Around 1 in 16 people worldwide have a diagnosis of Personality Disorder. It’s a serious diagnosis, with significant implications. Those who receive it are likely to experience emotional and cognitive difficulties, and have significantly lower life expectancies, on average. For those with this diagnosis, it is often a struggle to access effective support and therapy. However, there is hope. New therapies are being developed and improved upon, while awareness of personality disorder – and how to effectively help those with the diagnosis – is growing within our public services.

Get your tickets for the Northern Ireland Personality Disorder Conference

On 21 June, the Northern Ireland Personality Disorder Network will host a major conference on Personality Disorder. The conference will be chaired by Nick Garbutt and held within the impressive surroundings of the La Mon Hotel. The conference offers an unrivalled opportunity to improve the experience of those living with a diagnosis of personality disorder. Some 200 delegates are expected from across Northern Ireland and beyond, as well as an impressive line-up of speakers. By bringing healthcare professionals, public servants, personality disorder survivors and their families, and the third sector together under one roof, we expect a productive discussion about this vital issue.

Book your tickets now.

Conference Programme

About the Northern Ireland Personality Disorder Network

NIPDN is a partnership of a number of organisations, comprising both public and third sector bodies, working within the field of Personality Disorder in Northern Ireland. The Network is organising the conference, to realise the following outcomes:

• To increase awareness and understanding of personality disorders amongst service users, carers, practitioners, commissioners and policy makers
• To provide a platform to promote the voice of people with lived experience through involvement at all levels
• To promote, share and introduce best practice in the treatment of personality disorders
• To secure commitment for increased funding of Personality Disorder services in Northern Ireland.

The Network is comprised of the following members:

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust | CAUSE | Health and Social Care Board | Inspire | MindWise | Northern Health and Social Care Trust | People with Direct Experience of Personality Disorder | Praxis | Royal College of Psychiatrists | South-Eastern Health and Social Care Trust | Southern Health and Social Care Trust | Western Health and Social Care Trust

Fringe event- Understanding And Responding to Self Harm, delivered by Harm-Ed

MindWise are very excited to host a NI Personality Disorder Conference Fringe event namely ‘Understanding and Responding to Self-Harm’ delivered by Harm-ed. Harm-ed (www.harm-ed.co.uk) is a user-led, not-for-profit organisation specialising in offering specialist, bespoke training courses on the issue of Self-Harm, Suicide and Mental Health Awareness.

This one day learning and development course will provide delegates with:

• An appreciation of the importance of experiential knowledge in training around self-harm
• An understanding of self-harm including definition, common experiences and functions.
• An awareness of different approaches when responding to self-harm
• An acknowledgement of the relationship between BPD and self-harm.

Who is it for?

The programme is suitable for any service/staff who work with people who self-harm.

‘The course gave me insight and understanding and was simply excellent – very many thanks to you both’ Consultant Psychiatrist, Belfast, Sept 17

‘I have been on many NHS courses over my long career and I have to say this course ranked as one of the best I’ve ever attended’ Chartered Physiotherapist. Jan. 17

Structure of the programme

The Programme will be delivered face to face and the course is designed to be interactive and participatory. Course timings are 9.30 am – 4 pm and refreshments are included.

Cost

The Cost of this Programme is £80 per head.

Facilliators

The Programme will be facilitated by Nicole Devlin: a BSc Hons Psychology student at Queen’s university. Nicole has had an extensive history of self-harm, borderline personality disorder, amongst long term psychiatric inpatient treatment. Nicole uses her experiences to give insight into the subject areas.

Terri Shaw: MA, BSc Hons, RGN, PGCE. Founding Director of Harm-ed and specialist trainer on self-harm, professional background of working as a staff nurse in A&E and personal experience around caring for someone who self-harms.

Dates and location

Workshop date:-

Friday 22nd June, 2018

Central location, just off Malone Road with easy access to Outer Ring and M1/M2

Pinewood House

46 Newforge Lane

Belfast, BT9 5NW

Interested?

For more Information, please contact Harm-ed to request a booking form at training@harm-ed.co.uk

Places will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis and number of places are limited so it is recommended that you apply as soon as possible.

MindWise is a leading mental health charity which supports those affected by severe mental illness and other mental health difficulties and promotes earlier intervention. To help make this a success we are looking for individuals to spare a few hours a week to volunteer. We currently have volunteer opportunities in the following roles:

If you are interested in applying for any of these roles please contact the volunteer co-ordinator on 028 9031 5060 or email elaine.sheridan@mindwisenv.org for an application pack and role description.

• Fundraising Volunteers – to help with a range of fundraising events (e.g. bag packs, street collections, marathons etc)
• IT Volunteers to support service users- Belfast
• Chess volunteers- Belfast
• Activities/Walking Group Volunteers –Newry, Antrim
• Events Volunteers – to help at awareness raising event (Northern Ireland Wide)
• Volunteer Facilitators – to provide information sessions in the local community (Northern Ireland Wide)
• Activities Volunteers e.g. photography, walking group, music (Ballymoney)
• Befriending Volunteers (Newtownabbey, Antrim, Cookstown)

Advanced Diploma in Mental Health and Wellbeing Coaching – Internationally accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council

MindWise, in partnership with Kingstown College, are delighted to be offering their popular Advanced Diploma in Mental Health and Wellbeing Coaching course to start in September 2018.

This training programme is an excellent and unique opportunity to train in the area of Mental Health and Wellbeing Coaching. Designed for those practicing in mental health and associated areas, this course will equip you with skills to diversify your practice while learning techniques that can powerfully benefit your client on their journey of recovery to discovery.

How will this course benefit you?

• You will learn cutting edge coaching principles, tools and techniques

• Market research conducted by Mindwise has shown that 98% of surveyed stakeholders within the social care community believe MHWB coaching to be a good fit with their overall strategic direction.

• Development of Reflective Practice

• Ability to analyse problems in a systematic matter and apply critical judgement and competence to complex and demanding situations

Who is this course for?

• Mental Health practitioners such as therapists and counsellors

• Personal Development Professionals such as current life coaches, social workers, Psychologists and those working in the allied professional fields

• Those with experience of working within the field of mental health

Price:

£2,200  
 

Courses will start in September 2018 and applications are open now. Please note there are limited spaces on the course
and places are on a first come first serve basis.

Dates:

6th & 7th September 2018

4th & 5th October

1st & 2nd November

9th November

10th & 11th January 2019

7th & 8th February

7th & 8th March

15th March

NB: Options available for Foundation and Certificate level

Location:

Pinewood House,46 Newforge Lane, Belfast, BT9 5NW, United Kingdom

Enquiries: For all enquiries, contact Fiona Scullion fiona.scullion@mindwisenv.org

More information:

• Full Information Pack
• Enrolment Form
• Financial Agreement Form

Some quotes from past students of our Mental Health and Wellbeing Coaching Advanced Diploma:

• ‘Brilliant, life-changing’
• ‘A really worthwhile investment’
• ‘a fantastic learning experience which challenges you to develop yourself in the hope of being able to help others’
• ‘It’s challenging, enlightening and developmental and I will use it in all aspects of my life’

Four million people in the UK currently experience mental health and money problems. A further four million are at risk of developing mental illness because of their financial situations. MindWise, as part of Mental Health UK, recognise that this is wrong, and we've launched a new service to help take some of the pressure of those in need.

The Mental Health and Money Advice website has been specifically designed to offer clear and impartial advice to people experiencing both mental health and financial issues. Together these problems create an ongoing cycle that affects all aspects of our lives.

The website offers free information, support, and useful tools all in one place, creating an easy to use portal open to anyone affected by these matters, including carers, family members, and industry professionals.

Up until now there has been no UK wide service provide to offer both mental health and money advice together. We recognise that people experiencing a combination of issues do not need their lives made more difficult by having to visit many different sources/websites to get the information they desperately need. The service has been designed to offer detailed advice across a broad range of topics, including:

• Expert advice on the most common mental health and money related issues
• Free tools and calculators to help you create a clear plan for your financial future
• Sample letters and templates that can be used to contact creditors, healthcare professionals or organisations that you might need when dealing with money issues
• Real life stories from people that have been in similar situations to you and overcome their problems
• A list of useful contacts across all of our subject areas, should you really need to speak to someone

We have also set up a small team of advisers who are able to offer one to one advice and case work over the telephone. Access to the advice line is by referral from a small group of referral partners. We hope to increase the number of routes to be referred throughout 2018. If you’re already receiving support and services from Rethink Mental Illness, Hafal, MindWise or Support in Mind Scotland, and you are struggling with mental health and money issues, contact your support worker to ask if you can be referred to Mental Health & Money Advice.

This service was made possible thanks to the fundraising efforts of staff at Lloyds Banking Group. They voted to choose Mental Health UK as their Charity Partner for 2017/2018, and have successfully raised over £2 million to support those in desperate need of specialist support.

Click here to visit the Mental Health and Money Advice Service

We have teamed up with the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) and Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke on a new initiative, ‘Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, to raise awareness of the importance of keeping both your mental and physical health in good shape. 

Noel McKee, a firefighter based at Whitla St fire station in North Belfast, is undertaking a series of marathon walks across each county in Northern Ireland in support of the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) ‘Healthy Body Healthy Mind’ campaign in partnership with local mental health charity, MindWise and Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke. He is hoping to complete six marathons over six days in six counties.
 

The Healthy Body, Healthy Mind campaign is raising awareness of the importance of looking after both your physical and mental health. As a Firefighter for over 30 years and a trained counsellor, Noel knows only too well the links between physical and mental well-being.

As part of the Healthy Body Healthy Mind campaign, Noel has already completed a ‘Station to Station; cycle to all 68 Fire Stations in Northern Ireland, run a marathon in Amsterdam and recently swam a marathon distance, completing 1704 lengths of the pool over 8 days.

His next challenge is ‘Walking Out of the Darkness’ – a marathon length walk each day for six consecutive days, taking in each county in NI –which will begin in Co. Fermanagh on Sunday 18 March and finish in Co. Down on Friday 23 March.

Noel, who is passionate about the benefits of exercise on our mental health explains more about his latest fundraising and awareness raising effort - “I’ve been a therapeutic counsellor in the community for many years, and what I’ve seen time and time again is that physical ailments can have a big impact on our mental health, and vice versa. I believe that that good physical health can help us to be more resilient and help improve our mental health”.

Although Noel will be walking a marathon distance each day, he aims to make the walk easier for people to come and join him for all or part of the route in each county by having the route laid out in manageable shorter sections. – “Sometimes, life can seem a bit of a marathon, but if you break it down into little bits, then it’s much more manageable. The clocks will be going forward the day after I finish, which can be a real boost for so many especially after the long, hard winter that we’ve all just experienced. It’s the chance to leave winter behind and come out of the darkness. Everyone is welcome to join me on any part of the walks throughout the week, I’d encourage everyone to get out and about more to improve their mental and physical health after all sometimes a simple walk and a chat is all it takes to help improve someone’s day.

Edward Gorringe, Chief Executive of Mindwise said – “We're incredibly proud to be part of the Healthy Body, Healthy Mind initiative. Physical health and mental health are intrinsically linked. Poor physical health can lead to an increased risk of developing mental health problems, and poor mental health can negatively impact on physical health. Noel has been an amazing ambassador for the initiative, and we want to thank him and NIFRS for getting out there and spreading the message so effectively. We're fullybehind Noel in this exciting new challenge. By working in partnership with NIFRS and Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke, we've raised awareness in the vital links between mental and physical health, and how people can support both their body and their minds in staying healthy".

Declan Cunnane, Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke commented, “Just over half of adults (55%) meet the guidelines of 150 minutes of physical activity a week. This Marathon Walk which Noel is undertaking will hopefully encourage people to become more active and look after their mental and physical health. Physical activity is so important for both mental and physical health and can help reduce the risk of chest, heart and stroke illnesses.”

· Daily Itinerary (All walks are detailed on the Walk NI website – www.walkni.com)

Date County Route

Sunday 18 March - 10am Fermanagh Florence Court – 4 laps of the red trail

Monday 19 March - 9am Armagh Portadown – Newry Canal Path

Tuesday 20 March - 9am Tyrone Branny Ramble, Dungannon – 3 laps

Wednesday 21 March – 9am Londonderry / Derry Lough Foyle / Port Path coastal walk

Thursday 22 March – 9am Antrim Lagan Tow Path – starting at Whitla/Central Station to Lisburn and return

Friday 23 March -9am Down Holywood to Bangor Coastal Path and return

Donations can be made through Firefighter Noel McKee’s Just Giving Page -
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/healthybodyhealthymind or by Texting RED to 70660 to donate £3*.