UNISON Ulearn Northern Ireland

On Thursday 19th April an important Conference - ‘Carers and Recovery’ - hosted by CAUSE and the Western Health & Social Care Trust will take place in the Mellon Country Inn, Omagh. The Conference will also feature Lu Duhig, a carer working with the Family Intervention in Psychosis Service in Avon and Wiltshire to promote carers’ issues. Lu has developed several projects to improve carer awareness, and will address the issue of ‘partners in care’. Lu will also launch the Carer’s Information Guide which CAUSE has produced and adapted for use in Northern Ireland.

To ask if someone will recover is the most obvious and basic question when confronted with any severe health problem, and helping people recover is the most fundamental goal for any service or practitioner. However, it has long been assumed that people with mental illness do not recover, leading to low expectations and loss of hope. Recovery is a fairly new concept and much-debated word in the vocabulary of ‘Mental Health’.

Fundamentally Recovery is a process whereby an individual takes as much control of their own life as they can. Whatever the debate about Recovery and its meanings, one thing is clear: family members and carers have not figured greatly in the discussion.

The ‘Carers and Recovery’ Conference hosted by the voluntary organisation CAUSE for Mental Health and the Western Health & Social Care Trust seeks to address this issue.

A dynamic and experienced team of trainers from The Zebra Collective / No Limits Training Group will facilitate and inform exploration of the role of carers / helpers in Recovery, as well as Recovery for carers.

The Keynote speaker at the Conference is Trevor Miller, Director of Mental Health and Learning Disability in the Western Trust, and there will be a panel of local health professionals including Seamus McGarvey, (Clinical Manager / Review), Gerry McHugh and Brenda O’Donaghue (Community Mental Health Team leaders), and Therese Armstrong (Respite Care Services Co-ordinator).

Registration / Refreshments are available from 9.15am, and the Conference will conclude at 4.00pm. There is no cost for admission or refreshments, and the Conference welcomes carers, health professional, service users and anyone with an interest in the subject. For local carers there is the added bonus of a voucher for a pamper treatment.

Anyone wishing to attend this unique event, to RSVP or receive further information should contact CAUSE on 028 9023 8284, or e-mail: info@cause.org.uk