Speakers...

"Alison Cameron graduated from Aberdeen University with a degree in Russian. This led her to forge a successful career in International Relations for which she won several major awards notably for her humanitarian work in the Chernobyl zone. Her career was cut short when she became ill with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after her involvement in an accident in which her colleagues were killed.

She received and continues to receive, treatment from Mental Health Services within Kensington and Chelsea. She has found that her long journey back to recovery enabled her to build up a wealth of knowledge about mental illness and its treatment. She became aware that service users have a unique insight into the realities of obtaining effective treatment and resolved to put her experiences to good use. She is now a passionate advocate of service user involvement at all levels from peer support to active participation in service development both for the potential positive effects on the individual user as well as on the services in which they are engaged. 

She gives frequent talks on her experiences to practitioners and service users, has contributed to numerous publications, sits on her Borough’s Dual Diagnosis Steering Group and runs support groups for people with co-existing Mental Health and Substance Misuse issues. In 2007, she was elected as a Service User Governor for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and is fully committed to ensuring that the Trust listens to and acts upon the views of its members."

Contact Alison

I have a wealth of experiences which I am happy to share, as a person who has recovered from sexual abuse, self harm and mood disorder.  I have experience of conference speaking, workshops and delivering training.

I have accessed the support of secondary mental health services for 12 years and that of primary care throughout my adolescent years.  I was brought up in care from the age of 8.
I have learnt to manage my illness and have been in full time employment since leaving school despite the difficulties faced along the way.  The message of Hope and following your dreams and aspirations has been a crucial and essential part of my recovery.  I have been self harm free for 7 years with no relapse.  I was last admitted to hospital in November 210 for a short stay of 1 week.  My journey has not been easy like many, but through sheer determination and the right support from health professionals at the right time I am able to manage and live with my symptoms.

More recently I have been diagnosed with PMDD for which the simple treatment of a contraceptive pill has changed my life.

I now work as a Recovery and social inclusion worker in Leeds, supporting services to foster and develop recovery practices and breaking down stigma associated with mental Illness.

Contact Alison

"Up until 2005 I was, on the surface, a successful competent head teacher, in a primary school in an area of great social deprivation. I had a breakdown. What followed was four years of deep depression and anxiety. I am working for rethink as an involvement worker giving a presentation on my experience of losing my job, the benefits system, the services offered me, my slow road to recovery following my retirement from education. Having attended three interventions I have been invited to talk to headteachers in two authorities. I feel my message could encourage fellow teachers to look after themselves and not go through what I have had to. I wish to focus on the positive and offer practical advise to all who will listen. Hindsight is too late....."

Contact Andy

Contact Barbara

I can give a service-user perspective on spirituality; recovery, education (to PhD level); work (retail, admin, and research); service-user research; service-user involvement and advocacy services; the survivor movement; service-user/survivor history, and mental health treatment and care.

Contact David

"I can speak about service user experience. I have a bipolar diagnosis and have experienced psychotic highs and suicidal lows and have had many hospital admissions. I am used to talking about my experiences in public and I am confident and articulate, able to use my own story to raise broader issues re the mental health system. (I can also use humour where appropriate!).

I am very committed to recovery based practice. I can speak about this and about my own recovery journey and about partnership working. I am an experienced organizational consultant and trainer specialising in adult and older people’s mental health and have co-designed and delivered a number of courses for practitioners and service users on recovery. I have worked for Saneline and MIND.

I am a creative writer and also write non-fiction including articles. I used to be a theatre performer and still perform poetry. I have a lot of experience of facilitating workshops, public speaking, giving presentations and giving radio and print interviews."

Contact Debby

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Contact James

"Kate Hull Rodgers, director of HumourUs Limited, is an international leading authority on Humour in the Workplace. She has pioneered work in the fields of laughter therapy, stress management, worklife balance, assertiveness training and building relationships. For the past 18 years her advice has been sought by governments, health organizations and businesses in 29 countries on 5 continents. Kate is resident expert for ITV’s Job Finder, a business journalist, member of the Professional Speakers Association, an award winning comedienne and playwright. Her work and personal story of recovery from mental illness are the subject of the ITV documentary “Laughter is the Best Medicine”. Kate’s book “Pearls of Bizdom: How to Go from Grit to Great” has become a British business books best seller. Look for Kate’s mental health memoir; Cracked Up: A Bird’s Eye View of the Cuckoo’s Nest, will be published.

Kate is no stranger to the health organizations. Her many clients include the National Association for Medical Education Managers, the Kings Fund, Astra Zeneca, Glaxo Smith Kline, Macmillan Nurses, National Conference Institute of Health Managers, Lancashire Mental Health Care Trust, Mersey Mental Health Trust, Royal College of Nurses – Emergency Room Carers, National Practice Nurses Conference, Thoracic Oncology Nurses, Chemotherapy Nurses of Northumberland and other nursing organizations, several hospital and mental health trusts, even more PCTs and the Institute of Health Managers regionally"

www.humourus.co.uk

Contact Kate

"I can talk about my experience as a carer, the stresses, problems, etc, and my strategies for coping, and about the kind of support carers need. I particularly like to talk about how carers can work in partnership with professionals, how the team approach  -  using the service user and the carer as part of the therapeutic team  -  can be of great benefit in the management of a person’s illness and can help towards recovery. I give examples of good practice I have seen, and illustrate how these can lead to better outcomes."

Contact Lena

"Mental illness has brought untold knowledge and understanding into my life and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity or passion to continue becoming who I really am, without the shadow of Schizophrenia. This illness has forced me to walk through fears I thought I’d never encounter. It’s taught me despair isn’t as useful as hope, and it’s easier to hope when you realise crises bring opportunities. Accepting my son’s illness was the most difficult thing I’ve had to face, yet it’s made me stronger and wiser. The most important thing it’s taught me is that life is how you see it, and more importantly, the way you see it reflects your mind."

Contact Lindsay

Contact Matt

Contact Peter

"My evolving (positive & critical) perspectives on recovery from a BME perspective, both as a long-term MH service user, an experienced trainer of MH staff (was employed in SLaM as a user trainer for 5years) & a reflective writer (eg chapter entitled ‘A Recovery Approach in Mental Health Services: Transformation, Tokenism or Tyranny?’  Trivedi P.  (2010)   in : Voices of Experience: Narratives of Mental Health Survivors Edited by Thurstine Basset and Theo Stickley  (Wiley London)

I have a particular interest in issues of diversity & social inequalities, & whether concepts of recovery address these crucial issues, particularly issues of race & culture & gender. 

I am self-employed as a MH trainer & advisor (from a BME user perspective) & charge fees according to the Dept Health MARD document."

Contact Primela