BSMHD 2007 Annual Conference

‘After TEA: The Future for Mental Health Services for Deaf People’

The BSMHD Annual Conference will be held at the Council House, Bristol on Thursday 24 May 2007.

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Next BSMHD meeting – Manchester, Thursday 12 July 2007

The next BSMHD meeting will be held in Manchester at the Manchester Deaf Centre, Crawford House, Booth Street East, Manchester M13 9GH on Thursday, 12 July 2007. The meeting will start at 11am (refreshments on arrival from 10.30am). The morning will be an opportunity to meet invited guests from the NHS, Social Services and Voluntary Sector Organisations in Greater Manchester. BSMHD Meetings are open to all members and are free to attend. If you would like to attend please contact Jonathan Isaac, [email protected] . Further details will be available in the next Newsletter.

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Deaf People in the Criminal Justice System Conference – Salford 26 April 2007

The Deaf People in the Criminal Justice System Conference, organised by St Mary’s Hospital, will take place at The Lowry, Salford Quays on Thursday 26 April 2007 from 9am to 4pm. Speakers include: Ann Corsellis, Sue O’Rourke, Manjit Gahir, Martin Dickinson, Tina Little, Craig Flynn, Brendan Montiero and Neil Taylor. The conference will be chaired by Lady Winifred Tumin. For more details and a booking form, please contact Sam Doyle-Soens, St Mary’s Hospital, Winick Road, Warrington, Cheshire, WA2 8QA; tel 01925 423300; fax 01925 576752 and email: [email protected]

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Great Expectations Conference – 15 May 2007

The Mental Health and Deaf & Deafblind People conference will take place at Celtic Park in Glasgow on Tuesday 15th May 2007 from 9am to 4pm. Great Expectations will examine models of good practice in England, Ireland and Finland which will help inform the planning and development of a fully accessible service for deaf and deafblind people in Scotland. The conference will enable delegates to participate in and contribute to shaping Scotland’s ideal service. Co-chaired by Prof. Peter McKenna, University of Glasgow, and Lilian Lawson, SCoD Director, the event aims to inspire mental health service providers, including: psychiatrists, psychologists, RMNs, CPNs, counsellors, service planners, commissioners, mental health voluntary organisations and service users. For more details and a booking form, please contact Alison Coyle at SCoD, Central Chambers Suite 62, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 6LD; tel 0141 248 2474; text 0141 248 2477; fax 0141 248 2479 and e-mail: [email protected].

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Healthy Deaf Minds

The next meeting of the Healthy Deaf Minds London Group will be on Wednesday 6 June 2007 at the Small Meeting Room, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London (opposite Euston Station). In order to receive automatic Emails you only need to subscribe at: [email protected] . All meetings are on a Wednesday at Friends Meeting House, Euston. Starting at 6.30pm and finishing at 9pm. Full communication support, tea & coffee are available. Entrance fee is £4 to cover the cost of room hire.

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The final meeting of the Towards Equity and Access Implementation Panel took place on 19 March. An evaluation report will be produced and disseminated detailing the achievements of the panel. At the Annual Conference in May we will be discussing the plans for BSMHD to establish a successor panel to continue coordinating the progress that is being made in improving access to health services for deaf people and the development of specialist mental health services for deaf people. All at BSMHD and all those involved in the TEA Panel would like to wish a very happy retirement to Bob McDonald, Senior Policy Advisor at the Department for Health and to thank him for his immense commitment to developing mental health services for deaf people over the last five years.

The agenda and minutes and supporting papers of the TEA Panel meetings are available on the BSMHD website at www.bsmhd.org.uk/teaimp.htm .

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Welsh Mental Health and Deafness Reference Group

The BSMHD Welsh Mental Health and Deafness Reference Group met with officials from the Welsh Assembly on 23 January to discuss their formal response to our proposals for developing mental health services for deaf people in Wales and improving access to general health services. We have since received confirmation of their response from Brian Gibbons, Minister for Health and Social Services.

Letter From Brian Gibbons, Minister for Health and Social Services, Welsh Assembly Government to the British Society for Mental Health and Deafness, 2 April 2007.

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BSMHD Governance Review

The main changes are to:

If you require any SANEmail posters for your organisation or would like a pack of our wallet cards, please contact Rochelle Batten, SANEmail Co-ordinator, SANE, 1st Floor, Cityside House, 40 Adler Street, London E1 1EE. www.sane.org.uk Tel: 020 7422 5536 [email protected].