National - Event Notice
Saturday January 26 2013
02:00 PM

Mental Health: Peers in Progress

national | disability issues | event notice

Tuesday January 01, 2013 18:54

by Sean Crudden - CEHG

sean at impero dot iol dot ie

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth.

0879739945

13th Annual Winter Workshop

The 13th annual winter workshop organised by Cooley takes place in The Strand, Omeath, Co. Louth, on Saturday 26 January 2013 from 14.00 until 17.30. A short meeting will take place at 16.00 during the workshop to ratify a committee for CEHG for 2013.

Sean Crudden and Titilobe Obiyomi

Following last year's gripping winter workshop on suicide issues Cooley Environmental and Health Group is delving into the mental health area for this year's workshop. A similar workshop took place about 8 years ago on the theme of isolation. But basically this is a new direction for the group. The group is not looking for an expert prescribed view. We hope for an open conversation involving mostly mature people from different backgrounds and different walks of life. The African presence has been a very important and uplifting feature of our workshops in previous years and we hope that aspect will be fully preserved again this year.

The photos accompanying this notice were selected from those taken at last year's winter workshop on suicide issues.

Please make contact with this writer; or with the group through its official web-site: if you wish to attend the workshop with full speaking rights. Accommodation is widely available in the locality for those who may be travelling from a distance on the mainland or from overseas.

Pat Ferrigan and Archbishop Michael Desmond Hynes OMD PhD

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Comments (1 of 1)

Organised for a Crisis?

by Seán Crudden - CEHG

Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:43

sean at cooleyehg dot com

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth

The 13th annual winter workshop organised by Cooley Environmental and Health Group took place in The Strand, Omeath, Co. Louth, on Saturday 26 January 2013 as planned. With a break at 15.30 the business end of the workshop lasted from 14.15 until 17.00. 16 people attended including the facilitator, Dermot Mooney. I am not going to give a blow by blow account but the workshop was stimulating, earnest, lively; well up to the standard of previous years.

A youth worker, Kevin Moran, forecast that the number of crisis interventions would mushroom in the next 10 years at a time when resources were diminishing.

It was pointed out by Joe Walshe that there were increasing resources deployed in suicide prevention. I noted that the graph was rising and opined that the work being done in this area, PR, etc., was doing more harm than good. An "evidence based" opinion?

Everyone attending got a good insight into the life and difficulties facing the mental patient and into the mental health system.

Michael Corrigan gave an authoritative survey of how the idea of peer support is understood internationally and how it is received. It seems to be accepted that there are benefits but the "how" of it seems to be of crucial importance.

Stanley Millen pointed out that the whole business of mental health has come to occupy a central position in people's minds now where spiritual considerations might have had pride of place previously. He asserted that there is a lot of jargon surrounding modern concepts of mental health and he recommended John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress as helpful reading.

It was not clear whether the basic idea of Peers in Progress has any value. Can early peer support forestall "crisis" and avoid the task of trying to rescue people from the mire in the aftermath of "crisis." ?

The following committee was ratified at 16.00 to sit for the year 2013. Chairperson; Dermot Mooney: vice-chairperson; Mrs. Anne Muldowney: secretary; Archbishop Michael Desmond Hynes, Abbot OMD, PhD: treasurer, Seán Crudden. Professor Dennis Pringle will continue as mentor. His role is one of oversight. He is not technically a member of the committee and his position is not subject to annual election.

Michael Farrelly