BSMHD Newsletter May 2004

BSMHD Council Meeting - Deaf Connections, Glasgow, 29th June 2004

The next Council Meeting is being held at Deaf Connections in Glasgow on 29th June. The meeting will start at 11.00am and finish at 3.30pm. In the morning there will be a presentation from our hosts about the Glasgow Deaf Healthy Living Centre. Council Meetings are open to members only and are free to attend. Please let Jonathan Isaac know if you wish to attend.

Annual Conference - Cardiff, 27th May 2004

The 2004 BSMHD Annual Conference, Achieving Equity and Access, held at the Angel Hotel, Cardiff on 27th May was attended by over 160 people. The highlight of the day was a commitment from Jane Hutt, the Welsh Assembly Minister for Health and Social Security, to establish a Deafness and Mental Health Reference Group to advise the Assembly on how to develop mental health services for deaf people in Wales. Conference Chair, Margaret du Feu, welcomed the announcement as a significant step forward for the deaf community in Wales. Peter Hindley, newly elected Chair of BSMHD, concluded the conference by remarking on the progress that had been made since the first conference in 1991. An event that had been full of hope but without any research, compared to the 2004 Conference at which over half of the presentations had been based on good quality research and over half of the presentations had been made by deaf professionals.

The Conference Proceedings will be available shortly on the Conference page.

Annual General Meeting - Cardiff, 27th May 2004

The Annual General Meeting was held during the lunch-break at the Annual Conference in Cardiff on 27th May 2004. 13 members attended and were welcomed by Peter Hindley, the Honorary Secretary and Acting Chair. Peter noted with regret that our Chair, Sharon Ridgeway had stood down due to ill-health, and thanked her for all her hard work for the Society over recent years. It was also noted that Nick Kitson, a founder of the Society, had also recently experienced ill-health but was now recovering well. The new developments at the Society, under the secretariat of UK Council on Deafness, were welcomed. Peter thanked Richard Gunner from SIGN who has kept the books and Steve Powell for presenting the accounts.

Members agreed to increase the Annual Individual Membership Fee, from April 1st 2005, to £35. The Organisation Membership and Affiliation Fees remain unchanged at £250.

Election of Honorary Officers

The list of Honorary Officers of the Society, all of whom were elected for a three year term at the AGM, is available on the About Us page.

Towards Equity and Access

Publication of the long-awaited Towards Equity and Access Report, resulting from the Sign of the Times consultation process has been delayed by the need to incorporate the findings of the Sarwat Al Assaf Inquiry. Further details are hoped for soon.

Sarwat Al Assaf Inquiry

The Report of the Independent Inquiry into the homicide committed by a deaf man from Nottinghamshire, Sarwat Al-Assaf is now available on the News page.

Healthy Deaf Minds

The next meeting of the HDM Group will be on Wednesday 4th August at Friends Meeting House, opposite Euston station. Full details will be posted shortly on the Healthy Deaf Minds page.

Deafness in Mind

Working Psychologically with Deaf People Across the Lifespan
Sally Austen and Susan Crocker

This forthcoming book presents the varying theoretical approaches to the psychology of deafness: systemic, cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic, wellness and neuropsychological models. Uniquely, clinical theory and practice are linked to provide a comprehensive understanding of the deaf mental health field.

Further details on the Noticeboard.

Africa Workshop on Mental Health and Deafness

The first Africa Mental Health and Deafness workshop will be held from 29 September to 1 October 2004 at the Institute for the Deaf at Worcester (South Africa) in preparation for the 3rd Mental Health and Deafness World Congress in 2005 in South Africa.

Further details on the Noticeboard.

Third Mental Health & Deafness World Congress 2005

26 - 30 October 2005

Worcester, South Africa

At the 2nd World Congress of the European Society for Mental Health and Deafness (ESMHD) in 2000 in Copenhagen Rev Attie Smit of the Institute for the Deaf, presented a paper and workshop on the Mini-Village for Deaf adults with multiple disabilities on invitation of the ESMHD. Following the Congress the Institute for the Deaf was asked by the International Contact Group of the ESMHD if it would be prepared to host their next World Congress in 2005 in the Western Cape. The Institute for the Deaf responded positively. At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the ESMHD in 2001 a presentation of facilities available in the Western Cape was made and it was confirmed that the Institute for the Deaf would host the 3rd World Congress in South Africa (Worcester) in 2005 and an Africa Workshop on Mental Health and Deafness in 2004.

Further details on the Noticeboard.

National CAMHS Support Service 2004

Facilitated by Ms Fiona Gale, CAMHS Regional Development Worker for East Midlands, to be held at the NEWSTEAD CONFERENCE ROOM, Tuesday 5th October 2004, 9.30 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.

Further details on the Noticeboard.

Free Your Mind Report

Copies of the report of the Free Your Mind research project exploring Deaf people's experiences of mental distress and accessing support services in Leeds can now be downloaded from the Noticeboard page.

£5 million funding boost for mental health research

People with mental health problems are set to benefit from a £5million funding boost for mental health research and the creation of the first ever Mental Health Research Network, Health Minister Rosie Winterton announced on 6th June. The Network will help to raise the standard of mental health and social care research in England by acting as a central resource for clinicians, researchers, carers and people with mental health problems with an interest in participating in research. The Network will increase the scale, range, and timeliness of mental health research.

Current research projects include support for carers, a study of service users views of the current Mental Health Act and an overview of trials of psychological treatments for people with schizophrenia and substance misuse. Research priorities for the Network will be determined by a wide-scale consultation process, which will begin later this year. This will be informed by the views of service users and their carers, researchers, front-line staff, health services and social care managers and commissioners.

The Mental Health Research Network can be contacted by post at PO Box 88, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF or by email [email protected] or by telephone 020 7848 0699 or fax 020 7848 0147.

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