Seminar with Lisa Forestell

From psychiatry towards a life worth living:
Voice hearing, peer organizations and mental health transformation

When:
JUN 7-8, 2018

Location:
Prague, National Gallery in Prague,
Auditorium

Fees:
Fee for full time workers: 800 CZK (first day), 500 CZK (second day), 1000 CZK (both days)
Fee for half-time workers and students: 400 CZK (first day), 250 CZK (second day), 500 CZK (both days)
Fee for people with low or no income: 200 CZK (first day), 150 CZK (second day), 300 CZK (both days) or according to individual agreement

Register form bellow or email: info@narativ.cz

The seminar will be translated in Czech

Annotation of the first day:

Seminar with Lisa Forestell, an American mental health activist and change agent living in Massachusetts, introduces her experience as a psychiatric survivor, hearing voices organizer and peer advocate. Lisa will introduce her experience/testimony as a voice hearer and offer critical reflection of the mental health system from the perspective of a psychiatric survivor. This term which is often used in the English speaking world will be discussed with Czech audience.

She will share her knowledge on how to make changes within and outside the mental health care system while introducing alternatives to traditional treatment modality, in mutual settings. In addition, she will speak about how to develop meaningful and power balanced collaboration amongst those working in peer roles and mental health practitioners. She is open to discuss various understandings and based on her rich experience will facilitate a broader reflection of some of the proclaimed aims of psychiatric care reform such as deinstitutionalization, destigmaization, humanization or democratization. She will also facilitate reflection of the concepts such as recovery, peer support or empowerment and their possible impact in context of the reform.

The seminar is meant for mental health professionals and activists, peer workers, psychiatric survivors, voice hearers, people dealing with mental health issues as well as the wider public.

Annotation of the second day:

The following day will be a workshop-like follow-up of the seminar. It is meant especially for mental health activists, psychiatric survivors, voice hearers, people dealing with mental health issues and their allies and focuses on practical issues of establishing and maintaining mutual support groups.

Lisa will introduce her story with emphasis on how she became a community organizer and what journey has she done. Special attention will be paid to the practical aspects of establishing, maintaining and agenda setting of a peer group, locally, nationally and internationally. The day will be interactive and open to needs of participants. Possible topics will be:

• How to establish, develop and maintain mutual support or Hearing voices group (group norms, what to do when someone is getting worse, …)?
• How to present and communicate with psychiatry and mental health experts (radical stance – no contact – mutual support// or accepting psychiatric diagnosis, cooperate)?
• How to empower other people dealing with mental health issues and those received a psychiatric diagnosis?
• What are the alternatives to suicide?
• How to cope with the experience of in/voluntary in/outpatient treatment and meaningfully integrate in our lives/how to honour and move through anger?
• Creating a life worth living.

More information on the Hearing Voices Network, an international network lead by voice hearers and for voice hearers, advocating human rights and alternative approaches to psychiatry, can be found here - https://www.hearing-voices.org/voices-visions/about/

More information on the Czech branch and local self-help groups can be found here - http://www.slysenihlasu.cz/

Expected number of participants: 40 (max 100)