Great conversations had & connections made at our Recovery Café!

Recovery Cafe in action!

A fabulous day of conversation and meaningful connections was had in the Red Cow Hotel, Dublin on Tuesday last (16th February) where the highlight was most definitely the afternoon’s great buzz of conversation when almost 200 people circulated in a “World Café” style event and chatted about what Recovery meant to them and what steps we need to take in order to make Recovery a reality in Ireland at this time.

During the course of the afternoon participants doodled and wrote the key points of their conversations on their table cloths which were then hung “in all their glory” for all to view.  All of this information/feedback is currently being compiled into an action plan which we will then distribute back to the Café attendees and also to Statutory and Voluntary agencies to raise awareness on the key points that were raised at the event.

The mornings proceeding were a little more conventional with a variety of speakers, including a number who spoke about their participation in the IMHREC Recovery and WRAP education programmes programme including me, (Valerie Maguire – IMHREC’s Programme Coordinator) and Piers Allot (the Recovery & WRAP Educator who delivered the programme).  We were also joined by Jessica Curtis and Con Buckley who participated on the Cork and Dublin training events respectively and who spoke very eloquently about the impact it had on their personal and professional lives.  Another angle was covered by Professor Agnes Higgins who outlined her teams experience of independently evaluating the IMHREC project.

Recovery Cafe Presenters: Jessica Curtis – Recovery & WRAP Programme Participant, Con Buckley – Recovery & WRAP Programme Participant, Minister John Moloney, Karen Colligan – Recovery & WRAP Educator, Valerie Maguire – IMHREC Programme Coordinator, Piers Allott – Recovery & WRAP Educator (in a previous life!), Karen Quigley – IMHREC Development Officer, Prof. Agnes Higgins – IMHREC Programme Evaluation Team.

We also had the pleasure of the Minister for Equality, Disability and Mental Health, Mr. John Moloney joining us on the day where we heard from him about the wider national context in relation to Mental Health. Ms. Rhona Jennings, Manager of the National Mental Health Services Collaborative also told us about this new project which she is implementing which, in alliance with the Mental Health Commission, the HSE and 10 sites across Ireland will seek further develop recovery orientated practice in Ireland

Another highlight was the 1st ever public viewing of IMHREC’s new DVD: “In Our Own words, An Irish Conversation on Mental Health Recovery” which was distributed on the day along with an accompanying poster “Mental Health Recovery & Me: Facilitating a new conversation”.  Also newly printed copies of the the latest revised edition of the “Little Book of WRAP” were distributed and all were very well received. (See below for further details.)

Kieran Fegan – STEER Ireland/IMHREC, Harry Gijbels – Sli Eile/IMHREC, Catherine Morris – Pobal, Valerie Maguire IMHREC Programme Coordinator, Rhona Jennings – Manager of National Mental Health Services Collaborative, Tom O’Brien – EVE Ltd./IMHREC, Jimmy Murphy – Mayo Mental Health Association/IMHREC, Piers Allott – Recovery & WRAP Educator, Margaret Webb – EVE Ltd./IMHREC, Greg Stynes – EVE Ltd./IMHREC, Karen Quigley – IMHREC Development Officer.

The day ended on a high note with loads of positive comments received from attendees on the how they enjoyed the day and especially enjoyed the opportunity to meet and network with others who are also passionate about positive mental health and recovery.  Our task now remains to sustain this positive energy as we go back to our “day jobs” and to hopefully stay connected with others we have met who share our passion for Recovery so that we can continue the dialogue with them and with others on how we can make Recovery a reality in all our lives!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who joined us and took part on the day! 

Stay well!

Valerie

P.s. A downloadable copy of the poster can is available here and the DVD has now been uploaded to this website which you can see in the download section.

We do have limited numbers of the DVD, Poster or little books of WRAP available for distribution so if you could like these to be sent on to you please contact one of the Consortium contacts listed in the “Contact Us” section giving both your name and postal address.