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Welcome
The seminar was co-produced by people with lived experience of mental health challenges, family members / carers, service providers and focused on how Empowering Recovery through co-production provides better outcomes for everyone.
The seminar explored the key concepts of CHIME – Connection, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment through a variety of interactive and creative means. These included: Music, Poetry, Art, Live Interactive Panel discussions, Presentations, Workshops dedicated to Human Rights and Advocacy, Education and Recovery and the power of Peer Workers in mental health service development and delivery, and a Virtual Recovery Trail.
In honouring true co-production, this year we invited people with lived experience of mental health challenges, family members / carers and service providers to register.
Watch the full webinar online now by clicking the greed button above or by scrolling down. Have a look at what the online conversation was like on the day by checking out Mental Health Ireland’s profile @MentalHealthIrl or search the event’s hashtag #empoweringrecovery.
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Watch Full Webinar Here
Recorded on Friday 24th July 2020
Kilkenny Virtual Recovery Trail
Kilkenny was due to be the venue for the 2020 Empowerment Seminar. Unfortunately this couldn’t happen due to the pandemic so we decided to bring Kilkenny to you!
Speaker, Panelist & Workshop Facilitator Bios
Experts by experience and profession from all over Europe as speakers, panelists, workshop hosts, MCs and attendees explored the theme of empowering recovery. Read their bios here.
Martin Rogan, RPN, RGN, MSc (Health Economics), CEO, Mental Health Ireland ……………………………..
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Martin Rogan’s professional background is in Nursing, both Psychiatric and General he has worked across all aspects of mental health care over the past 35 years.
In 2002 he was appointed as Director for Mental Health and Addiction with the then South Western Area Health Board where he was responsible for service planning, monitoring and evaluation. In 2004 he was appointed Assistant Chief Executive Officer with responsibility for mental health, addiction services, environmental health, social inclusion, intercountry adoption, homelessness and traveller health.
In May 2005 he was appointed as the first National Care Group Manager for Mental Health of the newly formed Health Service Executive. In this role Martin was responsible for planning and strategic direction of all public mental health services in the Republic of Ireland. He was responsible for the public mental health services readiness and preparation for the implementaton of the Mental Health Act 2001.
Martin played a leadership role in the implementation of Ireland’s ‘Vision for Change’ mental health policy from 2006 to 2014. He was apponted to Ireland’s Mental Health Commission on two occasions. He has played a central role in fostering person-centric service design and capacity building amongst mental health service users and carers in Ireland.
Martin Rogan has served as Chair of the the IIMHL (International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership). The IIMHL brings together the national mental health leaders from England, Scotland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Ireland. He is currently a Board Member of IIMHL.
Martin has a Masters in Health Economics and has senior management experience in the Disability, Not-for-Profit and independent sectors in Ireland and overseas and has provided guidance, training and consultancy on mental health policy, law, economics and wide-scale change management.
In January 2017, he was appointed as CEO of Mental Health Ireland. Mental Health Ireland is a National voluntary organisation which promotes positive mental health and supports people with mental health needs providing peer led education and activities, social supports and community connection.
Claudia Marinetti, Director, Mental Health Europe Cl Marinetti, Director, Mental Health Europe
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Claudia Marinetti is director at Mental Health Europe (MHE) and has extensive expertise in the areas of health and its social determinants, well-being and equity. With 15 years of experience in management, policy, advocacy and research, Claudia has worked across sectors to improve the well-being of people, including a focus on approaches based on human rights, access to quality services, HiAP, and social inclusion. Prior to joining MHE, she worked for EuroHealthNet, a not-for-profit partnership working on public heath, disease prevention, health promotion, and inequality reduction.
Olga Kalina, Chair, European Network of (Ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry – ENUSP
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In 2005, Olga Kalina joined the non-governmental organization, Partnership for Equal Rights for the promotion of the rights of people with mental health problems. Since then she has been involved in training programmes and projects related to human rights in the mental health sphere. Olga holds a Masters’ Degree in Biology which she received in between two of her de facto involuntary hospitalizations. She has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Olga Kalina was elected Chair of the European Network of (Ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP) in December 2014 and has since become greatly involved in European-level advocacy for the rights of people with psychosocial disabilities.
In 2014, she also became a member of the monitoring team of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) of Georgia and has been involved in monitoring of psychiatric institutions, prisons and houses for elderly people. In 2016, she joined an initiative of a group of women with disabilities in Georgia which was officially registered in 2019 as the Platform for New Opportunities (PNO). In addition to the above activities, Olga coordinates the project “Creation of the support network for (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry in Tbilisi and Rustavi”, funded by the Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP). She is involved in the team of DPOs working on budget advocacy in Georgia and regularly speaks out in public and in the media about problems with mental healthcare and about issues that women with psychosocial disabilities face in particular.
Michael Ryan, National Head of Mental Health Engagement and Recovery, Health Service Executive, Ireland
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Michael Ryan was appointed as the National Head of Mental Health Engagement and Recovery in March 2019. Michael brings his own lived experience of mental health challenges and now enjoys a full life in recovery.
Michael has a strong track record in recovery practice and innovation having worked as an Advocate, and as a Peer Support Worker, before being appointed as Director of Advancing Recovery in Ireland. His most recent role prior to taking up this appointment was as a Service Improvement Lead with the HSE where he worked on a number of innovative projects including being the lead author on the ‘Framework for Recovery in mental Health 2018 – 2020’.
Michael is married to Angela and has one son and he lives on the shores of Clew Bay near Westport in County Mayo
Jolijn Santegoeds, Co-Chair, World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP)
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Jolijn Santegoeds, from the Netherlands, is a user/survivor of psychiatry. Despite of the fact that the Netherlands is not considered the most problematic country in the area of mental health services, Jolijn had to face a range of forced and degrading practices when she was 16 year old. The institution that hosted her forced her to isolation through others.
After being transferred to another institution, where she was treated in a more humane way, her condition suddenly improved. She was not suicidal anymore. Eventually after 3 years she left the institution; she was then homeless for over 2 years. At age 22 she found a place to stay and finished college to be an Engineer on Sustainability. She realized that her drive was to change the injustices in the mental health care system and started a protest group called Rage against Isolation! (Tekeertegen de isoleer!), which later became an NGO called Mind Rights.
Jolijn’s main activities are aimed at stimulating alternatives to forced treatments and the prevention of torture and ill-treatment in health care. In the context of the Dutch law reform on forced psychiatric interventions, she developed an alternative model, called the “Eindhoven Model”, which is based on using Family Group Conferencing for supported decision-making to avoid forced psychiatric interventions.
In 2014 Jolijn Santegoeds became a Board member of ENUSP for the Northwest region.
She is also a co-chair of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP), which aims to secure the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities everywhere around the world. She is generally active at all levels from practical alternatives in mental health services to policymaking and United Nations expert sessions.
In 2015 Jolijn Santegoeds actively led the process of creation of the Shadow report on behalf of ENUSP and participated in all relevant events and sessions, as well as in the follow up activities.
Since May 2017 she has been elected in the EDF Board of Directors.
Dominique De Marné, Writer, Mental Health Advocate, Mental Health Europe’s Senior Policy Advisor on Youth
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Dominique de Marné (*1986) is a writer, social entrepreneur and mental health advocate from Munich, Germany. Her own struggles with ill mental health started at the age of 16, but it took about ten years for her to find out that she was “just ill” – because nobody had ever talked to her about her mind, depression or even really how to deal with feelings. After she got her diagnosis she took to therapy and with that help, patience and hard work now knows what it feels like to be mentally healthy.
She now works full time on changing that and how we talk about mental health – at all, earlier, better, more. Some of her key messages being that mental health is more than mental illness, that we all have one and that we all profit from a more open conversation about it. It’s important to her to show that it can be fun to talk about mental health and to be a holder of hope for people in the midst of their struggles.
Gina Delaney, Development Officer for the South Eastern Region, Mental Health Ireland …………………………………………
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Gina Delaney works with Mental Health Ireland as a Development Officer for the South East and also with responsibility for Family Recovery nationally. Gina brings both professional and lived experience of family recovery, and has a passion for supporting wellbeing and recovery from individual, family, community and service perspectives.
Stephanie Wooley, Deputy Board Member of ENUSP and former Board Member of MHE-SME, Board Member of Advocacy-France
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Stephanie Wooley, Deputy Board Member of ENUSP and former Board Member of MHE-SME, Board Member in charge of international relations for Advocacy-France, also has a second life as a Legal Translator/Conference Interpreter. She is an American expat who has lived in France most of her life. Stephanie represents and defends the interests of persons with psychosocial disabilities in a number of national commissions and collectives, as well as through publication, research and training activities. More recently, she brought together a coalition of (ex)user/survivor organizations in France to provide a written submission and engage in dialogue with the UN CRPD Committee in Geneva in connection with the review of France to demonstrate the reality of our rights first-hand. Stephanie hopes that events such as this will inspire her peers to take greater action at all of these levels.
Timo Kallioaho, Mental Health Association, Seinäjoki, Finland ……………………………………… ……………………………………… ……………………………………..
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Timo Kallioaho lives in Finland and has a long way as a mental health service user. He has his Master Degree in Swedish and Russian. He started his “career” as a mental health activist in the middle of 1990s when he attended several Nordic events for rehabilitees. Since 2007 he has been active on the European level – then he got acquainted with the concept “service user involvement”.
During the years 2010-2011 he underwent a special training for expertise by experience. This knowhow he has used e.g. in his peer support work regarding his own diagnosis OCD (= Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). He has performed many times in Finnish TV telling his story with a therapy refractory form of OCD (the most difficult form of this diagnosis). He was also among the key players when the Finnish Association for OCD was established (www.ocd.fi). He is a member of a Finnish association called Mental Health Association in Seinajoki Region. As a member of this association he has had a possibility to represent Finland in ENUSP. Since 2014 he has been a Board member in ENUSP. Otherwise, he has been active on different agendas internationally:
– EACBT (= European Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies): one
international congress in the Hague, the Netherlands dealing with e.g. OCD
– ECMH (= European Conference on Mental Health): attendance twice (in Prague and in Split); in Split an oral presentation on ENUSP
– ESSN (= European Social Services Network): one conference in Lisbon
– EPF (= European Patients’ Forum): one seminar in Tallin on Crossboarder Health Care – Nordic Conference on Mental Health on the Faroe Islands: the second time an oral presentation on ENUSP.
In Finland, he has attended various conferences/seminars, and given lectures on OCD in Universities of Applied Sciences both in Finnish and English.
Guadalupe Morales Cano, Director, Fundación Mundo Bipolar …………………………………… ……………………………………
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Guadalupe Morales Cano, Director of Fundación Mundo Bipolar. After being diagnosed with a mental health problem, and losing her job as a journalist, Mrs. Morales was inspired to promote the creation of Fundación Mundo Bipolar (2004). This organization is a non-profit national NGO of people with lived experience. It fights against stigma and discrimination, based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Mrs. Morales has held teaching positions at universities in Spain and the USA. Currently, she is a professor for Masters’ degrees offered by the Lisbon International Learning Programme, and Universitat Jaume I, Spain in Human Rights, UNCRPD, Stigma and Discrimination.
More recently as a partner in a Horizon2020 Research project “Recover-E”, Ms. Morales has been training professionals and peers in European countries.
She has an intense activity in Spain, the EU and internationally: Representative of users for the Spanish National Strategy in Mental Health; Deputy Chair of the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP); Former Board Member and member of theHuman Rights Committee of Mental Health Europe (MHE). She also represents users at the World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR ) and is a member of their Training Committee, a member of the European Disability Forum Women´s Committee (EDF) and a Member of the Advisory Boards of the Stigma Section of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). Her main interests are training peers and professionals,
to promote our Rights, raise the voice of people with mental health problems at a political level and to have meaningful involvement in every aspect related to this movement.
Billy Clark, Recovery Education Facilitator, Mayo Recovery College
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Billy Clarke is a Recovery Education Facilitator with the Mayo Recovery College. Recovery Education is something that Billy has always had deep passion for. As a person with lived experience of mental health challenges, Billy witnessed first-hand how Recovery Education can transform the lives of people with mental health challenges, their families and communities.
Billy also has a passionate interest in music, poetry and the arts and believes strongly in the use of creativity as a force for developing empowerment within individuals.
He has a wealth of experience working with a wide range of community groups including migrant groups and those struggling with addiction and mental health challenges.
Martha Hoad, Development Officer for Cavan/Monaghan, Mental Health Ireland
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Miffy Hoad is a development officer with Mental Health Ireland. Her background is in training & development with 20 years’ experience specialising in personal development, stress management and mindfulness. Her own lived experience of physical & mental health challenges inform her work. She is passionate about the empowerment of people through practices that promote wellbeing and foster resilience & hope. Miffy is a mother and grandmother, a lover of the natural world and all things existential
Oliver Cullen, Recovery Educator, Mental Health Services, South East ………………………………………………..
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My name is Oliver Cullen and amongst many other things, I am proud to say that I am working as a Recovery Educator in the Mental Health services since 2018.
As an individual who has been challenged at various times in my own life by mental health struggles, recovery education was an invaluable part of my own personal journey of recovery. With recovery being such an individual process, I know how difficult it can be to find that path. But I can testify that the dream can become a reality, through education, support and connection. I advocate and champion in my own community to raise awareness of mental health issues and support others so their voices can be heard, and to show that everyone should be respected, have their dignity intact and most of all be hopeful of a brighter future.
Michael Norton, National Engagement & Recovery Lead, Office of Mental Health Engagement & Recovery
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Michael John Norton is a PhD student and a National Engagement & Recovery Lead with the Office of Mental Health Engagement & Recovery. He has lived experience of mental health difficulties and has spent the last few years being an advocate for mental health recovery within South East Community Health Care and nationally through his involvement in many recovery initiatives. He has published papers in peer reviewed journals relating to recovery topics including co-production, social recovery and peer support.
Feargus Callagy, Peer Support Worker in Mayo, & Peer Educator in Sligo ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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Feargus Callagy works as a Peer support worker in Mayo and a Peer Educator in Sligo. He is also a Samaritan listener volunteer and credits physical activity in nature as a big part of his own journey. An avid Waterman he surfs, swim and freedives all along the Atlantic coastline.
Martha Clark, Peer Support Worker, Mental Health Services, South East ………………………
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My name is Martha Clark and I am employed as a peer support worker within the Irish mental health services. In 2017, I became a member of a multidisciplinary team which supports people working towards rehabilitation and recovery. Through my work I have also had the opportunity to become a part of groups working towards service improvement in the areas of care planning, the use of restrictive practices and the development of guidance around smoking and mental health. I have been involved in recovery education and the development of peer led initiatives within the South East of Ireland since 2015, not long after I began to avail of more recovery orientated services myself. My background is a little unusual, in that I grew up in a family that outwardly didn’t appear to need support, but in truth, most definitely did. I have experienced challenges to my mental health throughout my life, but really did not begin to address this distress until adulthood. I have come to accept these challenges as responses to adversity, or simply a part of life, and my personal understanding and appreciation of recovery in mental health continues to grow as I engage with people from diverse backgrounds, with different perspectives and lived experiences.
Bob Grove, Senior Policy Adviser to Mental Health Europe ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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Bob retired as Joint Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health (formerly the Sainsbury Centre) in June 2011 and is Senior Policy Adviser to Mental Health Europe and honorary Professor of Mental Health at the Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham. In 2009 he won the J W Starkey Silver Medal awarded by the Royal Society for Public Health for services to mental health. Bob has also worked for the European Commission, the Greek Government and the Argos Network of Greek NGOs as an evaluator and advisor on deinstitutionalization since 1989.
Nigel Henderson, Chief Executive of Penumbra UK, & Mental Health Europe Senior Advisor
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Nigel Henderson is Chief Executive of Penumbra UK, and Mental Health Europe Senior Advisor and previous President. Nigel is a qualified mental health and general nurse and has worked in the NHS and in other voluntary sector organisations. He has been working in mental health for over 35 years and has a wealth of experience in leading, managing, developing and innovating services.
Belinda Coyle, Family Peer Educator, & Coordinator of the Carlow Peer Led Involvement Centre
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My name is Belinda Coyle. I am a family member with lived experience of both parents with mental health and addiction challenges. My siblings and I lived through this difficult period in our young lives and we are now all living well in recovery and wellness.
Through recovery education and being involved in the Recovery College South East and Peer Led Involvement Centres, I have grown with confidence and strength to learn about family recovery and to accept that caring for me was equally as important as caring for my loved ones.
Now as a Family Peer Educator and coming from lived experience supporting myself and my family through recovery, now I have the skills and knowledge to support other families and individuals through their challenges and support them in their recovery.
Karen McHale, Principal Peer Educator, Mayo Recovery College …………………………………………………………
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Karen McHale is the Principal Peer Educator in the Mayo Recovery College. She has extensive experience of working in the fields of Mental Health Recovery Education, Family Peer Support & Community Development. She applies her Social Capital in the Recovery sphere to support a Recovery culture to flourish and expand. She can be found dancing anywhere she hears music.
Shane McHale, Recovery Education Facilitator, Mayo Recovery College and REGARI ………………………………………………………..
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Shane McHale is a Recovery Education Facilitator with the Mayo Recovery College and the REGARI Recovery College. A graduate of the GMIT Social Care programme, Shane incorporates its values of a non-judgemental, person centred approach into his work. Living with depression for many years has given Shane insight into how we can lose ourselves in the midst of a mental health issue, which is why he is passionate about education, self-expression and helping others to be active participants in their recovery.
Tone Vrhovnik Straka, Survivor of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Student of Philosophy (Bio-ethics & Mental Health Ethics)
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A survivor of psychiatry in his 20’s, later studied literature and philosophy. Working as a public servant, a family man and a postgraduate student of philosophy (bioethics and mental health ethics).
Sushil Teji, Family Supporter, Local Area Forum Secretary in Wicklow with the HSE Mental Health Engagement Team
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A survivor of psychiatry in his 20’s, later studied literature and philosophy. Working as a public servant, a family man and a postgraduate student of philosophy (bioethics and mental health ethics).
Art, Poetry & Music
Browse the stunning art, music and poetry submitted from all over Europe and farther afield in response to the Call for Art on the theme of Empowering Recovery. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Keynote Speakers
Watch the Keynote Speakers videos.
Keynote 1: Recover Your Power – Jolijn Santegoeds
Keynote 2: Mental Health Role Models – Dominique de Marné
Keynote 3: Empowering Family Recovery – Gina Delaney
Workshops
We had five brilliant workshops on the day. With the exception of ENUSP’s Human Rights as a Basis for Empowerment, which is viewable on the main recording, the workshops were not recorded. The facilitators have provided their slides so you can still get a sense of their content.
Workshop Title: What does recovery mean, and how can we explain it?
- Facilitated by: Bob Grove, Senior Policy Adviser to Mental Health Europe & Martha Clark, Peer Support Worker, Health Service Executive and Psychology Graduate, and Oliver Cullen, Recovery Educator in the Health Services
- Description: This workshop aims to gather meanings of recovery from different stakeholders in order to better explain this concept to the public. Two of MHE’s Short Guide on Recovery authors’ will share their recovery path and introduce some of the guide’s principles. Participants, persons with mental health problems, their families and friends, and service providers, will then be invited to explain what recovery means to them. Together we will discuss ways in which the concept of recovery in mental health can be embraced in different realities, and explained in order to improve the general understanding of mental health and decrease stigma.
Workshop Title: Empowering Recovery through Self-care
- Facilitated by: Miffy Hoad is a Development Officer with Mental Health Ireland. Her background is in training & development with 20 years’ experience specialising in personal development, stress management and mindfulness. Her own lived experience of physical & mental health challenges informs her work.
- Description: In this workshop participants will learn about the relationship between stress and resilience. They will be encouraged to reflect on their own relationship with stress and self-care during the session. They will also learn about practical ways to support their wellbeing through prioritising self-care practices. The workshop will close with a guided mindfulness practice. There will be a 10 min interval half way through for comfort.
Workshop Title: Empowerment Through Education
- Facilitated by: The workshop will be facilitated by Mayo Recovery College, who became the first Recovery College in Ireland in 2013.
- Description: This interactive workshop will explore how Recovery Education empowers people with mental health challenges, their families/carers/supporters as well as service providers. It will illustrate how “empowering recovery” underpins Irish Mental Health policy and identify both the benefits of and challenges to empowering people through education.
Workshop Title: Peer Workers as Catalysts for Service User Empowerment within their Individualised Recovery Journey
- Facilitated by: Michael John Norton is a PhD student and a National Engagement & Recovery Lead with the Office of Mental Health Engagement & Recovery in Ireland. He has lived experience of mental health difficulties and has spent the last few years being an advocate for mental health recovery within South East Community Health Care and nationally through his involvement in many recovery initiatives.
- Description: This workshop will explore the variety of roles which come under the umbrella term: peer workers. In doing so, it will examine through an andragogical learning methodology how such workers can act as catalysts for service users to become empowered to lead out on their own recovery journeys. Empowerment as a concept will also be explored, especially in terms of its relationship with ones’ recovery journey through Leamy et al. (2011) CHIME model.
Workshop Title: Human Rights as a Basis for Empowerment
- Facilitated by: ENUSP (European Network of (ex)users and survivors of psychiatry). ENUSP gives (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatric services across Europe a way to communicate so that we can support one other in the personal, political and social struggle against injustice and discrimination.
- Description:
Moderator: Stephanie Wooley, Advocacy-France
Speakers
Timo Kallioaho, Mental Health Association Seinäjoki, Finland: “My Personal Road to Recovery”
Guadalupe Morales, Mundo Bipolar, Spain: “Meaningful Involvement of Peers in Mental Health Trainings”
Tone Vrhovnik Straka, Poglej! Association, Slovenia: “Mental health, Corona virus and Ethics”
Olga Kalina, Partnership for Equal Rights, Georgia: “How our involvement in monitoring human rights in psychiatry is a State obligation and can lead to change”
Stephanie Wooley, Advocacy-France: “Making the UN CRPD come alive: our experience with shadow reporting”
Jolijn Santegoeds, Mind Rights, Netherlands: “Drop the draft: the United Nations versus the Council of Europe – the danger of the draft additional protocol to the Oviedo Convention”
Resources
The South East Recovery College have compiled a beautiful and resource rich guide to services and supports for family recovery. You can see the Family Recovery Tree on the web-page or download the full document by tapping the button below.
#wearefamily
download guide
You can also download the Family, Carer and Supporters Guide by clicking on it.
Family Peer Support Workers can offer emotional support, information and practical tips on navigating mental health services. Contact the Office for Mental Health Engagement & Recovery or one of the network of recovery education services across Ireland for more info. The Recovery Colleges are also providing a range of online classes and group supports at the moment. You can find a timetable here.
There are many ways we can support loved ones who are experiencing mental health challenges during Covid-19. One of the best ways to start is with a conversation with your loved one. Connect, communicate and reassure.
- Download our FAQs for Those Supporting Mental Health Concerns During Covid-19 here.
- Download our Routine Template here to help keep structure on your day.
- Download our Ten Tips for Supporting Mental Health during COVID-19 here.
Dedication:
Francis Walsh, who departed this life on 8th May 2020.
A pleasure to work with and to know. Competent, dedicated and gifted and has left a legacy in recovery education and peer support working in Ireland. His qualities as a person made Francis so special, his compassion, empathy, his eternal good humour and positivity. Francis was a true gentleman, very humble but a warrior for recovery and the rights of service users and family members, his commitment and passion for this work was inspiring.
‘Thank you’ Francis our dearest friend and colleague.
MASSIVE THANK YOUS TO…
Our coproduction team – Gina Delaney, Martha Clark, Billy Clarke, Amy Gibney, Carmen Bryce, Sonia Rennicks, Fiona McKearnan, Clare Fitzpartick, Belinda Coyle, David Dwyer, Claudia Marinetti, Olga Kalina, Tetiana Sykes, Michael Ryan, Paddy Sharkey O Leary and Mike Watts, Jenny Gibney.
Technical Team – Sonia Rennicks & Jack Deacon
Recovery Trail – Kamal ibhraim, Belina Coyle, David Dwyer, Ollie Cullen, Paul Clifford, Clare Fitzpatrick, Sharon Maher, Margaret Lynch, Nail Ryan, Mary Woods, Mike Watts, Paul Fallon, Gina Delaney, Doctor Ikenna Chuka Maduekwe, Kelly Lee, Sean Boland, Fiona Mckernan, Noel Cartwell, Susan fahy, Thomas Renihan, Kate Slater
Design: Sonia Rennicks
The Music & Poetry – Led by Billy Clarke and supported by so many artists.
Our panelists – Martin Rogan, Olga Kalina, Michael Ryan, Claudia Marinetti, Martha Clark, Sushil Teji, Nigel Henderson.
Collation of the Art / Photography / Poetry – Amy Gibney, Caroline Brogan & Andy Murphy and supported by so many artists.
Our keynote speakers – Jolijn Santegoeds, Dominique de Marne and Gina Delaney
Workshop facilitators – Bob Grove, Ollie Cullen, Martha Clark, Michael Norton, Feargus Callaghy Miffy Hoad, Karen McHale, Shane McHale, Billy Clarke, Stephanie Woolly, Olga Kalina Timo Kallioaho, Guadalupe Morales, Tone Vrhovnik Straka, Jolijn Santegoeds,
Session facilitators – Gina Delaney, Belinda Coyle and Michael Norton
Moderator Patrick Leddy,
The Social Media Team – Carmen Bryce and Tetiana Sykes
Captioner: Karen Crehan
Discover Kilkenny Tourism Board
For Emotional Support Contact Samaritans
Samaritans is a unique charity dedicated to reducing feelings of isolation and disconnection that can lead to suicide. Every six seconds they respond to a call for help. They’re there 24/7, before, during and after a crisis and they make sure there’s always someone there, for anyone who needs someone.
