Refocus on Recovery 2019

Expert Workshop topics

Expert Workshop 1: Co-production (facilitated by Julie Repper)

This workshop will provide a forum to discuss and develop ideas about coproduction.

Participants will:

• Increase their understanding of coproduction at different levels of organisations and systems
• Explore the potential benefits and challenges
• Share experiences and ideas about ‘what works.
• Practice coproduction
• Coproduce ‘good practice guidelines’ for successful coproduction

The workshop will begin by exploring the questions that participants have about coproduction and provide a a presentation about the meaning, facilitation and benefits of coproduction drawing on examples of coproduction at different levels.  Participants will work in small groups to share their experiences and the challenges that they have encountered.  All participants will work in mixed groups to practice coproduction and observe their experience.  These coproduction groups will focus on developing guidance for the facilitating effective coproduction. 

Expert Workshop 2: Mental health and international law (facilitated by Peter Bartlett)

Policymakers and people with lived experience of mental distress talk about human rights a lot, but what is it that we mean?  Do our expectations fit with the content of the international standards and structures of human rights law?  And what is this ‘new paradigm’ of human rights that we hear about?

In this workshop, we will –

• Distinguish between every-day and legal meanings of ‘human rights’
• Explore the way human rights are enforced, both nationally and internationally
• Using the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), explore two different visions (the ‘old’ and ‘new’ paradigms) of what human rights means for people with mental health problems, psychosocial disabilities, or learning disabilities
• Explore the way in which key elements of recovery interact with the CRPD, including the right to community living, the right to equality before the law (and legal capacity), the right to health, the right to be free from violence, exploitation and abuse, and the right to liberty.

Expert Workshop 3: Soteria Houses (facilitated by Pesach Lichtenberg)

Soteria houses in Israel have catalyzed a change in the delivery of psychiatric care for people in states of extrme cognitive and emotional distress, such as psychosis and suicidal depression. Instead of being hospitalized in an institution, with the attendant ills of stigma, passivity, alienation and marginalization, the individual joins a therapeutic community in a well-staffed home in a residential neighborhood. The emphasis is on emotional support, honest communication, empathy and recovery. Decisions are shared, including about medication. Where possible, the primary support group becomes a part of the process.

In this workshop, through presentations, open theoretical discussions, and small work group activities, we will explore and deepen our appreciation for the following areas:

• A brief history of the Soteria approach and its variants
• The potential of Soteria homes for changing the paradigm for the delivery of acute psychiatric care
• The distinction between mental health and illness
• An approach to establish meaningful rapport with people in extreme mental states
• The proper role of medication in providing care

Expert Workshop 4: Strategies for promoting citizenship (facilitated by Michael Rowe and Helen Hamer)

‘Citizenship,’ a way of thinking about the social inclusion and participation of people with psychiatric challenges, has been developed at the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health in the U.S. from the late 1990s on, and has since been taken up in other countries.

Using presentation, small and large group activities, and ‘citizenship exercises, the objectives of this workshop are to:

• Convey the ‘what’ and ‘why it matters’ of citizenship and mental health to service users, practitioners, and others.  
• Review and discuss the application of citizenship principles in mental health systems of care and outside them, including financial empowerment, citizenship-oriented care, community building, and more.
• Question, challenge, and discover how citizenship might work in different settings and countries, and the ways in which cross-national citizenship, already underway, can benefit users of services and supports, and enhance their valued roles in their communities and countries.  

The workshop will be participatory, with a minimum (but enough) presentation and background information to give participants a firm foundation in citizenship ideas and practices.

Expert Workshop 5: Designing sensitive digital health interventions (facilitated by Stefan Rennick-Egglestone)

Information and communications technologies are established as a mechanism for supporting people living with a range of health conditions, but evaluations show that drop-out rates are high, and users rarely complete a “course” of “treatment”. I would argue that design of digital health interventions often underestimates the challenging personal and social settings in which technologies are used.

This workshop is designed to provide a rapid primer for those interested in how to design digital health interventions that are sensitive to needs and motivations of individuals.

• We will consider selected examples of methods which have been developed to generate an “empathic” understanding of the needs and motivations of digital health technologies.
• We will consider how these methods might be applied to real examples provided by workshop attendees.