The launch of a new national Hearing Voices Network, Hearing Voices Network Ireland (HVNI), will happen on Friday 17^th April 2015, 1.30 pm-4.30pm, at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, 24 D’Olier Street, Dublin 2.  The Network launch will be led by Jacqui Dillon, Chair of the Hearing Voices Network, England and founder of the Hearing Voices Movement worldwide, Professor Marius Romme from the Netherlands, on whose research the approach was founded.

With the launch of Hearing Voices Network Ireland, the Network joins over 30 nationally based networks around the world joined by shared goals and values, incorporating a fundamental belief that there are many ways to understand the experience of hearing voices and other unusual or extreme experiences.  It is part of an international collaboration between people with lived experience, their families and professionals, to develop an alternative approach to coping with emotional distress that is empowering and useful to people, and does not start from the assumption that people who experience voice hearing have an illness.

Over the past 3 years, the Irish Institute of Mental Health Nursing embarked upon a programme of training delivered by Jacqui Dillon in the development and facilitation of Hearing Voices groups. This training was delivered nationwide with the support of the mental health nursing programmes in TCD, UCC, DCU, NUIG, St Angela’s, Sligo and UCD and the Nursing & Midwifery Planning & Development Units.

Over 250 people; professionals, voice hearers and family members attended the facilitator training and to date over 15 groups have been established across the length and breadth of the country, with more groups in the process of development.

The event will also feature the official launch of the Hearing Voices Network Ireland logo created by Michelle Dalton, Irish Voice Hearer and artist, and the Hearing Voices Network Ireland website. ‘High Hopes’, Ireland’s first homeless choir will provide the entertainment on the day.

There is an open invitation to the launch, you can register for the event by sending an email to: launch@hearingvoicesnetworkireland.ie before 10^th April 2015

The IIMHN is pleased to announce the following dates for training in Hearing Voices Group facilitation in 2015.  Training will be delivered by Jacqui Dillon, CEO Hearing Voices Network UK.

3rd June 2015

One-day Hearing Voices awareness workshop in the Rainbow Clubhouse, Cherry Orchard Campus

1st, 2nd and 3rd July 2015

A three-day Hearing Voices group facilitation workshop in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Dublin

6th July 2015

One-day Hearing Voices awareness workshop in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

7th July 2015

One-day Hearing Voices awareness workshop in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

8th July 2015

One-day advanced Facilitation workshop for existing Hearing Voices group facilitators in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

1st September 2015

One-day Hearing Voices awareness workshop in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, NUIG

2nd September 2015

One-day Hearing Voices awareness workshop in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, NUIG

3rd September 2015

One-day advanced Facilitation workshop for existing Hearing Voices group facilitators in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, NUIG

For additional details of forthcoming events please contact Mark Monahan (Dublin), Ann Sheridan (UCD workshop), Harry Gijbels (Cork) or Siobhan Smyth (Galway)

Hearing Voices: Useful Resources

A Two-Day Conference organised by the School of Applied Social Studies and the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, in association with the Critical Voices Network Ireland

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

Venue: Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.

Booking: To book a place, email h.gijbels@ucc.ie Please make sure you give your name, and indicate the day(s) you wish to attend (either Wednesday 12 November, Thursday 13 November, or both days). Booking will be confirmed by return email.

Registration: Please bring the booking confirmation slip with you to the conference registration desk on the day(s) you are attending.

The conference offers opportunities:

• to consider the value and relevance of psychiatric diagnoses in understanding and responding to a wide range of human experiences of emotional distress
• to explore critical perspectives on and creative responses beyond psychiatric diagnoses

This conference, now in its sixth year, is unique as it is free for all participants and it involves people from diverse backgrounds (self-experience, survivors, professionals, academics, carers) presenting, discussing and debating critical and creative perspectives on and beyond the dominant bio-medical approach. The 2010 conference saw the launch of the Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI), a network of people interested in considering and developing responses to human distress, which are creative, enabling, respectful and firmly grounded in human rights. The conference will include an open forum to discuss the on-going work of the CVNI.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers (in alphabetical order):

Wilma Boevink, experiential expert, social scientist at Trimbos-Institute, the Netherlands.  Founder of Tree (towards Recovery, Empowerment and Experiential expertise).

Pat Bracken, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director, West Cork Mental Health Service.  Author, with Phil Thomas, of Postpsychiatry: Mental Health in a Postmodern World.  

David Harper, Reader in Clinical Psychology, University of East London.  Co-author of Deconstructing Psychopathology  and co-author/editor of Psychology, Mental Health & Distress.

Stuart Neilson lectures and writes about the autism spectrum and mental health in Adult Continuing Education UCC, incorporating his personal perspective as a client.

Olga Runciman, psychiatric survivor and chair of the Danish HVN. Works as a psychologist offering therapy to those who are often denied therapeutic help due to ‘severe mental illness’.

Jim Walsh is a self-proclaimed sceptic toward all that is accepted as certainty, or proclaimed to be ‘truth’.  Despite growing up in Northern Ireland at the height of the ‘troubles’, being subject to prolonged societal and environmental ‘stressors’ he still thinks himself lucky in life.

Concurrent Sessions: the conference also includes a series of workshops and oral presentations, related to the conference theme.

Full programme: full details will be available in early October on http://www.ucc.ie/en/nursingmidwifery/news/ and http://www.ucc.ie/en/appsoc/resconf/conf/ . Check http://www.uccconferencing.ie/walking-distance/ for accommodation.

To get to Brookfield (UCC) check http://www.ucc.ie/en/visitors/getting-here/ Parking facilities are limited around UCC. Try car park next to Kingsley Hotel, Victoria Cross (10 walk from venue via footbridge behind Western Gateway Building on Western Road). Coffees and lunches not included. There are restaurants and cafes in and around the conference venue.

The Conference organisers are Lydia Sapouna, School of Applied Social Studies and Harry Gijbels, Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, Ireland.   

The Irish Institute of Mental Health Nursing, in association with the HSE Dublin North Nursing and Midwifery Planning Development Unit are running a two-day programme entitled “Making Sense of Voices: A 2-day Training Course in using the “Maastricht Interview with a person who hears voices”. The workshop is designed for service providers in all settings. The course will be run in NUI Galway on the 8th and 9th December and UCC Cork on 15th and 16th December 2014. The course will be provided free of charge to participants.

About the course:

The Maastricht Interview is a semi-structured questionnaire that is used in therapy with people who hear voices. It was developed by Dr Sandra Escher and Professor Marius Romme, as a way to explore the experience of voice hearing in-depth and provide clinicians with the tools needed to build trust, openness and understanding. It can assist people who hear voices in a number of ways including:

•             Overcoming the shame of talking about voices

•             Validating and acknowledging the experience

•             Offering space and support to systematically map all aspects of the voices and build insight

•             Empower the individual by promoting acceptance and the opportunity to take charge

Who is the course for?

People who have a genuine interest in working with people who experience voice hearing, it will be open to voice-hearers, nurses, psychologists, doctors, support workers, youth workers, therapists, OTs, volunteers and social workers.

When?

NUI Galway on the 8th and 9th December 2014

UCC Cork on 15th and 16th December 2014

Where?

School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, 24 D’Olier Street, Dublin 2

How do I book a place?

Places on this programme are limited to 20 and will be allocated on the basis of an ability to attend both days with support from the service provider.

Please complete the Maastricht-training – Cork application form and send it to: Siobhan Smyth at siobhan.smyth@nuigalway.ie (Galway) or Harry Gijbels at H.Gijbels@ucc.ie (Cork)

Around 22% of 11-13 year-olds and 8% of older teens hear voices that other people don’t. For some these experiences are transient or pleasant, perhaps giving support or encouragement during times of stress or insecurity. For others, the voices can become overwhelming – bullying, threatening, distracting, commanding or criticizing them, leaving them feeling isolated and frightened. It can be such a stigmatizing experience that many hide it.  On Monday 14th April 2014 Rachel Waddingham, the Project Manager at Mind in Camden’s Voice Collective gave a Public Talk by in The School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC.  Rachel’s talk explored  the voice-hearing experience of  childhood and adolescence and the link between distressing voices, visions, emotions and traumatic life events.  the talk also explored ways of creating safe spaces for young people to open up about their experiences and find creative ways of coping with them, using simple youth-friendly coping strategies

About Rachel: Rachel (Rai) Waddingham manages the Mind in Camden’s Voice Collective project, supporting young people who hear voices/see visions (www.voicecollective.co.uk). Rai is a trustee of the English Hearing Voices Network & vice chair of ISPS UK. She is a media spokesperson, writer & trainer. Rai is also a voice-hearer.

You can watch Rachel’s presentation from the UCC talk using the streamed link: http://panopto.ucc.ie/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=273f2a59-b6e2-4a68-bbe3-a8adc7262956

The IIMHN in conjunction with the Mental Health Nursing Team at School of Nursing and Midwifery, TCD,  held a public lecture on the topic of “Being Human: Creativity in mental health care”.  The lecture was in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, TCD, 24 D’Olier Street, Dublin 2 on 17th June 2014 at 6 pm.  It was delivered by Professor Theo Stickley, Associate Professor in Mental Health at the University of Nottingham.

Professor Stickley trained and practised in both mental health nursing and counselling; he now teaches mental health nurses and researches the relationship between arts and health. Theo currently leads the Arts, Health & Wellbeing seminar series in the UK, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. He is Editor of the book: “Qualitative research in arts and mental health” and has published many research articles on the subject. One of his current projects is a comics anthology of people’s stories of recovery. As well as being a writer, Theo belongs the Nottingham Society of Artists and regularly draws and paints. He has recently set up a choir for people who use mental health services.

A Public Talk by Rachel Waddingham, Project Manager at Mind in Camden’s Voice Collective

Monday 14 April 2014 from 6.30 – 8.00 in Boole 4, UCC

Organised by: The School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC and The Irish Institute of Mental Health Nursing

Around 22% of 11-13 year olds, and 8% of older teens hear voices that other people don’t. For some these experiences are transient or pleasant, perhaps giving support or encouragement during times of stress or insecurity. For others, the voices can become overwhelming – bullying, threatening, distracting, commanding or criticizing them, leaving them feeling isolated and frightened. It can be such a stigmatizing experience that many hide it.

In this talk Rachel will explore:

• The experience of voice-hearing in childhood and adolescence
• The link between distressing voices, visions, emotions and traumatic life events
• Ways of creating safe spaces for young people to open up about their experiences and find creative ways of coping with them.
• Simple youth-friendly coping strategies

Who is this talk for?

This talk is open to anyone with an interest in gaining knowledge and understanding of young people’s voice hearing experiences

About the speaker

Rachel (Rai) Waddingham manages the Mind in Camden’s Voice Collective project, supporting young people who hear voices / see visions (www.voicecollective.co.uk). Rai is a trustee of the English Hearing Voices Network & vice chair of ISPS UK. She is a media spokesperson, writer & trainer. Rai is also a voice-hearer. See: www.behindthelabel.co.uk

Entry: Free

For information contact hgijbels@ucc.ie

The Irish Institute of Mental Health Nursing in conjunction with the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC,  held a public lecture by Dr Alastair Morgan entitled: Recovery: The ‘sacred cow’ of modern mental health care.  Alastair Morgan is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, England. He is the author of Adorno’s Concept of Life ( 2007, London and New York: Continuum) and the editor of Being Human: Reflections on Mental Distress in Society (2008, PCCS Books).

In this talk Alastair argued that the concept of  ‘recovery’ currently functions as  an ideology in mental health care, and enables mental health services to market themselves as ‘holistic’ and ‘user focused’ whilst maintaining  a biomedical and coercive approach to care.