NOW ATTRACTS 40 ACADEMIC POINTS AT MASTERS LEVEL THROUGH LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY.
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25/03/2009
This article appeared in Mental Health Today in 2008 and was a critique of an influential article by Singh and Burns in the British Medical Journal (Sept. 23rd 2006) suggesting that institutional racism was not as big a problem as has been stated by others in the field of Black and Minority Ethnic mental health. This article highlights the flaws of their argument that it is the fear in BME communities of mental health services that is the major barrier to better access to services.
14/03/2009
This article is a further response to Melba Wilson, Director of DRE in relation to the revised version of RECC materials to a 12-hour version. This is part of the ongoing debate about RECC which can be followed more closely if you visit the Social Perpsectives Network wesbite on www.spn.org.uk
01/02/2009
The recent changes made to RECC materials for practitioners by DRE to produce an 'abbreviated' 12-hour version and the launch of their Training the Trainers (TTT) programme with the National Training Team represents a serious threat to the quality of RECC training and undermines the good work we have done so far. To see more on this debate visit the Social Perspectives Network on spn.org.uk
This report was produced by four recently accredited RECC Trainers in the CSIP South West Region. It reports on a series of one-day workshops that were delivered to an inner city mental health team using the RECC materials.
SPN Study Day – Whose recovery is it anyway? (16th October 2007)
Inter-cultural perspectives
- Maori Mental Health Services Workshop
The
workshop was facilitated by Tanya Kennard-Campbell
SPN Study Day – Whose recovery is it anyway? (16th October 2007)
Forced Migration and Mental Health and Recovery
– Face 2 Face Workshop
The
workshop was facilitated by David Palmer
This course takes a detailed look at the complexity of
culture and uses this deeper understanding to define good transcultural
practice in mental health interviews. The programme considers issues of power
as well as cultural difference and touches on working with interpreters in
mental health interviews.
This is an example of a training programme for
community service managers that focused on exploring the issue of values and
relationships between service users and practitioners. It was co-facilitated by
service user trainers and incorporated values-based practice, defining holistic
approaches and assessment skills.
This report was the result of an extensive research
study into the reasons why Black children entered the ‘looked after’ system in
the Liverpool area.
This report is an evaluation of the work of the
‘Black Friendly Group’ in Brixton, London. A service user-led initiative that
pioneered work around self-advocacy for Black people with learning disabilities
20/11/2007
A project commissioned from Ferns Associates and the
Race Equality Unit by the Department of Health in the UK to devise training
materials on race and culture for mental health practitioners. The project has
since continued to develop and new materials are now being developed around
increasing Black service user participation in the design and development of
mental health services.
These two reports describe initiatives in Birmingham
and Ealing that involved groups of Black and Minority Ethnic mental health
service users devising and conducting their own audit of local mental health
services.
20/11/2007
Letting
Through Light’ Birmingham Service User Audit Report
Did you know that Chinese people don't take milk in their tea and love to
eat jelly? Neither did I. But according to a manual on ‘cultural competence’
from one Health Authority, this is a vital fact that will enable practitioners
to provide a better service to Chinese people. I find it hard to accept such a
generalisation about 1.2 billion people but cultural stereotyping knows no
bounds. This is not the only surreal 'fact' I have come across in the search
for the 'Holy Grail' of a manual that imparts cultural knowledge to ‘totally
stumped’ practitioners. After all it stands to reason that the most skilled
practitioners will become gibbering wrecks if confronted by someone from a
different culture than them. No, hang on! There are lots of people who
constantly work across cultures with no special training, admittedly mainly
black workers.
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A personal comment on the amendments to the Mental Health Bill and report on the BME mental health London conference, 12th May 2006 by Peter Ferns
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‘A Brief History of Oppressive Psychiatric Research (Race & Culture)’ in ‘Emancipatory Research: Where you stand affects your point of view’, J.Copperman, P.Ferns, J.Tew, et al; Notes from SPN Study Day: 12 June 2003
14/11/2007
‘Letting Through Light’ published in Mental Health Today (September, 2003)
- This article explains the current context for training around race and culture issues in mental health based on the ‘Letting through Light’ training materials.
- This article explains the current context for training around race and culture issues in mental health based on the ‘Letting through Light’ training materials.
14/11/2007
‘Finding a Way Forward - A Black perspective on social approaches to mental health’ by Peter Ferns (from ‘Social Perspectives in Mental Health’, Jerry Tew (ed.); 2005, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London)