In a wide-ranging talk he will cover topics such as:
– The importance of being present and staying involved as parents, even when adolescents tell us we’re not needed
– Staying in touch with the role of social media in young people’s lives
– How to spot a young person in distress
– The role of self-care for those working on behalf of young people
Tickets are €25 and can be booked online through Eventbrite.com and all funds raised will support Jigsaw’s work with young people’s mental health in Ireland. For additional details click here.