Shine’s “Recovery and the Family” Seminar and AGM

By Kate Morgan on Thursday, June 1st, 2017 in Events, Featured, News.

Shine’s “Recovery and the Family” seminar and AGM took place on Saturday 20^th May in the Ashling Hotel, Dublin.

Martin Matthews, Co-ordinator of Shine’s Discovery Building in Waterford gave a fantastic presentation about the wonderful work they do in the southeast.  The Waterford Discovery Hub is a centre of excellence and recovery that acts as a resource for people with self-experience of mental ill health and their families.

The purpose of the centre is to provide time and space for each individual to build on their strengths and develop the understanding and skills they need to navigate life’s issues.  They provide a wide range of activities such as arts and crafts, creative writing and yoga as well as other educational courses.

After Martin’s presentation Shine held its AGM.  Four new members were nominated to the Board: Brian Miles, Kevin Roantree, Martin Melvin and Joan Higgins.  Each of the new board members introduced themselves and the Chair welcomed them.

After lunch, members of the REFOCUS Group from the Irish College of Psychiatry gave a presentation on the work they do.  REFOCUS, which stands for Recovery Experience Forum of Carers and Users of Services was set up in 2011 with the aim of improving training of psychiatrists and identifying ways to improve mental health services.  It consists of psychiatrists, services users and family members.  Dr Anne Jeffers and Kara Madden (Joint Chairs) and Rick Rossiter (service user) all presented on the work they do and papers they’ve written.  Through a series of regular meetings and sub group meetings REFOCUS debates issues, writes papers, presents at conferences and is invited to external body events where the voice of the user of the services and their family member/carer is found to be invaluable.

Shine would like to thank all of the speakers who presented at this event and to everyone who came along on the day.