• Next BSMHD meeting – Exeter 27 September 2007
• Healthy Deaf Minds in Exeter
• Healthy Deaf Minds in London
• Learn to Sign Week
• Alpha Hospitals Conference – NEC Birmingham 1 October 2007
• Ageing Deaf – International Conference 22 – 25 April 2008
• Annual Deafness Conference – London 6 November 2007
• ESMHD Presidential Report – September 2007
• World Mental Health Day - 10 October 2007
• Mental Health and Deafness; Meeting the needs of Lipreaders.

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Next BSMHD meeting – Exeter 27 September 2007

The next BSMHD meeting will be held in Exeter on 27 September 2007 at the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education, 50 Topsham Road, Exeter, EX2 4NF. The meeting will be an opportunity to meet staff from the Health Services and Deaf Organisations in the South West region. BSMHD Meetings are open to all members and are free to attend. If you would like to attend please contact Jonathan Isaac, [email protected] .

Dates of future meetings: 11 December 2007 in Edinburgh, 13 March 2008 in Birmingham and 10 July 2008 in Cardiff.

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Healthy Deaf Minds in Exeter

We are holding a Healthy Deaf Minds meeting on 26 September 2007 at the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education, 50 Topsham Road, Exeter, EX2 4NF . Starting at 6.30pm and finishing at 9pm. Communication support, tea & coffee are available. Entrance will be free for this meeting. The two presentations will be about Living with Diabetes by Alison Veal and the Deafinite Interpreters Agency by Carly Renauld and Helen Caudwell . This is the second Healthy Deaf Minds meeting to be held outside London and we are delighted to be hosting the meeting jointly with Living Options Devon, who will be incorporating future Healthy Deaf Minds meetings in their regular programme of information forums for the local deaf community.

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Healthy Deaf Minds in London

The next meeting of the Healthy Deaf Minds London Group will be on Wednesday 3 October 2007 at the Small Meeting Room, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London (opposite Euston Station). The topic will be Heart Disease. 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 £5 to cover the cost of room hire.

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Learn to Sign Week

The British Deaf Association Learn to Sign Week is on 1st – 6th October 2007. For further details go to the campaign website at www.learntosign.org.uk

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Alpha Hospitals Conference – NEC Birmingham 1 October 2007

Alpha Hospitals "Deaf Inpatient Secure Care - Understanding the Difference". Monday 1st October 2007, The Hilton Hotel, Birmingham. A practical and educational event on the challenges and differences of working with Deaf patients in Secure Care. Presentations and workshops include:

"Pathways Through Secure Care" Dr Jim Appleford, Clinical Director

"How to Achieve Effective Communication" Craig Flynn, Patients Rights Facilitator & Dr Rob Turner, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist

"Causes of Challenging Behaviour in Deaf People" Sally Austen Consultant Clinical Psychologist Deaf Mental Health Services, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham

"Barriers within barriers - ways of overcoming obstacles to communication during therapeutic holding" Nick Horne, Clinical Nurse Specialist & John Williams, Deputy Chief Executive, Deafway

"Let me Show You" - Art Psychotherapy with Deaf people Marilyn Hoggard Art Psychotherapist, Bolton Salford & Trafford Mental Health Trust

"Innovative Ways of working with patients using the Deaf centred Patient Satisfaction Survey" Sarah Powell Assistant Psychologist

"Piloting a Communication Skills Profiling Tool" Lindsay Gagan Communication & Language Therapist

"The Role of the Interpreter in a Therapeutic Session" Clare Shard, Head of Interpreting Ali Hetherington, Freelance Interpreter

For further details and to book your place contact Emily O'Callaghan, Alpha Hospital Bury, Buller Street, Off Bolton Road, Bury, BL8 2BS. email: [email protected]

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Ageing Deaf – International Conference 22 – 25 April 2008

Puchberg Castle Education Centre, Austria

The socio-demographic development - an aging community - is the major social challenge nowadays. All good present proposals aim at the inclusion and participation of older people in the community life of the society. Becoming older poses a double threat to Deaf people. The changes associated with aging (illness, disabilities), is as real to Deaf as it is for the hearing. Because of communication problems Deaf people are isolated in the hearing community and are in greater need to belong to a community who also communicates in sign language. However, immobility and age associated disabilities threaten a normal participation with the Deaf community which is usually organised through Deaf clubs and events.

The problems of services for Deaf Seniors will be discussed in this international context with the goal to develop ideas and concepts which can be applied in other countries. The idea is to learn from each other and stimulate development and constructive discussions. Although there will be no restriction on perspectives brought to the discussion, we have identified a few major themes: Political, Social, financial issues of ageing of the Deaf; general medicine issues; specific neurological illnesses of ageing; Ageing, Deafness and disability. We deliberately do not call this a congress but a conference with a limited number of participants because we commonly want to learn from each other and plan together.

Call for papers: Participants are invited to submit an abstract for a possible paper. There are no parallel workshops and all papers will be presented to the whole group. Presentations will be either Normal or short. The normal presentation will be 30 minutes with an extra 10 minutes discussion time after the presentation (thus a total of 40 minutes) while the short presentation will be 10 minutes with 5 minutes discussion (thus a total of 15 minutes). Presentations can be in English, German or interpreted Sign language.

Procedure for applications: Abstracts of papers must be submitted by 1 November 2007 by entering it in the space below and in the prescribed format (using the numbered system mentioned below). Abstract must be 300 to 400 words with emphasis on the aim of paper, the key issues which are addressed and give important background information. The abstract should clearly identify what has been accomplished, why it is significant, and how it compares with and builds on previous work.

For further details go to the conference website at www.agedeaf.org or contact Martie van Arkel [email protected]

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Annual Deafness Conference – London 6 November 2007

UCU Conference Centre, Britannia Street, Kings Cross, London.

The Fourth UK Council on Deafness Annual Deafness Conference is an opportunity for all professionals working with deaf people to meet and network with colleagues and to gain a greater understanding of developments taking place across the country and across the spectrum of deafness.

Primary Presentations

• Project New Start – The needs of Deaf Adult Refugees and Asylum Seekers and those who work with them. Karen Considine, Head of Faculty Deaf Education and Learning Support, City Lit.

• The British Sign Language Corpus Project. Dr Adam Schembri, Senior Research Fellow, University College London Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre.

• The Lives of Deaf Young People with Cochlear Implants. Sue Archbold, Education Coordinator, The Ear Foundation.

• ‘Fill in the Gaps’ Campaign on older people with hearing and sight loss. Sue Brown, Head of Campaigns and Public Policy, Sense.

• A vision for the future... The needs of people who are deaf in Dumfries & Galloway. Peter Shaw, Manager of Community Services, Cumbria Deaf Association

Supporting Presentations

• Children and Young People Consultation. Tyron Woolfe, Deputy Director UK Services, National Deaf Children’s Society

• Supporting people that experience Tinnitus. Ewart Davies, Chairman, The British Tinnitus Association

• ‘Now We’re Talking’. Pauline Hughes, Chief Executive, The Ewing Foundation

• Supporting Deaf Parents. Nicole Campbell, Coordinator, Deaf Parenting UK

• Access to Healthcare for deaf people. Steve Powell, Chief Executive, SIGN

• BSL Futures, the British Sign Language Interpreter Apprentice Scheme for Wales. Helen Arber, Head of Communication Development, RNID

• Access to Communication in English, Implementing the Recommendations. Paul Hanmer, Committee Member, National Association of Deafened People

For further information or to book your place please visit the website at www.deafcouncil.org.uk or contact Clare Long on [email protected]

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ESMHD Presidential Report – September 2007

Since the start of the new presidency was January 1 2007, the report of the president should start there. However it would be a pity to forgo the excellent SIG meeting in Tenerife successfully organised by the three M's: Martie van Arkel,, Maria Gascon and Maria Soarez. Many professionals from Europe came together in the University of La Laguna to share knowledge, discuss freely and openly important issues of their work and research. The beautiful old city of La Laguna was a real nice place to meet. Our former president Alexis Karakostas chaired his last Council-meeting, with the usual intense discussions about the future of the ESMHD in the afternoon facilitated partly by Jan van Arkel. Alexis Karakostas was nominated unanimously to honorary vice-president.

After Tenerife the nomination procedure of the new president with candidates started.

Ines Sleeboom-van Raaij was chosen as the new president.

The Executive members were than:

Ines Sleeboom-van Raaij president

Javier Munoz Bravo honorary secretary

Sandra O'Brien honorary treasurer

Gordon Chapman co-opted member.

During the annual meeting of the Executive 9-11 March 2007- you can read more about this in the minutes- there was also a farewell of Martie van Arkel, the ESMHD director, and a welcome to Renata Sarmento the new manager of the ESMHD. Important decisions were taken during this meeting such as: to make a proposal to change parts of the by laws, to make an archive of the ESMHD papers of 20 years, to enhance the website and to meet by Skype more often. After this meeting Javier and Gordon have worked hard on the by laws, of which you have the documents already.

In July during the WFD congress in Madrid three of the Executive members (Gordon, Ines and Javier) and the manager Renata were together and discussed the bylaws-proposal of Javier and Gordon in depth. The main changes they proposed were addressing the membership possibilities. Important arguments for change were formulated in a special document and send to all the council members afterwards. It is important for many people in Europe not represented in the council of the ESMHD and outside Europe to have access to the ESMHD-membership. For the ESMHD it is important to have more members as many organisations of the past are no longer able to represent their country, let alone pay their membership fee. New members and more members can make the society a lively organisation, where people working in mental health and deafness can find information, expertise and colleagues. The Executive has discussed new goals for the future in relationship with the new membership possibilities.

The Special Interest Groups are the core-business of the ESMHD, their meeting is an important opportunity for members to meet and share. The chairpersons of the SIGS should be connected to the Executive and have the possibility to discuss their ideas with the Executive members.

Communication between members is also an important issue. It should not be limited to SIGs-meetings and the ESMHD congress, but be available 24 hours per day. In the website with a general informative level a special level for members-only should be developed. This offers a meeting place in which members can find information about meetings such as the SIGs-meeting, can publish their articles or speeches, inform others about conferences and make contact with other members. The website should be linked to important sites such as the World Federation of the Deaf and the British Society Mental Health and Deafness. The history of the ESMHD should be available for members, all important documents are gathered together in an archive in Glasgow in the near future. With these new plans the Executive hopes to develop the ESMHD to a society of which many people want to be a member.

The Executive expressed their gratitude to Alexis Karakostas the former president for all his work in the past years and Martie van Arkel the former director of the ESMHD who made the transfer period in 2006 to a great success.

Ines Sleeboom-van Raaij
President of the ESMHD

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World Mental Health Day - 10 October 2007

Mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity World Mental Health Day has been celebrated annually on 10 October since 1992. Every year a different theme is set by the World Federation for World Mental Health Day. The theme for 2007 is 'Mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity'.

Contact Mind's Campaigns team if you want any of the following: ideas on how to mark World Mental Health Day; to let us know what you're planning to do; to order World Mental Health Day posters and leaflets (UK only). If you do then please contact us on 020 8215 2424 or email [email protected] . For further information about World Mental Health Day visit the World Federation for Mental Health website at: www.wfmh.com

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Mental Health and Deafness; Meeting the needs of Lipreaders.

The Association of Lipspeakers annual conference this year will focus on issues concerning access to mental health services for deaf people who lipread. The conference will take place on Saturday 17th November in central Birmingham. All are welcome. For further details please visit the ALS website at www.lipspeaking.co.uk or contact the information office on 01538 722482 (voice) or 01538 722442 (text & fax).

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Note: The articles that appear in this newsletter are for information only – inclusion does not imply endorsement of the contents by BSMHD.

The next edition of the BSMHD Newsletter will be sent out in November 2007. The deadline for sending articles is 1 November 2007. Please send by email to: [email protected]