Mental Health Today Online 2021
Day 1 – Tuesday, 18 May
Best Practice and professional development are crucial not only to how organisations and policymakers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic but also for continuing the progress that has been made in recent years regarding elevating standards of care.
Session Description
Session 1 – Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Time: 1:30pm GMT
Title: Caring for people with co-occurring mental health and drug conditions
Description: Better care for people with co-occurring mental health and substance misuse conditions
Detailed Description: Over the last decade, successful campaigns in Britain have encouraged people to talk about their mental health. However, there’s a piece of the puzzle that is still too often missing from the national debate about mental health – addiction. It’s time to talk openly about co-occurring conditions of mental illness and addiction, as part of the same conversation – because when they co-occur, they are never isolated issues.
In treating co-occurring conditions, it’s essential that professionals have the knowledge and skills to understand the interplay between the conditions. The more we bring the conversation about co-existing addiction, depression and anxiety into the open, the more healthcare services will have to adapt to patients’ needs.
In this session, leaders in the field of co-occurring diagnosis Adferiad Recovery will explore where we are in responding to co-occurring issues, and how we can develop in the future. The session will also look at barriers that are sometimes faced and encourage discussion around how we can effectively overcome these, with coproduction and collaboration at the heart of how we do this.
Presenters:
Leon Marsh – Director of Hospital and Residential Services
Leon has held various positions within criminal justice, housing, and residential services with both statutory and third sector organisations. Adferiad Residential Services are one of the largest providers of residential treatment in the UK, treating over 1,000 complex needs patients per year. Consisting of medically managed inpatient detox and residential rehab facilities and secure mental health services.
Leon is also a board member of Recovery Group UK (RGUK) contributing to the recent Dame Carol Black Review. Leon’s interest is in ensuring that Adferiad delivers quality, cost effective and innovative services which meet the needs of service users, commissioners, and communities.
Leon is keen to drive forward the co-occurring agenda, built on the fundamental principles of partnership working, collaboration and co-production.
Lisa Shipton
Having previously worked within criminal justice services in the statutory sector, Lisa joined the voluntary sector in 2007. Since then, she has held various positions with a focus on supporting those with substance misuse and / or mental health issues. Lisa joined Adferiad Recovery in 2019, welcoming the opportunity to effectively support those with co-occurring issues in a more joined up and accessible way.
Lisa enjoys listening to and understanding the needs of service users and the wider community, to help develop and deliver services which are innovative and responsive to need. She likes to take a solution focussed approach, working in a collaborative way. Lisa describes herself as having had the privilege of supporting those affected by substance misuse and mental health, and by far her greatest learning continues to be from the many hours spent with service users and their families.
Session 2 – Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Time: 3:00pm GMT
Title: Learning from lockdown
Description: Learning from lockdown, an honest conversation.
Detailed Description: This session will explore the findings from a series of conversations Platfform held with publics service and community practioners across Wales during the pandemic. Many of the Lessons from Lockdown (Lessons-from-Lockdown-report.pdf (platfform.org)) are by now familiar: collaboration, focus on what matters and localism flourished but others exposed holes in organisational cultures at odds with trauma informed, healing focussed and asset based ways of working. In particular this session will focus on the leadership challenge ahead as we grapple with the need for certainty without wanting to lose the authentic and creative ways of working that emerged during times of great uncertainty.
Presenter:
Charlotte Waite – Lead on Systems Change and Transformation.
Charlotte has a twenty year career in and around social care. Working both as an academic and a practioner Charlotte’s work has influenced policy and practice both locally and nationally. Recently she spent two years on secondment at the Wales Adverse Childhood Experience Hub, leading on Psychologically Informed Environments within Housing which is an on-going national programme. Now at Platfform a Mental Health and Social Change charity she leads on Systems Change and Transformation.