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Lunchtime Seminar - Understanding mental health and recovery from a young person’s perspective through use of creative arts

08 January 2020

The Northern Ireland Social Care Council will host its first 2020 Lunchtime Seminar on Monday, 17 February. ‘Understanding mental health and recovery from a young person’s perspective through use of creative arts’ will be presented by Young people from IMPACT CAMHS Service-user group and Shauneen O’Connor and Sarah Ombler, social workers from CAMHS.

IMPACT CAMHS is a service user group for young people who use Belfast Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Young people from IMPACT CAMHS group will focus on the use of creative arts as a lens for understanding mental health from a young person’s perspective. The art work and spoken word is a creative way young people have used to convey their message of mental health, hope and recovery. The young people will also share their experiences of the IMPACT CAMHS group. They are delighted to perform songs at the workshop that they have written and songs they have chosen which represents their mental health journey; working through depression, anxiety, gender identity and autism.

The group was set up three years ago with the goal of giving a voice to young people in becoming more involved in helping us improve our service. The core aim of this group has always been to avoid tokenistic involvement and for the group to be actively involved in shaping services. In this workshop we will talk about the development of the group and the benefits and outcomes that we have seen with co-production and service-user involvement.

Key areas covered in this seminar will include:


• Understanding mental health and recovery from a young person’s perspective

• Using creative arts as a way of expressing yourself

• Importance of co-production in service improvement

• Benefits of peer support in recovery

• Outcomes from the group so far

The seminar will take place on Monday, February 2020, from 12 noon to 2 pm at 7th Floor Millennium House, 25 Great Victoria Street, Belfast.

There is no charge to attend this seminar. To reserve your place, please click here.

The closing date for applications is Thursday, 13 February. If you require any further information, please contact us on: 02895 362674 or email: jenny.frater@niscc.hscni.net

For more information on this and upcoming events please visit: http://www.niscc.info/events.

Please note spaces are limited and if the event gets fully booked you can add your name to a waiting list to be notified if spaces become available.