Book of Abstracts
‘CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON AND BEYOND PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES’
12 AND 13 NOVEMBER 2014
6th Annual Conference
Organised by
The School of Applied Social Studies
The Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery
University College Cork, Ireland
In association with
The Critical Voices Network Ireland
INFORMATION ON VENUES:
The conference is held in the Brookfield Health Science Complex (College Road). Figures in brackets
after the venue name e.g. (60) refer to the maximum number of people the concurrent presentations can
accommodate. There is no pre-registration for the concurrent presentations, so if a session is full, please go
to another one.
LOCAL RESTAURANTS:
Note: Lunch is not provided, but is available on and close to the conference venues. The following list of
restaurants and cafés may be of assistance.
Campus (Conference Venues)
1
Kylemore restaurant & café- Brookfield
2
Kylemore restaurant & café -Western Gateway Building
3
Kylemore restaurant Pharmacy Building College Road
4
Kylemore café Biosciences Building Aras na Laoi
Off Campus
1
Bagel Box, Castlewhite Apartments’ entrance, Western Road
2
Café Kiwi, College Road
3
Brookfield café, at the entrance of Brookfield Village, College Road
4
Various other small ‘eateries’ (cafes, sandwich bars, pizzerias etc) along Victoria
Cross, within 5 minutes’ walk west from the Western Gateway Building
Book of Abstracts Lay Out
The Book of Abstracts is organised in chronological order starting with the keynote presentations of each
day, followed by the concurrent sessions on that day. Details are provided on the venue, the presenter(s),
the presentation title, presentation information and the presenter(s)’ background, as provided by them.
We hope you will find it of benefit to you in attending the conference key note presentations and concurrent
sessions and as a point of future reference.
Key note presentations, with the respective presenters’ consent, will be available a few weeks after the
conference at
www.ucc.ie/en/nursingmidwifery/NewsEvents/ and www.ucc.ie/en/appsoc
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the following people for their support in making this conference possible: Professor
Alastair Christie, Head of School of Applied Social Studies, Professor Eileen Savage, Head of School of
Nursing and Midwifery, and for their overall support; the Irish Institute of Mental Health Nursing
(www.iimhn.ie) and the Bray branch of Renew for their generous donations; Orla Buttimer, Buildings and
Estates, for facilitating conference venues’ bookings; Regina Murphy, Therese Aherne, Jane O’Leary and
other administrative staff, School of Nursing and Midwifery for their administrative support and assistance;
Tony Archer and Thomas Erlandsson, School of Nursing and Midwifery, for their Audio-Visual and
Information Technology support, Teresa O’Callaghan and staff, General Services, for general services
support, and last, but not least, student help for assisting in various ways.
Enjoy the conference.
Harry Gijbels and Lydia Sapouna, Conference Organisers
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Wednesday 12 November
Keynote Presentations
9.45 am BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 1
Olga Runciman; Is Voice Hearing Creating a Diagnostic Conundrum?
One of the most contentious debates in the field of mental health is whether mental distress is biogenetic or
whether it results from traumatic lived experiences. Some might argue that it does not matter, but anyone
who has ever received a diagnosis for mental distress knows that it does. Treatment is determined by those
making the diagnosis, and psychiatric diagnoses have social consequences, especially the more severe
ones. Indeed there are those who argue that they can be catastrophic:
“‘Diagnosing someone with a devastating label such as ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘personality disorder’ is one of the
most damaging things one human being can do to another.” Lucy Johnstone (2013)
People who hear voices and have other unusual experiences have typically been assigned the diagnosis of
schizophrenia and within psychiatry this diagnosis has traditionally been seen as the epitome of mental
illness. With the rise of the Hearing Voices Movement and its refusal to be defined within a narrow illness
context, psychiatry’s medical model and diagnostic paradigm is being profoundly challenged. I will be basing
my talk on my thesis, which, through the lens of postpsychiatry, looks at the consequences of being labeled
schizophrenic, how the hearing voices network is affecting this and what all this might bode for the future.
Olga Runciman, psychiatric survivor and chair of the Danish HVN, is today a psychologist working with
and offering therapy to those who are often denied therapeutic help due to 'severe mental illness'. She sees
the hearing voices movement as post-psychiatric, working towards the recognition of human rights while
offering hope, empowerment and access to meaning making. She has worked extensively with trauma and
abuse and is an international speaker as well as writer, campaigner and artist.
10.30 am BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 2
Stuart Neilson; The Value of Labelling
Labelling people with autism spectrum diagnoses is contested, with conflicts between those attempting to
normalise autistic traits through diagnosis versus those concerned by the stigma of medicalization. Likewise,
neurodiversity advocates are in conflict with advocates for people with classic autism, and children are in
conflict with parents over identity versus disease. The demedicalization of autism has been likened to
striking homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, bringing us 'out of
the closet'. Autism is often invisible in some settings, times, places or states of mind and disabling in others.
No person with autism is a fully 'normal' human (the 'typically developing child' or 'TDC' in current
terminology) and we are already labelled by anyone who notices difference. Alternative labels of difference
include playground taunts, co-workers' put-downs and medical professionals' dismissals of being difficult or
uncooperative. These imposed labels are invariably less kind, more exclusionary and less effectual than
autism spectrum disorder. Accurate labels can act as the gateway to resources and shorthand to the most
appropriate therapy. More importantly, for people at risk of imposed labels, words have the power to define
or overturn power structures within and between groups. Reclaiming our own labels for ourselves asserts
identity and defines community memberships. People with ASD and those who understand them are best
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placed to decide which labels and diagnostic categories (if any) provide the greatest support in any given
circumstance, and when 'pretending to be normal' is a better option.
Stuart Neilson lectures and writes about the autism spectrum and mental health in Adult Continuing
Education UCC, incorporating his personal perspective as a client. He feels that his own interactions with
mental health services have benefited immeasurably from a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in adulthood.
He was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 2009 at the age of 45, following a number of years of
ineffective psychiatric treatment. He previously lectured in statistics at Brunel University, where he was
director of medical information systems in the Centre for the Study of Health, Sickness and Disablement
(CSHSD). His first degree is in computer science and he has a doctorate in mathematical modelling of
inherent susceptibility to fatal disease. Stuart Neilson's most recent publications include “Living with
Asperger syndrome and autism in Ireland” and “MND Essentials: Your Fifty Key Questions Answered”.
Email: stuartneilson@eircom.net
14.00 pm BHSC G02 Keynote Presentation 3
Jim Walsh; What Price Recovery?
Programmes for modernization involve systems that measure, assess, evaluate, and categorize. Psychiatry,
as a relatively modern enterprise has developed in line with these requirements. However, opinions on its
systems of classification and corresponding treatment regimes are divided. A major challenge to traditional
psychiatric practices has come from personal stories of recovery and counter narratives. This I will argue
has set in motion a ‘war of subjectivities’ where stories of recovery from mental ill health are exposed to
interpretation and in true capitalist fashion bought and sold in order to further interests of particular
stakeholders.
Jim Walsh used mental health services for approximately 14 years. During that time he returned to
education completing a degree in Psychology at Queens University, Belfast. Later he became employed by
the Simon Community working in a residential for homeless people, and a health trust in Northern Ireland;
first as a Day Care Worker, later coordinating a partnership initiative - the Mental Health Alliance. He is coauthor of a number of journal papers and reports, and a book chapter on user involvement in research. He
lectured full time in mental health at the School of Nursing and Social Sciences, Dublin City University, from
November 2006 to May 2010, where presently he is a PhD candidate. Jim is currently working as Training
and Development Officer for the Irish Advocacy Network and continues to lecture at several universities
across Ireland.
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Wednesday 12 November
Concurrent Presentations
12.00-12.45 Concurrent Sessions A
BHSC G04 (120) Solas; Finding Solace in the Hills of Donegal
Solas Donegal is a HSE mental health outdoor recreation programme. The basis of the programme is
walking, talking and listening. Walking together allows us to share experiences, to listen, and be listened
to. The programme places a strong emphasis on the social model of recovery, with its core purpose to
support participants to recover and re-emerge after or during a period of mental health difficulty. Many
participants have been given a psychiatric diagnosis, and so have a unique insight into both the medical and
social models of recovery. Psychiatric diagnoses form the basis of medical treatment; and while some
people are relieved to have a name for their mental health difficulty, others find being labelled as bipolar,
schizophrenic, etc. as distressing or unwelcome. With this in mind, and encompassing the conference
theme, we at Solas strive to support our participants to identify realistic options and pathways to building a
future which is both self-governed and autonomous, regardless of their diagnosis or label. Solas participants
will lead the workshop and give an overview of the programme, while also sharing their individual
experiences of the mental health system in Ireland. A question and answer session will follow. In
conclusion, at Solas we strive to ensure that a diagnostic label does not define, restrict or hinder a person’s
ability to fulfil their hopes and desires to live and participate in a full and rewarding life.
Solas is a HSE rehabilitative training programme based in the scenic costal village of Falcarragh in Donegal.
The programme engages people who have been involved with the mental health system in outdoor group
activities. The basis of the programme is walking, talking and listening. Various other outdoor activities run
at different times throughout the year and personal development, vocational and lifeskills training are also
integral aspects of the programme. Participants are involved in all stages of programme development and
planning. Solas uses a person-centered approach which allows for individuality. The aim is to restore
confidence, break isolation, and create a caring, listening atmosphere, leading to enhanced quality of
life.The programme was set up in October 2005. There are 12 places available and participation can vary
from between 3 months to 2 years depending on individual needs. www.solasdonegal.org
BHSC G05 (120) Margaret Curran and Deirdre Gibbons; Psychiatric Drugs: Their life limiting
effects from a legal and creative viewpoint.
Margaret Curran, Artist and Art Therapist, has worked in the Mental Health Area as an art therapist for
the last ten years. She would like to talk about how she feels psychosis and other emotional crises can be
healed through alternative means including creative mediums such as art rather than psychotropic drugs.
She will also talk about her experience of working in the mental health field for the last ten years.
Deirdre Gibbons, Solicitor, was prescribed Seroxat for anxiety over 15 years ago for one year. Deirdre
had a serious adverse reaction to these drugs. She would like to talk about her shock at finding out that
such drugs carry such seriously damaging side effects and about her pathway to finding herself again
having gone through such a deeply traumatic experience. We would also like to discuss alternative
residential options to admissions to psychiatric hospitals such as the Soteria and Open Dialogue projects.
BHSC G06 (120) Catherine Hartley & Chris Lee; The Madness of Management: Using Art and
Drama to Survive the Crisis
As managers of a busy mental health team in London we have seen the effects on mental health service
provision of both a pro-market managerialism and a more recent politics of austerity. There has been a
consequent marginalisation of therapeutic intervention in favour of performance management and budget
savings. Risk management dominates what is left of the therapeutic focus and funding for each service
user will soon be dependent on which “cluster” (a mix of diagnosis and social functioning) is assigned. A
reductive diagnostic model that leads to the cheapest “evidence based” intervention now dominates the
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scene. Our response has been to write and speak widely about how to use art and drama to help preserve
the social care model and the values and beliefs that created the NHS. We are trying to rediscover and
reaffirm a multi-disciplinary alliance that upholds core professional values, preserves room for debate and
disagreement and promotes a radical rather than a neo-liberal recovery model. Our presentation starts with
a short play to welcome you into our world. We then illustrate our main points by looking together at some
well- known paintings. We finish by constructing a values preservation guide and by considering the
emergence of Recovery Colleges; asking to what extent these can offer an alternative to a rigid, pared
down medical approach. We hope that this will be a stimulating and refreshingly different workshop and
welcome active participation and discussion on our presentation and whether it has parallels for the other
participants.
Catherine Hartley and Chris Lee are social workers and service managers of community mental health
teams in London. They are also specialist members of the Mental Health and the Social Entitlement
Tribunals and independent trainers. Chris Lee is also an award winning and internationally performed
playwright. They use art and drama to explore the effects of neoliberalism and austerity on the public
sector and aim to help people to keep hold of their values and beliefs. Most recently they ran a seminar
and masterclass for the University of Glasgow and Royal Society of Edinburgh Health Humanities series and
have also presented seminars in the Universities of Glasgow, Goldsmiths, Kent and Monash. In March,
Chris’s play Ten Daydreams for Hilda McCarthy premiered in the State Theatre, in Stockholm.
BHSC 1.01 (70) Raphaela Heaslip; An Experiential Taster Using Sesame Drama and Movement
Therapy for Growth and Healing
Sesame drama and movement therapists work in the understanding of the Jungian concept that ‘our
psyches work towards balance’, with the overall aim of fulfilling our potential. We recognize that each
individual knows best her/his timing and provide a professional, supportive, respectful, imaginative space
for individual development –working obliquely through the art forms of drama and movement. This
workshop will offer an experiential taste of Sesame; you will take part in a myth with themes of growth and
healing. In all of our work each participant chooses her/his own role. No previous experience of drama or
movement is necessary. To find out more about Sesame please visit www.sesame-institute.org
Raphaela Heaslip; My patchwork of professional and personal life experience includes 20 years a growing
as a Sesame drama and movement therapist, administrator for Sesame in Ireland and promoter of Sesame
in Europe and the Americas. I also bring experience of depression and of being fearfully close to the edge.
I enjoy the fruiting of family life and the fun of grand mothering. Living in the country, I am both inspired
and nurtured by nature. Membership of a Spiritual Association supports my development and work.
BHSC 1.22 (70) Mary Rae and Gerardine Boyle; From Enemy to Ally
Mary Rea expert by experience, a voice hearer and mother of six is happy to share her journey and
experiences of voice hearing with you. Mary considers herself a very lucky woman because of the voice
hearing approach to recovery she now has a friend who will never go away.
Gerardine Boyle, art therapist, Dialetical Behavioural Therapist, mindfulness practitioner and teacher is
happy to share ways that she has integrated the voice hearing approach into her work with clients in the
HSE.
BHSC 1.04 (30) Robert O’Driscoll; Getting Personal about Evidence-based Practice
This workshop will be an overview of the introduction of the Adolescent Community Reinforcement
Approach into the addiction treatment and health and social care service in the HSE south area. This is
based on my doctoral study and will be a participatory and experiential workshop where participants will be
invited to reflect on their own conceptualisations of what evidence based practice is and the role it has in
guiding or shaping their practice in the field. The invitation will be to recognize where their concept of
evidence-based practice has come from, and how this has led to the current situation or role it has for them
in their practice now, and if and how they see it influencing their work into the future.
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Robert O’Driscoll is an addiction counsellor with the HSE South Child and Adolescent Addiction Services
and an accredited member of the Addiction Counsellors of Ireland. Robert co-ordinates the Certificate and
Diploma in Addiction Counselling programmes for the HSE. He lectures for UCD/MQI on the Certificate in
Drugs Counselling and Intervention Skills and is course tutor for the National University of Ireland Maynooth
Addiction Studies course. He has a wife and son, lives in East Cork and is writing his thesis for a
Professional Doctorate in Glyndwr University in Wales.
BHSC 2.25 (50) Veronica Carson & Sheila Finn; Exploring and Understanding our Hidden Selves
a Little Better
R.D. Laing, the British psychiatrist, was once quoted as saying that the psychiatric system functions as a
mutually reciprocal projection system. In other words the person who is doing the diagnosing is actually
projecting their own unconscious conflicts on to you, the "patient", who is sitting across the desk from
them. In this stressful situation when you're being diagnosed, always keep these facts in mind, but, and this
is important, keep them to yourself. In our presentation we would like to explore through an interactive
exercise, how each of us project on to others our own pre judgments’, and how unconsciously we expect
others to behave. Here within the group session one has the opportunity to explore this at a deeper level,
we will follow this with a body scan that works with our senses, it will present us with a space to be patient
kind and compassionate to ourselves, affirming a non-judgmental attitude towards ourselves and others.
Veronica Carson RPN, MIAHIP, Reg.ICP, Psychotherapist, Group Facilitator I have worked as a psychiatric
nurse for over twenty years and have vast experience in all settings. At present I work in a private practice.
I am an accredited psychotherapist for the past five years with a keen interest in group work. I have
facilitated many groups both here and in Scotland. I have a strong belief that if people can learn to believe
in themselves then anything is possible. I have completed the hearing group facilitation training and I have
a real interest in this work.
Sheila Finn MIAHIP, MIACP, Reg.ICP. Psychotherapist, Group Facilitator; My background is that I've been
involved in fostering children for the last 20 years; during this time I have assisted in developing and
delivering training to new foster families as well as preparing and running workshops on such topics as
attachments and promoting positive mental health. I work as a group facilitator and have presented
workshops in both primary and post primary schools as well as for IFCA I maintain a private therapeutic
practice in Mayo. I am a craino sacral therapist and I have also trained in hearing voices support group
facilitation. I am very interested in this work as I feel it empowers people to take ownership of their own
lives and helps them to develop positive coping skills and self supports.
15.00-15.45 Concurrent Sessions B
BHSC G02 (250) Miranda De Barra; My Bipolar Expedition
I aim to show that sharing my story with a bipolar diagnosis is a decision reached by living through 16
years of struggling with various critical perspectives. My intention is to paint a broad picture of my life
story with bipolar disorder, the different ways I have thought about and dealt with it and how I have
achieved a hard won victory and how my life in recovery and self – management now continues.
Introduction – Before diagnosis: Moods, emotional disposition, triggers into first nervous breakdown.
Part One – Diagnosis, early years: Reaction to diagnosis, early experience - stigma, societal reactions
eg. loss of jobs, home & friendships. First clinical depression.
Part Two - Coping strategies, repeated relapses: Adopting different perspectives as coping
mechanisms:1 Denial – denying I was ill, stopping medications, repeated re-admission to hospital.
2 Escape – Turning to alternative opinions on psychoses and experiences, New Age beliefs, Searching for
answers.
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3 Lying – Developing a different version of my life to tell others about my past, excuses for behaviours and
events related to my illness.
Part Three - The final perspective and life in recovery: Acceptance and speaking out as an expert of
experience, telling my story.
Miranda de Barra; I use my story with a 16 year bipolar diagnosis to inspire others through insight,
positivity and demonstration of self-sovereignty. I deliver public talks as an inspirational speaker as well as
a storyteller with lived experience of mental illness. I am an ambassador for Ireland's anti-stigma campaign
See Change and a champion speaker for the UK's largest anti-stigma organisation, Time To Change. I am
an advocate for speaking out about personal lived experience of mental illness with the aim of dissolving
stigma, transforming uninformed attitudes and inspiring others with diagnoses on many levels. Recently, I
spoke out on Irish radio, the BBC and represented over 3000 champions by speaking at Time To Change's
national London conference. I also produced and spoke at a public talk where the Chief Executive from
Mind's Herefordshire branch and the South-West UK co-ordinator from Time To Change came to speak
alongside me.
BHSC G05 (120) Dan Taylor; Chronicity in Psychiatry
This workshop aims to highlight and explore the notion of chronicity in psychiatry. 'Chronicity', meaning
illness extended over time, is a term which is unfamiliar, and appears only occasionally in the literature on
psychiatry. However this obscurity, it will be suggested, belies the extent to which this unchallenged notion
fundamentally supports psychiatric thinking and impacts powerfully on the lives of those diagnosed with a
mental illness. Drawing upon the work of the French psychiatrist and philosopher Georges Lanteri-Laura,
and the first (ongoing) translation of his 1997 book ‘La Chronicité en Psychiatrie’, the workshop will
introduce the concept of chronicity, its origins, and how it is embedded, but evident, in current psychiatric
practices, norms and beliefs. Prof. Lanteri-Laura employed Thomas Kuhn's notion of the paradigm (a preeminent model of thinking common to all scientific disciplines) and extended it to the development of
modern psychiatry. He proposed that, mental institutions, in which psychiatry developed in the 19th and 20th
centuries, continue to shape the thinking which underpins psychiatry today, and that the approach to socalled mental disorders as systematized in the DSM, is a return to the old medical notion of a syndrome,
having a predictable course and outcome, and an underlying, intractable disease process. While the large
old institutions have gone, it is argued, the practices which grew up in them have persisted, and are now
kept in place by new imperatives which may be starkly at odds with an emerging Recovery paradigm in
mental health care. A short presentation is planned, followed by discussion.
Dan Taylor; After doing various jobs and backpacking around India, Dan began training as a psychiatric
nurse in London in 1997. He has worked mainly in the voluntary sector since. Completing his MSc thesis in
Psychosocial Interventions in Mental Health Nursing in UL in 2010, Dan researched the experiences of
people who were homeless engaging with psychiatric services. He became interested in the concept of
chronicity, and in Phenomenology in philosophy, and its place in research in the social sciences. In 2011
Dan enrolled on the PhD in Nursing course in UCC, and has since studied part-time. From 2011-2012 he
lectured in the School of Nursing in UCC as part of the studentship program. Dan currently works for a
homeless and social care charity in the Mid-West region of Ireland supporting people affected by
dependence on prescription drugs, and providing respite for the families of people affected by substance
misuse.
BHSC 1.22 (70) Deirdre Hegarty, Angela Carrazza, Sean Spillane; Hearing Voices
Groups in Cork City – a Discussion with Co-facilitators and Members
Background; Romme and Escher et al (2009), citing Downs (2001), highlight that the way to cope better
with hearing voices is to talk about them and to encourage people who hear voices to get together to talk
openly to each other about their experiences in Hearing Voices Groups (HVGs). There are currently three
HVGs in Cork City being offered by both South Lee Mental Health Services (SLMHS) and Rehab Care. The
purpose of these HVGs is to begin to validate and normalise the voice hearing experience of people
currently using services by providing, on a weekly basis, a safe, non-judgemental milieu. These groups are
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also open to people with perceived unusual beliefs. All groups are currently facilitated by a partnership of
service users and staff. Senior management and most staff in the SLMHS have encouraged these
developments including two Assistant Directors of Nursing who actively co-facilitate groups themselves on
occasion. All co-facilitators (including Rehab Care) were trained by Jacqui Dillon (Hearing Voices Network,
UK).
Purpose of the Session; The dual purpose of the session is to discuss both local and national HVG
experience (both personal and professional) in relation to Romme and Escher's research; and to highlight
the role of partnership between service-users and professionals in HVGs. This could also include an
exploration and evaluation on whether such partnerships and perspectives can critically challenge the
traditional paternalistic and dominant biomedical psychiatric model.
Format; The session will involve an open and interactive discussion on the personal and professional
experiences, challenges and efficacy of HVGs in Ireland.
Contact: Angela Carrazza (Art Therapist-0867871187) or Sean Spillane (RMHN- 087718618), SLMHS, CUH,
Wilton Cork.
References
Romme, M., (2009) Chapter 7 ‘Hearing Voices Groups’ in M. Romme, S. Escher, J. Dillon, D. Corstens, and M.
Morris (eds) Living with Voices: 50 Stories of Recovery, Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books Ltd.
Downs, J. (ed) (2001). Starting and Supporting Hearing Voices Groups, Manchester: The Hearing Voices
Network.
Deirdre Hegarty (expert by experience): Trained Hearing Voices Group Facilitator; Diploma in
Childcare; Sesame Drama and Movement Therapy Introductory Training.
Angela Carrazza (expert by profession): Art Therapist (SLMHS) PG Dip MA; NQSW (Sozialpädagogik);
Trained HVG Facilitator. She is experienced in facilitating non-directive group work and for her, the Hearing
Voices Approach and Art Therapy are rather similar, in that both aim to empower and to facilitate meaning
toward healing. Angela is a member of the steering group responsible for the development of the Hearing
Voices Network Ireland.
Sean Spillane (expert by profession and experience) Registered Mental Health Nurse (SLMHS)with a
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Mental Health Nursing and Expert by experience of voice(s) following a family
bereavement. Sean is also trained as a Hearing Voices Group Facilitator and has a Diploma in Drug and
Alcohol studies. Like Deirdre Sean’s facilitating role is based on compassion, empathy, understanding and
his own (brief) experience of voice hearing.
We also have a group of colleagues (SLMHS) who also provide valuable support and co-facilitate as trained
facilitators (Gerardine Boyle, Art Therapist; Bill Murray, ADON; Sharon Walsh, ADON, Avril McMahon, Irish
Advocacy Network Ltd). Special mention also for Brid Foley (RMHN) and Fionnuala Manning who cofacilitate the Mahon Group (SLMHS). Fionnuala is an expert by experience as is also a member of the HVG
based at the RehabCare Resource Centre, Brandon House, South Douglas Road. This group is an Open
Group. It’s co-facilitated by Kathy Crowley, Programmes Facilitator, Tian Fenlon and Paul Seymour,
Programme Supervisors at RehabCare. Kathy and Tian are also trained WRAP facilitators.
BHSC 1.04 (30) Alastair Yarrow; Prevention is Better than Cure
If prospective parents understood the significance of their roles in parenting from conception to school and
beyond, I wonder if many future health problems, particularly mental and emotional would not develop
into debilitating ‘diseases’ or disabilities. My hope is to illustrate how the establishment of certain ‘templates’
may become the precursor of all health expressions which determine all our interactions throughout life.
What I call templates of behaviour are known as, psora, for psychological and physical well being; sycosis
for growth and growths, expansionism; syphilitic for destruction, decay and necessary change. They can be
creative and destructive individually or in combination. Homoeopathy does not diagnose, so no labels. What
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is important is your responses, physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual, to a traumatic experience or
every day events.
Alastair Yarrow; Based in Arklow where the collateral damage of the Celtic Tiger persists I have time to
continue to research and clarify what Homoeopathy means to me and how best to present it to dispirited
members of the community and those one would hope would be more open minded.
BHSC 2.25 (50) Lydia Sapouna & Miriam Clifford; Education beyond Diagnosis:
Opportunities and Challenges
Is it possible to provide professional mental health education that encourages critical practice? This
workshop explores this question reflecting on the experiences of a social work educator and a social work
student. Lydia Sapouna will talk about attempting to provide social work students with opportunities to
become practitioners with a vision and skills to understand people’s experiences of distress in the context of
their lives. Such an approach to education is not focused on psychiatric diagnoses as a tool to ‘learn’ about
‘mental illnesses’. Furthermore such an approach encourages students to question what is often
experienced as an oppressive, coercive mental health system. As a result, such an approach often clashes
with the ethos and practice of current mental health services which, despite heralding a recovery approach,
remain in their majority medical in focus. As future practitioners, social work students aspire to a positive
enabling role and bring with them unique knowledge, skills and values to multi-disciplinary mental health
service delivery. However, within this predominantly medical framework of thinking and practicing,
students on a mental health placement and social workers in mental health care often feel ill-equipped or
powerless to articulate a valid ‘social’ approach to emotional distress. As a social work student who
undertook a mental health placement, Miriam Clifford will talk about her experience when faced with this
power imbalance evident in the predominant use of medical language in the mental health services.
Overcoming this challenge, regardless of personal views of the merits and deficits of diagnosis, being
familiar with the main terms and symptoms was advantageous in Miriam’s experience. Gaining a broader
understanding of the dominant perspective, in all its forms, facilitated greater participation in discussions
and engagement with the essential work practice. This workshop will invite participants to discuss how to
best prepare students to participate in a transformation in mental health care towards a practice that is
recovery-focused, context aware, and informed by human rights principles.
Lydia Sapouna is a lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies University College Cork. Her teaching
and research interests are primarily in the area of mental health, with particular emphasis on critical
perspectives on biomedical responses to human distress, recovery approaches, social action and userparticipation. Over the past 15 years she has worked collaboratively with service-user groups in the areas of
advocacy and human rights. She is very interested in the politics of mental health and is committed to
education for change towards a practice that is context- sensitive, recovery- focused and based on human
rights. Lydia played a key role in the establishment of the Critical Voices Network Ireland, and is coorganiser of this annual critical perspectives in mental health conference in UCC.
Miriam Clifford is an undergraduate in her final year on the Bachelor of Social Work Degree Programme at
UCC. As a social work student she has undertaken a placement in the Mental Health Services and is
currently continuing her professional journey in Child Protection and Welfare. With a huge interest in the
area of mental health she is also a volunteer on the Uplift Program in UCC providing one to one mentoring
for students with mental health difficulties during their time in college.
BHSC 3.01 (40) Liam McGabhann; Untangling Trauma from the Perversity of
Psychiatric Diagnosis
In principle though not practice there is an acceptance that upwards of 70% of people with a diagnosis of
serious mental illness have had traumatic childhood experiences (Hammersley et al. 2007); and that their
manifested emotional distress and sometimes extraordinary survival mechanisms are likely to stem from
incomplete healthy trauma responses(post-traumatic stress) (Levine, 1997). Psychiatry and other associated
worldviews whose practitioners rely on psychiatric diagnosis are struggling to come to terms with this
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emerging truth. Meanwhile people using mental health services and some other psychological therapies are
subject to (a) ongoing invalidation of their life experiences; (b) ongoing re-traumatisation; and (c) the
likelihood that they may be defined not by their personhood, but by their diagnosis. The fear for people
having experienced, and mental health professionals reluctance to engage with ‘trauma’ perpetuates a veil
of secrecy, shame and mis-constructed truths. This workshop will first explore the experience of traumatic
life events and the potential trajectory that people’s lives might take dependent on the response of the
individual and the social system (family, community) surrounding them. In addition to the trauma
experienced in this life, it will explore the effect of trans-generational trauma where traumatic events and
subsequent affects in people’s recent family/community ancestry can be relived through subsequent
generations (family patterns). The content will be drawn from the work of (Levine 1997; Hellinger 1998;
Ruppert 2008). The second part of the workshop will contest the reluctance of professional care providers
to engage with people through a trauma informed lens. Interactive exercises will demonstrate that at the
very basic helpful level they can work with people who wish to or might think about renegotiating theirs or
their families’ original traumatic response as part of a journey to redress the impact of these events in later
life. Moreover, it is hoped that the workshop itself will further illuminate the needless perversity of
psychiatric diagnosis in preventing people from healing and flourishing.
Bibliography:
Hammersley, P., Read, J., Woodall, S. & Dillon, J. (2007). Childhood Trauma and Psychosis: The Jeanie is
Out of the Bottle. Journal of Psychological Trauma. Vol 6, Numbers 2-3.
Hellinger, B. with Weber, G. & Beaumont, H. (1998) Loves Hidden Symmetry: What Makes Love Work in
Relationships. Arizona: Zeig, Tucker & Co.
Levine, P.A. (1997) Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. California: North Atlantic Books.
Ruppert, F. (2008) Trauma, Bonding & Family Constellations: Understanding and Healing Injuries of the
Soul. U.K., Green Balloon Publishing.
Líam Mac Gabhann works in the School of Nursing and Human Sciences at Dublin City University. He is a
lecturer, mental health practitioner and community activist. Along with a wide group of colleagues his main
programme of research focuses on `Transforming Dialogues in Mental Health Communities`. Much of this
work centres around people reconciling their own experiences, perceptions and practices with other
people/groups associated with mental health and using different approaches to improve these at indiviual,
group, organisational and community level. Examples of relevant areas include; where people have
extraordinary experiences and beliefs; whne people are disenfranchised by society and community; and in
the area of Trauma and responses to traumatic events. Approaches include cooperative learning,
participative action, open dialogue and systemic family constellations work. Along with Paddy McGowan, an
extended team and local community groups the Mental Health Trialogue Network Ireland
(www.trialogue.co) was established in 2010. This involves local community groups comprising mental health
service users, carers, service providers and interested community members holding monthly open dialogue
meetings (Trialogue) to enhance peoples understanding and responses to people with mental health
difficulties in their communities.
16.00-16.45 Concurrent Sessions C
BHSC G02 (250) James Mullighan and John Kastner; Documentary Film as an Agent of
Social Change
Nothing revelatory in the title of this session, one might think - as long as factual events have been caught
on camera, film has been used as a campaigning tool. And now, with the rise of citizen journalism and the
proliferation of hand held cameras and the power of an editing suite in a laptop, documentary agitation is
filling every corner of our media lives. The Cork Film Festival is playing several dozen documentaries in this
year’s edition and, actually, few of them are designed to actuate social change. There is one strong
exception to this rule: John Kastner’s ‘Out of Mind, Out of Sight’, the cornerstone of the Festival’s new
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mental health film and discussion Illuminate, a film which portrays inmates and staff at Brookfield
Psychiatric Institute. James Mullighan explains how a film like this can change lives and communities, and
the thinking behind Illuminate.
James Mullighan; South Australian James was appointed Creative Director, Cork Film Festival, in May
2013. He remains Contributing Editor for VODO, Cinovate and Rich Pickings, and producer of Marketing and
Distribution for the Sleep Paralysis Project. Most recently James was Chief Executive Officer of Transmedia
Next, and in 2011 he directed the 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival. Prior to that he was Creative
Director of Shooting People and the producer of RESFEST’s UK, Irish and Australian tours. James serves on
the Boards of Encounters Short Film and Animation, Sheffield DocFest and the London Short Film festivals.
He is a trustee of Dramatic Need.
John Kastner is a producer, director and writer. John Kastner has won four Emmys for his
documentaries—more than anyone else in the history of Canadian television for producing, directing and
writing the documentaries Four Women, about breast cancer, Fighting Back, about leukemic children, The
Lifer and the Lady, about a convicted killer’s romance with a middle-class woman, and Life with Murder,
about the agonizing choice two parents must make after their son murders their daughter. Kastner has also
won more than 75 international awards for his films, which include ‘Monster in the Family’ and ‘Rage
Against the Darkness’. His most recent film, ‘Out of Mind, Out of Sight’, won Best Canadian Feature at the
2014 Hot Docs Festival. In 2007 he was honoured by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television with
its Achievement Award. In 2012 he was honoured by Hot Docs with a Retrospective of his work.
BHSC G05 (120) Fiona Morrissey; The Introduction of Advance Directives in Mental
Health Decision-Making: The Views of Irish Service Users and Consultant Psychiatrists
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) requires us to engage in new
approaches to mental health decision-making and to develop a range of support strategies. Advance
directives allow individuals to state their treatment and other life preferences in a legal document, which
can be used to protect autonomy and assist recovery. The expanded vision of advance directives views
them as tools for self-directed care and forums for reflection. This workshop explores the views of Irish
service users and consultant psychiatrists towards the introduction of advance directives and participation in
mental health decision-making. The findings are based on the results of a survey conducted with 111
service users and 100 consultant psychiatrists over a two year period. The research was used to inform
legislative submissions for advance directives in Ireland, which is due to be enacted in the near future. The
legislation provides an opportunity to successfully implement new forms of advance directives in mental
health decision-making.
Fiona Morrissey recently completed a Ph.D. in Law at NUI Galway, which proposed the introduction of a
novel legal framework for advance directives in Ireland. She is specifically interested in legal tools which
serve to promote empowerment and human rights in the mental health context. Fiona previously worked as
an information officer with Barnardos Ireland where she developed an interest in rights based issues for
vulnerable groups. She has worked in the third level sector in a number of different capacities over the past
12 years and lectures human rights law at Athlone Institute of Technology. Fiona has published in the
Medico Legal Journal of Ireland and the European Journal of Health Law. She was awarded an NUI
travelling studentship in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2012, which allowed her to undertake
research at a number of leading US centres for mental health law.
BHSC 1.04 (30) Jane Negrych; Compassionate Resilience: Surviving Trauma through
Compassion-Based Practice
Dr. Kristin Neff, one of the leading minds in Compassion-Based therapy, developed a program that fosters
self-compassion as a solution to depression, psychological distress and low self-worth. She defines selfcompassion as the “ability to hold one’s feelings of suffering with a sense of warmth, connection and
concern” (Neff; McPhee, 2013). Moreover, a study conducted by Leary et.al. found that self-compassion
leads to a decrease in negative emotions in relations to past events, whether they be real or imagined; self-
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compassion creates the conditions for people’s capability to cope when things go wrong (Leary et. al.,
2007). These findings are significant for people who are suffering the psychological fall-out of trauma.
Often, emotional distress from a trauma remains inactive and/or active for many years post-event. This is in
part due to the fact that trauma can trigger avoidance behaviour. While avoidance may be a legitimate
coping mechanism during the acute stage, it can lead to hyper-arousal, anxiety, and flashbacks in the long
run. It can also lead to isolation. Training in self-compassion counters these symptoms. By moving towards
negative emotions with mindfulness and a kind attitude, people suffering with trauma are able to manage
negative emotions when they arise. This presentation will outline the basic compassionate approaches to
negative emotions with experiential guided practices.
Jane Negrych suffered 3rd degree burns to 45% of her body as a result of a camp fire accident 19 years
ago. She was diagnosed with PTSD one year post-burn; however, her PTSD laid dormant for many years.
When it reared its head, years later, she searched out alternative therapies, as well as the traditional
medical approach. She has attended many meditation retreats and has a strong mindfulness practice, as a
result. She is currently completing the MSc in Mindfulness with the University of Aberdeen. All of her
research has been focused on mindfulness and compassion in relation to trauma. She also works for the
Mindfulness Association UK.
BHSC 1.21 (70) Gail Hornstein; Allies in the Psychiatric Survivor Movement: Challenges
and Opportunities
Many of us – academics, clinicians, family members/carers, providers, students – feel strongly identified
with the goals of the psychiatric survivor movement even if we have not come to this work directly from our
own lived experience. We critique the diagnostic systems and problematic practices of mainstream
psychiatry; teach, research, and practice alternative approaches developed by survivors; co-facilitate
hearing voices or similar survivor-led peer support groups; and contribute in many other ways to the further
development of the movement. But like allies in other social change movements, our status is often
complicated and sometimes uncomfortable; this workshop is designed to allow an open discussion of these
challenges. Equally important, we will explore the opportunities and benefits of being an ally, both
personally and professionally. Some questions intended to guide the dialogue: (1) What specific types of
actions can allies take to advance the goals of the psychiatric survivor movement? (2) What holds people
back from becoming active allies? What can we do to break down these barriers? (3) What should allies
not do? What can we learn from examples of inappropriate or harmful efforts by people identifying as
allies? (4) How can the privileges allies often have – such as greater access to power, skills, and resources
– be used in positive ways rather than becoming problems in themselves? (5) Since, according to the
dictionary definition, “an ally is someone who, out of a common cause, has taken one’s side and can be
relied upon,” what can we do to earn survivors’ trust?
Gail A. Hornstein is Professor of Psychology at Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts, USA). Her
research on the contemporary history and practices of psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis has been
supported by visiting fellowships to Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, London, Durham, and Nottingham, and
her articles and opinion pieces have appeared in many scholarly and popular publications. Her book,
Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness, shows how the insights of people
diagnosed with ‘psychosis’ can challenge fundamental assumptions about madness, treatment, and mental
life. Gail’s Bibliography of First-Person Narratives of Madness in English, now in its 5th edition with more
than 1,000 titles, is used internationally by educators, clinicians, and peer organizations. She has worked
closely with psychiatric survivor groups for the past decade, organised and co-facilitated one of the USA’s
first hearing voices peer support groups, and speaks widely about mental health issues across the US, UK,
and Europe. www.gailhornstein.com
BHSC 2.25 (50) Yvonne Barnes-Holmes & Ciara McEnteggart; Professional Perspectives
on Appropriate Professional Practices
Service users are often critical of professional attitudes regarding their suffering, where it comes from and
what should be done about it. In many cases, this is justified and the deluge of reports of ill-treatment,
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prejudice, and poor professional judgement and understanding are inexcusable. As a result, many service
users are naturally cautious in a professional context, often assuming that professional training generates
homogeneity across professional individuals. But this is not always so. The critical voices movement and
other organisations, such as critical psychiatry, suggest that there is a growing body of professionals who
are increasingly disenfranchised with, and disempowered by, their professional systems and contexts.
Ironically, working within established systems renders it hard for professionals to advocate in a dignified
and effective for service users, and thus to uphold high moral and professional standards. This is an ongoing battle these individuals have with the systems they inherited. The current workshop explores this
struggle from a professional perspective, and proposes that trust and understanding between the service
user and the professional is the only way in which a new humane professional system for helping one
another will ever be created.
Dr. Yvonne Barnes-Holmes B.Sc, PhD, CPsychol, CSci, AFBPsS is currently Head of the Department of
Psychology at Maynooth University. She has been a lecturer at NUIM since 2003. She has published
approximately 100 articles/book chapters and has given around 400 presentations/addresses and
workshops. Virtually all of her research is in Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (ACT). She is a recognised World Trained in ACT. In combining these two tracks, with
her growing interest in anti-psychiatry, her overriding aim is to work towards a scientific account of human
suffering that will speak directly to how it can best be alleviated.
Ciara McEnteggart is a Psychology Research Doctoral Student under the supervision of Dr. Yvonne
Barnes-Holmes at Maynooth University. Her research interests surround behaviours associated with human
suffering, specifically psychosis. Ciara is also an ACT therapist under the supervision of Dr. Barnes-Holmes
(accredited world-trainer in ACT). Ciara has published papers and chapters in the area of human suffering
and presented papers at multiple national and international conferences.
BHSC 3.01 (40) Adrienne Adams, Marian Butler, Peter Fitzpatrick, Kathleen O’Mahony,
Iseult Twamley; Open(Ing) Dialogues: Starting From Where We Are
This workshop aims to introduce the Open Dialogue approach to mental health care and describe the
ongoing pilot of this approach within West Cork Community Mental Health Service. Open dialogue was
developed by Jaakko Seikkula and colleagues in the western Lapland region of Finland. The focus of staff in
open dialogue is away from a traditional biomedical model of diagnosis and removal of symptoms, towards
facilitated open dialogues. The aim of these open conversations/dialogues is to reach shared understanding
and collaborative solutions. This approach values the voice of everyone in the process, especially the service
user, and emphasizes the importance of supporting relationships within the family and with the mental
health team. We will present the elements of the Open Dialogue approach and dialogical practice and
discuss how they fit (or challenge) ways of working within the Irish mental health system. We will talk
about our experiences with this model as service user and service providers. We will end the workshop with
our hopes for the future, the challenges ahead, and an opportunity for audience discussion.
Adrienne Adams Adrienne is an Advance Nurse Practitioner in Mental Health Primary. Her background is
both nursing and family therapy. She is currently the Project Lead in Advance Recovery Initiatives in the
West Cork Area. Her interest in Open Dialogue stems from her Family Therapy training but also her belief
in the importance of honesty and transparency when working with family that are distress.
Peter Fitzpatrick. Peter is a service user. He participates in Voluntary work for the Cork Mental Health
Service. He has lived in Clonakilty for the last seven years. As well as been a busy family man, he also
runs Diderdo Workshops in primary schools. He has a keen interest in the Arts and is a talented
photographer.
Kathleen O’Mahony, B.Soc Sci., MSW, NQSW, is the Principal Social Worker at West Cork Mental Health
Service. She has an interest in working with families and carers of Service users and developing practice
with these groups within the mental health service. She has partaken in training and roll out of Open
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Dialogue in the West Cork Area. Prior to mental Health Services, she has worked in Child Welfare Services,
Fostering Services and Medical Social Work.
Dr Iseult Twamley is Senior Clinical Psychologist with West Cork Mental Health Service, HSE South. She
has a particular interest in Recovery perspectives in Mental Health & the contribution of Psychology and
Psychotherapy to Recovery. Iseult is involved in the roll out of Open Dialogue approaches within WCMHS,
fueled by a personal and professional conviction of the importance of joint working with mental health
service users & their support network.
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Thursday 13 November
Keynote Presentations
10.15 BHSC G01 Keynote Presentation 4
Pat Bracken; Critical Thought as a Strong and Positive Force for Change in Mental
Health
Across the world mental health services are attempting to adopt a recovery approach as their guiding
philosophy. This has emerged from the ranks of the service-user (consumer) movement. While
professionals and their organisations are increasingly expressing support for this approach, I will argue that
unless professionals are able to embrace critical reflection on their assumptions, values and practices, their
engagement with the recovery approach will be superficial at best and tokenistic at worst. In this talk I will
explore the nature of critical thought and seek to map the 5 dimensions of Critical Psychiatry. I will present
this as a positive, and necessary, force for change and transformation.
Pat Bracken is currently Clinical Director of the Mental Health Service in West Cork, Ireland. He trained in
medicine and psychiatry in Ireland and the UK. In the 1980s he worked for 3 years with victims of torture
and violence in Uganda, East Africa. This experience had a profound effect on his understanding of mental
health problems and the nature of healing. He has also worked for shorter periods in other developing
countries in Africa and Asia. Along the way, he took the time to train in philosophy and in his writing he has
tried to bring philosophical insights to bear on some of the problems we face in the area of mental health.
He was Professor of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at the University of Central Lancashire in the
years 2006-2008.Pat was one of the founders of the UK Critical Psychiatry Network.
[http://www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk/] He was co-editor of the book Rethinking the Trauma of War with Dr
Celia Petty, published in 1998. His own book Trauma: Culture, Meaning and Philosophy was published in
2002. With Prof Phil Thomas, he published the book Postpsychiatry: A New Direction for Mental Health in
2005.
11.00 BHSC G01 Keynote Presentation 5
Wilma Boevink; My Body Remembers; I Refused. From Being a Disorder to Dealing with Life
Essentially psychiatry wants to be a medical science. In psychiatry practitioners want to deal with individual
psychopathology. Of course, we know about the bio-psycho-social model, however interventions are often
aimed at the biological factors while the psychosocial context is ignored. For people using mental health
services there is the risk of being reduced to a disturbed object or to the disorder itself. Only what is
significant to the diagnostic examination is seen and heard. And once you have been diagnosed there is an
answer to every question that might be raised. What are the consequences of our psychiatric diagnostic
system on an individual level? In her presentation Wilma Boevink uses her own experiences to illustrate the
damaging and sometimes disastrous effects of the DSM and its use within psychiatry. She also goes into
more hopeful alternatives she found helpful after 25 years of struggling as a ‘chronic psychiatric patient’.
Wilma Boevink (1963) is a social scientist and works at the Trimbos Institute in The Netherlands. She is
also a user/survivor of psychiatry. She is founder of the TREE enterprise, a user-run program ‘toward
Recovery, Empowerment and experiential Expertise’ and was professor of Recovery at Hanze University
(2008-2013). Currently she is finishing her PhD thesis.
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12.30 G01 Keynote Presentation 6
David Harper; Analysing the Campaign to move Beyond Psychiatric Diagnosis: Insights
from Political Theorist Gene Sharp
Despite over fifty years of conceptual, ethical and empirical critique from experts by profession and
experience psychiatric classificatory systems of diagnosis are still with us, relatively unchanged. In this talk,
I will argue that the campaign to move beyond psychiatric diagnosis has been hampered by a failure to fully
understand its social and institutional functions and an over-reliance on intellectual argument, moral
critique, empirical research and the short-term mobilisation of political campaigns relating to particular
diagnoses. I will draw on the work of American political theorist Gene Sharp author (whose work has been
popularised recently in the film How to Start a Revolution). His work offers lessons for a range of
campaigns, particularly the need to understand what he calls the ‘institutional pillars of support’ for a set of
ideas and a range of tactics specifically focused on each of these pillars. I will argue that, for diagnosis,
these pillars of support include the discipline of psychiatry, other institutions (including the academy,
funding bodies and journals), the pharmaceutical industry, many of those in distress and their relatives, the
public, the media, policymakers and public and commercial health bureaucracies. I will suggest that we
need to develop a broader range of tactics focused on each of these pillars and I will outline some potential
ways forward.
David Harper is Reader in Clinical Psychology and Programme Director (Academic) on the Professional
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London (UEL). Prior to moving to UEL David
worked as a clinical psychologist in NHS mental health services in the North west of the UK for nine years.
He is a co-author of Psychology, Mental Health & Distress (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Deconstructing
Psychopathology (Sage, 1995) and a co-editor of Qualitative research methods in mental health and
psychotherapy: An introduction for students and practitioners (Wiley, 2012). He is currently editing Beyond
‘delusion’: Exploring unusual beliefs and experiences (ISPS/Routledge, forthcoming). He worked in a
systemic therapy service in Newham, East London from 2002 to 2014 and is a member of the editorial
collective of Asylum: The Magazine for Democratic Psychiatry (http://www.asylumonline.net/).
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Thursday 13 November
Concurrent Presentations
14.00-14.45 Concurrent Sessions D
BHSC 1.02 (70) Kerry Cuskelly & Nick Murphy; Rage against the Disorder – Subversion
and the Mental Health System
Aim: To provide participants with the tools to critique the perceived processes in the current system of
mental health and to begin the process of building alliances for action drawing from both within and outside
the system.
Objectives:
1. Share our personal stories of “how we got here”. The stories will be from someone “in” the system,
someone working “outside” the system and someone representing a specific population who “uses”
the system.
2. Offer an alternative view of the current model of mental health provision in a local community.
3. Show this work in action by sharing a case study(s).
4. Exploring some of the issues that come up for professionals trying to “break out” of the system or
who work in this way, exploring some of the experiences that arise for those working on the
“outside” who collaborate and work with those professionals on the “inside” and exploring some of
the experiences of people who from a specific population who identify (or are classified by others) as
“users of services”.
5. Utilise the expertise of the participants of the workshop in collectively drawing up an initial “Toolkit
for Radical Action and Change” to assist those wishing to work in this way in their own communities.
Outcome:
Within this workshop we aim to show, that through building alliances in and outside the system subversion
and radical change is possible, no matter how prolific the oppression of the dominant class is.
Nick Murphy is the manager of a community development organisation whose focus is working with the
Traveller community. Nick has extensive experience in community development and has engaged in
community activism for many years.
Kerry Cuskelly is a mental health social worker in the same locality as the community development
organisation. Kerry works from a critical mental health and community development perspective.
NB: The two presenters are speaking about their work in a personal capacity. The presentation is not
intended to be delivered on behalf of any of the organisations the presenters work for.
BHSC 1.04 (30) Israel Finnerty; The Ego, Humility and Forgiveness on the Path of
Discovery with Experience from Mental Health Phenomena
“What is mental health anyway?” He said. “Should we be questioning whether mental illness even exists?”
She replied. “Don’t start there or you’ll never get anywhere!” interrupted our teacher scolding us for
thwarting her attempts to define mental health. What if it is time to back there…back to the start. What if
too much of what is believed about mental is based on years of judgements? “An Inch Wrong in the
Foundations, A Mile Wrong in the Ceiling”. I think we can all agree that the foundations of psychiatry were
more than an inch wrong. Yet our mental health system has been built on theses inherited assumptions,
principles and practises often without question. Now I believe it is time to question. What if mental health
phenomena are mostly natural. What if they are part of our development as our species attempts to evolve.
What if the way we treat and view mental health phenomena turns them into an illness. What if this process
is strengthen by the ego, theirs and yours, positive and negative. What if through a process of humility,
forgiveness and removing fear of the unknown we could work toward acceptance of mental health
phenomena. Developing an understanding that could prevent illness and, most importantly, the perception
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of illness. Far from having all of the answers I don’t even claim to have all of the questions. What I do have
is some stories of my own personal experience of recovery along with the strategies and ideas that have
helped me and others along the path of discovery.
Israel Finnerty works as an advocate for people with disabilities which includes people who experience
mental health distress. Israel uses the term ‘Writer’ to describe himself however he uses this term in the
loosest possible sense of the word, as he has never published anything and probably won’t in the very near
future. Israel is proud to be a father. At the risk of sounding pretentious Israel has also classified himself as
a ‘Free Thinker’ which probably means his thinking is still limited by his ego. However he is a fan of thinking
outside of assumed parameters. For example is today Wednesday? When it is Wednesday is it actually
Wednesday or is that what we are supposed to assume? Who are you? Not your name, who are you? Not
what you do, who are you? Who am I and what is this?
BHSC 1.22 (70) Wilma Boevink; Beyond the DSM V: toward a Personal Diagnosis
Within the user/survivor movement there is ongoing discussion about whether to spend time and energy to
change psychiatry or to set up alternatives outside psychiatry. The rise of the recovery perspective has
revived this discussion. Could the current psychiatric system be changed into a recovery supportive
environment? Or is this a contradiction in terms? In this workshop the factors and features of psychiatry
that undermine recovery are explored. What happens if you yourself start working on your recovery, but
you are still a patient in the regular psychiatric system? What would a recovery supportive psychiatric
system look like? What is needed and what should be removed? These issues will be addressed in the
workshop. As a hopeful alternative within psychiatry the idea of Personal Diagnostics is presented.
Workshop participants are challenged to design a new mental health care sector in which such Diagnostics
are possible. How can we grow beyond the damaging effects of the DSM? This workshop follows on from
Wilma Boevink’s keynote presentation at the conference and is based on the work of Prof. Jim van Os and
the ideological components of the TREE enterprise.
Wilma Boevink’s biography in page 15.
BHSC 2.25 (50) Kate Mason; A View from the Inside – Overcoming the Challenges of
Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and More (Beyond the Labels)
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Sharing the personal journey of a young woman who was described with many developmental,
psychological and medical labels. Learn about her search for the many possible reasons for her
challenges not just accepting that she could Not do something because her label said so.
Kate and her family did not allow her to be defined and victimized by those labels.
She will also share the experiences of growing up in a family of labels. Her siblings have labels of
autism, dyslexia, high - level language disorder, hyperactivity, among others. Growing up in a family
constantly under the microscope. Being involved in genetic and developmental studies.
Learn about some of the approaches, therapies and medical interventions that helped her and those
that didn’t.
Hear her personal experiences in education and work situations, what helped and what didn’t.
Life style choices and changes that have aided her.
Kate will also share her ongoing journey in exploring consciousness, her growing awareness, her
work with energy and exploration of quantum physics where labels are meaningless.
Kate Mason is a partner in Outside Thinking, a holistic business whose aim is to empower the individual.
Kate herself is a HANDLE® (Holistic Approach to NeuroDevelopment and Learning Efficiency) Screener,
Practitioner Intern and Trainee Instructor. She holds a diploma in special educational needs. She is also
behaviour specialist developing education and home programs. Her ongoing journey in personal
development has led her to become a Matrix Energetics practitioner in training and recent work with
Regeneration Healing. She is the eldest of 5 adult siblings with some shared labels like her own of dyslexia,
dyspraxia, language disorders as well as three brothers who were labelled with autism.
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BHSC 3.01 (40) Frankie (Elisabeth) Pamer and Liz Brosnan; Gender, Sexuality and
Mental Health: a Feminist Perspective
Numerous national and international studies have reported that interaction between gender, sexuality and
mental health is often overlooked. This workshop is guided by a feminist perspective and aims to open up a
dialogue between issues of gender and sexuality in mental health services (MHS). The role of gender in
mental health assessment and diagnosis is critically discussed. This will include reflecting on the
pathologising of women’s mental health and untangling the intersection of gender with poverty, racism,
homophobia, ablism, etc in society. With respect to sexuality, this workshop draws on research findings and
concerns from various LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) bodies in the mental health area. It will
focus on heteronormativity, the presumption that heterosexuality is the normal way of life, and LGBT
service-users’ experiences of accessing a mainstream heteronormative MHS. This workshop will offer
participants an opportunity to consider hidden aspects of gender and sexuality, and explore how these
cross-cutting forces impact on MHS provision. It is too easy for people to believe the faults lie within
themselves, a notion re-enforced by not just psychiatry but the media, cultural leaders and politicians, etc,
and heightened by a widespread tendency to blame the victim for their difficulties. To paraphrase JS Mills: if
one woman loses her job that can be seen as her problem, but if a town loses 1000 workers then it is
society’s problem. This workshop will highlight these hidden, additional challenges for women, especially
lesbians’ experience interacting with MHS.
Frankie (Elisabeth) Pamer has travelled and lived in different countries. She has over 20 years of
experience working with various marginalized groups including, people with disabilities, homeless people,
women’s health, HIV/Aids, mental health and LGBT community. She holds a Bachelor degree in Social Work
and a Masters degree in Social Science by research from the University College Cork. She recently copublished in the Arts and Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice.
Liz Brosnan recently completed a doctorate in sociology on mental health service-user involvement,
examining the inherent tensions for service-users, service-providers and movement actors in involvement
practices and policies. A core member of the first user-led research project in Ireland, ‘Pathways’, Liz has
been active in user-led research and in the national survivor/service-user movement in Ireland since 2000.
Former Director of the Irish Advocacy Network and the National Service User Executive, she presented
service-user perspectives on various national bodies, including for National Disability Authority; Mental
Health Commission and Amnesty International Ireland. She was on the lay member panel for Mental Health
Tribunals for seven years. She has many interests, including sharing her life with healing companions, an
old dog and a young cat, who help maintain sanity.
BHSC 3.02 (40) Desmond McSweeney; In-between
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) classifies over 300
psychiatric disorders; at its core is a power that views people as being either normal or abnormal. What
happens if you don’t neatly fit into one of these two polarising categories? This paper focuses on a current
Ph.D. research project with the aim of exploring a non-polarising prospectus to how we view identities and
mental health. In the void between normal and abnormal I will argue that there exists an in-between world
were people move along a continuum between places and times. People in-between are outside the control
of professional understanding and knowledge that tries to assess, diagnose and treat “their” disorder
together with their identity or identities. As a result they do not conform to professional classifications of
gender and mental health on their personal in-between journeys of freedom and self-determination from a
normative professional binarism which can be used to brand, oppress and impede the transformative power
of human change.
Keywords: in-between, mental health, gender, identities, and change.
Desmond Mc Sweeney is a PhD student in University College Cork and is jointly supervised between
Lydia Sapouna, School of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork and Jean-Philippe Imbert, School
of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University. Desmond has recently completed a
MA in Sexuality Studies at Dublin City University and is presently employed as a Mental Health nurse by the
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Health Service Executive in an acute admissions unit based in Cork City. Previously Desmond has worked as
nurse in Forensic and Private Mental Health Hospitals. Desmond’s research interests revolve around mental
health, gender, identify and alternatives beyond psychiatric and psychopharmacology defining of people
lives.
BHSC 3.04 (40) Greg White; Beyond Diagnosis-Inner Medicine
Over many years the normality paradigm has assumed powerful monopolistic economic and scientifically
dogmatic impetus. Its politically agreeable agenda dominates most, if not all of our institutional policy and
practice. Visualised as an inverted pyramid1 currently it’s ring-fenced by self -limiting reductionist,
mechanistic, Newtonian perspectives and an adversarial criminal justice system, ignoring ‘the elephant in
the room’ 2, and fixating on its footprints in the forest.” The greater majority of folk in Western society-in
line with our ancient theistic religious tradition- firmly believe that the solutions to problems exist outside of
ourselves. Thus true happiness is not for now, but some future event. This is our normality. An ancient, but
forgotten wound in the human psyche alludes to this both as our fate and potential salvation. This is at
most a half truth. The reality, as revealed by the perennial sciences and ancient wisdom traditions, is that
our heaven is within us now, only we cannot experience it3. Down the ages a courageous minority inwardly
experience this fear driven vista differently. Recognising the universe within, some as ‘wounded healers’
discover the inner spiritual leverage it provides to transform their fears and recover their/our cosmic
destiny4. As a fundament of Einstein’s relativity, this vista even debunks pain and death itself; emphasising
that at a molecular level everything is impermanent flowing energy, in flux and related to everything else.
What appears dead and inert to the naked eye is at this level very much alive. Thus even the diagnosis
‘deceased’ at this level of reality, is scientifically a self- limiting ‘also ran’!? In meditation, in bodywork and
breath work, where subtle and gross fields of consciousness are compassionately experienced and
embodied, the differentiating emotional and neurological individual response to outer and inner conditions
can be assimilated and integrated5. Thus, my health, my homeostasis, when subjectively related to
becomes dramatically less vulnerable to the need for diagnosis and treatment, much more reliant on being
in the cosmic flow of being. The entree to this encounter is merely a breath away.
Greg White is a retired Irish Jungian psychotherapist, mental health advocate, writer, musician and
mindfulness teacher, a grandfather and husband to West Cork artist Jenni White. A founding associate of
Mindfreedom Ireland, with Mary and Jim Maddock, he is passionate about the idea that individual madness
as well as being an incremental increase in consciousness, is nothing less than a spontaneous, albeit
sometimes dangerous, psycho-spiritual re-awakening of the soul; and that modern normality such as it is,
suffering loss of soul -a kind of elevated collective dissociation of the ordinary mind from embodied
consciousness-is only now beginning to glimpse this truth. He is an optimist, looking forward to a time when
a more conscious embodied Irish culture salutes individual madness again as the hallmark of the ‘wounded
healer’, when such suffering individuals are no longer isolated and medically lobotomised, but cherished,
properly heard, and encouraged to take up their traditional leadership roles among us once again.
15.00-15.45 Concurrent Sessions E
BHSC G05 (120) Pete Sanders; Diagnosis is Simply a Form of Evil
The title is a quote from John Shlien, student and colleague of Carl Rogers. Client-centred therapists have
repeatedly explained why they think diagnosis is harmful since the mid-1940s – often to a chorus of ridicule
from professionals. It is important to remember that Rogers presented his work as not only a therapeutic
approach, but a way of life. A way of life based on respectful, non-judgemental relationships; meaning1
2
Compare Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs
Observer Effect ..The Biology of Belief.. Bruce Lipton.et al
3
Buddha
Carl Jung..Recovered/Discovered ‘Psychotic’
5 Inner Medicine..Greg White.
4
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making discourse and honouring the experience of each individual. What’s not to like? The presentation will
outline client/person-centred opposition to diagnosis, demedicalisation of distress and ways we can all help
each other with problems of living, however severe, that involve common human attributes, rather than a
parade of psychotechnology from experts.
Pete Sanders; As a teenager and throughout his degree studies, Pete Sanders had summer jobs working
as a Nursing Assistant both in large mental hospitals and colony-style 'hospitals for the mentally-subnormal',
as they used to be called. Since then he has worked in a variety of mental health and education settings
and his life and career as a counsellor, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor have been influenced more
by those early work experiences than any subsequent qualification. He owes a debt to all of the patients
and some of the staff he met in those institutions who struggled to maintain, and where possible celebrate,
human dignity in a cruel and crazy system. He is a trustee of Soteria Network UK.
BHSC 1.01 (70) Speakout Theatre for Transformation; Playback Theatre-when your
Stories can Come to Life
In Playback Theatre shared experiences and personal stories are brought to life by the actors and musicians
in an event that can be heartwarming, fun and profound. We would love to see you there and to create a
new and unique way of processing the very valuable experience that is the CVN conference!
SPEAKOUT! (Theatre for Transformation); Cork Playback Theatre began in November, 2008 with
seven performers. Our first performance was in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the declaration of
human rights. Since then we have performed for various community groups, schools and universities. We
are interested in fostering creative dialogue through theatre and honoring the beauty in the everyday. You
can check us out on www.speakout.ie or on Facebook.
BHSC 1.22 (70) Mary Maddock; Imagine! Imagine! Why it is Essential to go Beyond
Psychiatry and its Diagnoses
Psychiatry compares physical illness to alleged ‘mental illnesses. It says that diabetes is like alleged ‘Bi
Polar’. Psychiatry defines alleged ‘mental illness’ to be an illness just like any other illness. This is why it is
perceived we need doctors to alleviate the symptoms. It believes that if people accept this to be so that the
discrimination around alleged ‘mental illness will disappear. This all sounds plausible but what are the
facts? Imagine if it was true that people who were diagnosed with diabetes received a treatment that did
not help their condition! Imagine that the insulin they were prescribed made their diabetes much worse.
Imagine if other organs were affected also. Imagine if those who were diagnosed with diabetes were
forced to take insulin when it could cause many more health problems too. Imagine that diabetics received
this kind of treatment and legally diabetics were treated as non-citizens. Imagine that many, many children
were becoming diabetic and they were becoming more and more ill. What would the public think? Would
insulin be still used for diabetes? This is how bio psychiatry treats those it diagnoses. People are becoming
increasingly disabled. They are becoming more dependent on others while it is a real struggle to find peace
of mind, body and spirit. People are forced to receive disabling ‘treatment’ which invariably causes brain
damage. Of course we need to go beyond diagnoses and beyond psychiatry.
Mary Maddock is a survivor of psychiatric mistreatment. She was diagnosed as ‘bi-polar’. She found out
having received many sessions of electroshock and umpteen prescription drugs over three decades that she
was severely harmed by the mistreatment she received by doctors. In 2015 she will be 15 years drug free
having been told she needed them as maintenance 'treatment'. She joined MindFreedom International and
spoke out at every opportunity possible. She went on the co-found MindFreedom Ireland with her husband
Jim in 2003. They wrote their book ‘Soul Survivor –A Personal Encounter with Psychiatry’ which was
published in 2006 by Asylum Publishers. She is a board member of MindFreedom International and
Emphatic Therapy founded by Peter and Ginger Breggin. She founded a local mutual support group ‘Stand
by Me’ and a musical healing group ‘ A little Help From My Friends’ which meet regularly at Douglas, Cork.
She is passionate about human rights especially the rights of those labelled by psychiatry to have their
equal right to be human. She believes while people ‘diagnosed’ by psychiatry are still treated as
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irresponsible children they will be continue to be oppressed and misdiagnosed. She has two daughters
Claire and Sheena, two granddaughters Lexie and Annalise and is expecting her first grandson this
November. www.mindfreedomireland.com; www.mindfreedom.org
http://www.empathictherapy.org/
BHSC 2.25 (50) Hanna Lundblad-Edling; Nine Lives – Stories of Ordinary Life Therapy
from Sweden
In this workshop I will share our joint and unique work at the Family Care Foundation in Sweden where we
meet people who, when they come to us, are in deep distress. Most people who come to our service will
live for a while with ordinary families, called family homes, and both the family and the person in distress
are supported by therapists in our organization. I will tell about my own experiences of working in this nonmedical model and what impact and affect it has in my own life. I will also tell about some of the stories
from my recently published book ‘Nine Lives’ where people who have been in our organization describe
what it meant to them.
Hanna Lundblad-Edling works at the Family Care Foundation in Gothenburg, Sweden. In her daily work
she meets with adults, adolescents and families. Besides that she spreads the experience of working in a
non-medical model. In her work, Hanna is also part of an international network of people that strives for
more humanity and sanity when it comes to human suffering and struggles. Before she studied to become a
social worker and a therapist Hanna worked with arts and ceramics.
BHSC 3.01 (40) Angie Lindenau; Recovery College - from Passive Recipient to Active
Participant
As part of ARI (Advancing Recovery Ireland), the Midwest group did research into setting up a Recovery
College. This presentation is based on research findings and discusses how a Recovery College
complements traditionally offered treatments with education, focusing on wellness, personal choice and
active engagement. Learning about mental health, specific challenges and ways to manage symptoms and
recovery can be the preferred option in place of treatment. The aim of the Recovery College is to support
people empowering themselves to take more responsibility for their own care management and to
customize their own recovery journey to suit their individual choices. Acknowledging and respecting the
person’s expertise as an integral part of the learning process, gives them a better standing for questioning
diagnoses and approaches to treatment. This, naturally, changes their relationship with mental health
services regarding power and control over treatment plans. It also fosters mutual trust. People who need
support work together with mental health professionals, family members, carers, and other interested
persons - in an equal partnership, on a voluntary basis. Programmes are designed, managed, delivered and
evaluated in collaboration. They are co-led by Peers, giving persons with self-experience the opportunity to
bring in and share their expertise. The Recovery College programmes shall be free of charge and open to all
(accessible without academic prerequisites). Where appropriate, programmes shall be designed to give
participants the option to gain recognized qualifications.
The presentation will discuss issues related to the running of the Recovery College such as:
qualifications needed to teach/facilitate programmes
level of involvement of mental health professionals and appropriate disciplines
Definition of roles (In Nottingham, mental health staff may identify themselves as having selfexperience by wearing a badge.)
Payment - who earns how much? People working alongside paid professionals need to have their
expertise and input acknowledged.
Operational management.
Angie Lindenau became an ‘Expert by Experience’ after initially only being offered medication by HSE
professionals. Using ‘labels’ as starting points on her Recovery Road she orientated away from problem
thinking and searched for better solutions. Choosing her own challenges, Angie achieved personal growth
and increased self-confidence. Angie has clocked up years of lived experience of her own recovery, of selfempowerment, of several self-help, peer support and online groups, of numerous workshops and also of
emerging new therapeutic approaches like Relaxation and Art Therapy. She earned diplomas in Social Care
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and Counselling & Psychotherapy, plus certificates ranging from Peer Advocacy to WRAP to her Laughter
Yoga Teaching qualification. Angie’s experience of meaningful participation includes talking on mental
health and recovery topics, facilitating training and workshops, and exploring the link between Arts and
Healing. Realizing that the personal is the political, Angie engaged with campaigns to secure better
conditions for people facing mental health issues, e.g. Amnesty’s Mental Health and Human Rights in
Ireland section and was part of the Citizens Jury which submitted recommendations for the Capacity Bill. As
a member of Limerick Mental Health Consumer Panel, Angie worked as PRO for their 2014 conference and
set up their Facebook page. When in September 2013, the Midwest ARI effort picked establishing a
Recovery College as a goal, Angie became part of the planning committee and the related research project
which included community workshops, focus groups, one-to-one interviews and a survey.
BHSC 3.02 (40) Darach Murphy; The Psychological Lives of Irish Men: The ‘Grounded’
Perspective
This presentation is focused on a Community- Based Participatory Research project – partnered by UCC and
eight men’s groups - that was designed and built to meet the needs of its partners. One strand of this
project involved seeking a more authentic understanding of the psychological lives of Irish men by
investigating the reality of their lives, from their perspective. For this purpose, a grounded theory research
methodology – designed to find what is relevant, what fits and what works - was used. Nineteen members
of men’s groups were interviewed and spoke openly and at length (52 minutes on average) about the
reasons why they went to men’s groups and ‘what they got out of going’. Reasons included stress, isolation,
emotional pain, addiction and suicidal ideation. What men got out of going was primarily connection and
support that emanated from the nature and structure of the groups rather than from ‘help’, per se.
Ongoing analysis of the data seeks to find an overarching theory representing the data set as a whole, i.e. a
grounded theory. Emerging, preliminary ideas would seem to support the notion that male psychological
difficulties have a significant social and gendered dimension and are resolved best through a genuine
biopsychosocial and gendered focus. Reductionist approaches, such as those contained within, and
underpinning the DSM, therefore -within a grounded theory framework - may well be of the nature of
preconceived ideas, shoehorned into research and understandings of male psychology. Thus they may be
irrelevant, may not fit and may not work.
Darach Murphy is a PhD Student at the School of Applied Psychology, UCC. Darach spent twenty years
working on building sites in Ireland and around the world before he embarked on another journey that
resulted in him doing a four year Psychology Degree course at Trinity College, Dublin and the current PhD
research here in UCC. People often comment on the contrast between working on building sites and
studying in academia, but to his mind they have much in common and hence his passion for grounded
research: research that seeks to put down and build upon solid foundations and seeks also to produce
something of genuine value to the community. At the same time his experience (and scars) from building
sites remind him to be wary of what Joanna Moncrieff terms ‘[expensive] castles in the sky’ type research!
Mind your head!
16.00-17.00 Plenary Session
BHSC G10 (150) Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI)
The final session of the conference is dedicated to the on-going work of the Critical Voices Network Ireland
(CVNI), which was launched at this conference in November 2010. The plenary session provides
opportunities to integrate the insights and initiatives of the first 1.5 days of the conference, to discuss the
on-going work of the CVNI. This will hopefully help strengthen a sense of shared outlook and purpose, and
enhance the networking initiatives which have started in different parts of the country.
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