Irish Mental Health & Recovery Education Consortium

Remember those thoughts you wrote on the tablecloths at our Recovery Cafe on the 16th Feb. last?!  Well, the latest news is that ‘Our Karen’, (Ms. Quigley, our valued Development Officer) has been beavering away compiling all your valuable insights and (under not small time pressure, I might add) we have now fashioned this raw data into fabulous Recovery resources which you can download below! 

The posters and bookmarks are testiment to the great conversations had and amazing, collective knowledge generated at the event.  It would be a fitting legacy for IMHREC if these resources would go on to stimulate further conversation around what Recovery means to us and how we keep ourselves well. 

Enjoy and take care!

Posters….

Bookmarks…

Dr. Tony Bates, founding C.E.O. of Headstrong and previously the Principal Psychologist at St James’ Hospital, Dublin promoted IMHREC’s new Recovery DVD in his interview with Marion Finucane on Saturday last. 

You can listen to Tony’s interview on the podcast of Marian Finucane’s programme at the following link:

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/marianfinucane/ Go to Programme 19: Saturday 6th March – it’s about 1m 13s into the programme.

DVD Main presentation : “In Our Own Words”: An Irish Conversation on Mental Health Recovery

In the following extended chapter, the DVD participants give their own definitions of WRAP and personal examples of how they use the 8 different parts of WRAP or Wellness Recovery Action Planning. i.e.
1. Wellness Tools,
2. What am I like when I am well,
3. Triggers and Action Plans,
4. Early Warning Signs and Action Plans,
5. When Things are Breaking Down,
6. Crisis Planning and
7. Post Crisis Planning.

On the above DVD you will hear from people who come from a variety of different backgrounds across Ireland who all share a passion for positive mental health.   Speaking from their own experiences, they will be sharing some of their key ideas on:

• What Recovery is and what it means to them
• What they think is new about Recovery
• Some of the potential challenges and benefits of adopting a Recovery approach in their personal and professional lives

 You will also hear about a simple and systematic approach called Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP®), which has helped many people to recover and maintain wellbeing in their lives.

We hope that the information discussed here will lead you to think about the ways that you look after yourself, and hopefully it will also facilitate a conversation around Mental Health Recovery and what it means to you and the people around you.

Quotes from DVD Participants on Recovery:

“Recovery is lifelong learning, there are no qualifications.” – Ciaran

“People should have confidence that they will find recovery, at their own pace and in their own time. It’s a point where your feel comfortable with yourself.” – Martin

“There is recovery.  It doesn’t mean that life is perfect all the time, no-ones life is perfect all the time, but there is recovery.” – Marguerite

“ Recovery is a journey by yourself into yourself…” – Pauline

“There is HOPE, that people can and do recover. We’re all people in recovery.” – Valerie

“ In my experience… it makes for a happier life so I’d say go for it!” – Con

“Recovery is about hope and expectation.” – Caroline

“There is a change in the way that mental health is viewed and it is a change for good.” – Ena

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.

IMHREC are hosting an exciting new event called the Recovery Café on the 16th February next in Dublin’s Red Cow Moran Hotel.   

It is an event which is based on the World Café principles (www.theworldcafe.com) which will provide people from across Ireland with an interest in mental health, with an opportunity to come together and reflect reflect, exchange experiences, make connections and generate knowledge in order to focus our efforts into making mental health recovery a reality for everyone in Ireland in 2010 & beyond!

We are asking people to bring along their ideas, experience and knowledge, which we will hope they will share with other participants at The Recovery Café which operates on the core belief that everyone has something valuable to share!

Another feature of the event will be that the Minister for Equality, Disability and Mental Health at the Department of Health and Children, Mr. John Moloney T.D. will be launching IMHREC’s newly developed Recovery DVD & Poster. 

Professor Agnes Higgins & her team of researchers will also be reporting on their experience of independently evaluating IMHREC’s Mental Health Recovery & WRAP Education Programme.

The ‘main course’ of the day,  however, will be the conversations and connections made by the event’s participants in the afternoon.  (See Download section for event programme.) Unfortunately, due to space limitations and the nature of the event, this event has to be invite only but watch this space as we will be reporting on the outcomes of the Recovery Café’s conversations here on imhrec.ie!

The Irish Mental Health Recovery Education Consortium (IMHREC) is now approaching the final phase of the project.  At national level we have completed the 3 one day conferences, 9 two day workshops and November sees the culmination of the 3 five day facilitator training events in Dublin, Cork & Sligo. Demand for the programme is extremely high and regrettably many applicants have been disappointed that we cannot accommodate more people on our courses.

In response to the level of interest generated we will looking into further ways that we can assist those who may be interested in developing a programme similar to that devised by IMHREC.  Dissemination of the learning from our experiences will be a core legacy of the project.  The final evaluation report will be completed three months after the project expires.

IMHREC Cork Conference, 7th April, 2009 at the Charleville Park Hotel, Charleville, Co. Cork.  Picture of IMHREC Consortium Members and Conference Presenters. Back row, left to right: Margaret Webb (EVE Ltd., Dublin), Karen Colligan (Sefton Recovery Group Network, UK), Paul Guckian (Clare Mental Health Services), Kieran Fegan (STEER Ireland, Donegal). Front row, left to right: Piers Allott (Recovery Educator, UK), Valerie Maguire (IMHREC Programme Coordinator), Kate O’Sullivan (Ballyhoura Development Ltd., Limerick), Harry Gijbels (Sli Eile Housing Association, Cork), Joan Hamilton (Sli Eile Housing Association, Cork)

Following the successful national conference in Dublin, the first of the two regional conferences was held at the Charleville Park Hotel in Charleville, Co Cork, on 7 April. The conference was very well attended, with approximately 140 people attending, representing people with self experience, family members and mental health professionals. Piers Allott provided an excellent key note address, followed by equally excellent presentations by Karen Colligan from Liverpool and Paul Guckian from Ennis. The workshops in the afternoon, facilitated by Piers, Karen and Paul, generated lots of interesting debates and challenging questions. Feedback from the delegates was very positive, and the overall atmosphere was one of excitement and anticipation about the pending recovery education workshops. The day was joyously brought to a close with some fantastic impromptu flute playing by one of the delegates.

IMHREC Sligo Conference, 5th May 2009; Consortium Members and Presenters. Left to right: Jimmy Murphy – Mayo Mental Health Association, Gerard Finnegan – CEO STEER Ireland, Geraldine Jolley – Development Officer Mental Health Ireland, Kieran Fegan, STEER Ireland, Karen Colligan, Piers Allott, Valerie Maguire – IMHREC Programme Coordinator, Frank Cameron – EVE Limited, Karen Quigley – IMHREC Dublin Development Officer, Betty McGeough & Phil Chambers of Mayo Mental Health Services.

Conference Presenters: Geraldine Jolley, Valerie Maguire, Kieran Fegan, Karen Colligan, Piers Allott, Phil Chambers.

 A great day was had by all at the IMHREC conference at the Red Cow Moran Hotel on Thursday, 26th March last. The  buzz of fresh, new ideas was almost palpable amongst the 260 delegates who were informed by both national and international speakers on the recovery orientated approach to Mental Health using the WRAP approach.

*Please allow a few seconds for the following videos to work.

Video of Piers Allott’s introductory speech:

Dr. Glenn Roberts’ PowerPoint Presentation of Key Note Address

Video of Dr. Glenn Robert’s Key Note Address:

Michael Brazendale’s PowerPoint Presentation

Video of Michael Brazendale’s Presentation:

Mpume Mpofu’s PowerPoint Presentation

Video of Mpume Mpofu’s Presentation

Karen Colligan’s PowerPoint Presentation

Cillian Russell’s PowerPoint Presentation

Video of Cillian Russell’s Presentation:

Video of Edel Fortune’s Presentation:

Dr. Agnes Higgins- Project Evaluation Team Powerpoint Presentation