Discovery Partners and Communities & The Hearing Voices Approach: Workshops


Monday 12th November 2018

Hywel Dda University Health Board

Meeting Room 5, Building 2, 1st Floor, St David's Park, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire


Thursday 20th December 2018

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board

The Lecture Hall (ED27) Education Centre, 2nd Floor, Neath Port Talbot Hospital Baglan Way, Port Talbot, SA12 7BX


To book your place on the workshops go to Eventsforce: 

Monday 12th November 2018 Session: http://www.eventsforce.net/nliah/1125/register 

Thursday 20th December 2018: http://www.eventsforce.net/nliah/1128/register 

For further information, contact: Paul Baker at [email protected]



Aims and Purpose of Workshop

  • At this workshop we will learn how to put into practice the discovery partnership and hearing voices approaches with young people who are “stuck” in their lives and in services. 
  • These approaches complement each other well, because they enable service users to self-determine their own whole life needs and solutions through an active partnership with practitioners, their family members and friends.As mental health practitioners, service users and family members we will seek solutions to the challenges we face in our lives and work.
  • The workshop is intended to be the beginning of a process to embed these practices within the service and practices of the Health Board and local communities.
  • The purpose of the workshop is to embed the practice of working with people as partners through the creation of a “Discovery Partner Community” in your local area.

The Discovery Partners Approach 

  • The approach recognises that people have difficulties that are as much to do with their social and economic circumstances as they are to do with their mental health conditions. The two are intertwined and they need to be addressed together to meet the unique circumstances that the person is facing. 
  • The approach seeks solutions to these issues by working to improve family relationships, social networks, housing and other social and economic circumstances alongside their mental health condition. 
  • It facilitates a partnership between service users, their social networks and their mental health practitioners to construct a discovery journey based on the whole life needs and preferences of the person.
  • This process is a shared experience; emphasising the importance of having a group of people with the opportunity to work together to create a discovery partner community. This is an essential part of the approach and addresses issues of togetherness, empowerment, shared responsibility. 
  • The Discovery Partner journey is co-produced with peers, mental health workers and the persons family and social network.

The Hearing Voices Approach 

  • The approach frames hearing voices as a meaningful experience for the person that could be beneficially explored by the person and others.
  • People who are overwhelmed by their voices can be supported to change their understanding of and their relationship with their voices. 
  • The approach has proved particularly effective in assisting people to live better with their voices.
  • We will focus on one to one to work re. The Maastricht Interview Schedule and Voice Dialoguing. These techniques are co-produced and show that service users greatly benefit from being able to develop their own coping strategies to live successfully with their voices
  • We will address the concerns that workers have been expressing in finding more successful ways to support clients who hear voices (or with other extreme experiences) who are not responding well to treatment. 
  • Services that have embraced this way of thinking and working have found it has led to a considerable increase in the confidence of their workers in working with voice hearers.
  • Research shows that this way of working reduces anxiety and isolation, reduces hospital admissions & remissions and most significantly enables voice hearers to move on with their lives. 

Facilitation

The training will be co-facilitated by John Jenkins and Paul Baker from the International Mental Health Collaborating Network (IMHCN).

John Jenkins is the CEO of International Mental Health Collaborating Network. He developed the Discovery Partnership approach and Action Learning Sets. John has vast experience of planning and implementing the transformation of services.

Paul Baker is Secretary of IMHCN. He has extensive experience in this area. Paul was one of the founding members of the Hearing Voices Network in England and is currently the social media coordinator of INTERVOICE, the influential coordinating body for the international hearing voices movement. 

For further information contact Paul Baker at [email protected]

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