Community Psychology Network Meeting

Date: 21.10.2015

Location: Lift Psychology, Old Town Surgery, Swindon

Discussions:

Website- What do people want from it?: (Please do add/share more ideas)

- Links to resources (local and national)- helping others to identify what’s out there
o Services
o Events
o Information
o Online resources- links to downloads etc e.g. British Psychological Society downloads

- A space to bring together local groups/organisations/people in the community

o Empower/support said groups/people to make changes/campaign for their needs/rights

- A space for exploring and challenging dominant narratives/stories/ideas about our realities
o Exploring alternative ideas, views and perspectives (e.g. on health, mental health)
o Asking whose agenda do current dominant ideas/stories serve and fit with?

- Supporting, facilitating or developing community groups where there is a gap (identifying need)
o E.g. Hearing Voices Network Groups
o Service User-led support groups e.g. groups for people with Borderline Personality

- Community psychology- what does it look like and what does a community psychologist do?

The Network– What are its aims?: (Please do add/share more ideas)

PROMOTE COMMUNITIES THAT SUPPORT AND FACILITATE EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH:

o Affect cultural and social change within the local community

o Promote a sense of agency within the community
o Network and link local services- bringing people and the community together
o Identify unmet needs within the community and explore ways to address these
Some Key Points from Discussions:

About Hearing Voices and Psychosis:

- How is the experience labelled / talked about within traditional secondary mental health services?
- What are some of the ideas/explanations about the causes/origins of ‘voices’ and other ‘psychosis’
symptoms?
- How do these ideas shape how services are commissioned (funded) and thus funded?
- How do these ideas shape what interventions are offered?
- Do these explanations fit with experience (as health care professionals, service users, carers etc)?

Some ideas talked about include biological explanations as one of the main explanations- which can result in
medication being offered as the main form of treatment and less of a focus on the persons in environment
(social, physical) and few referrals to psychological services.

Other ideas talked about include service users, lay people, not realising that other explanations are available. It
was questioned whether other explanations are offered to service users and whether they know about
alternative ideas.

Questions were asked about whose agenda do certain ideas and explanations fit – where do ideas come from
and why?

Actions and Outcomes:

- Website being developed:

- Space on website for discussions that create a dialogue about mental health

Mental Elf - http://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/

- Exploring the development of a local Hearing Voices Group, aligned to Hearing Voices network

- Exploring local service user’s networks and services, finding out what’s out there, linking in

National Events of Interest:

- The Community Psychology Festival, 20-21 November 2015, Manchester

http://www.bps.org.uk/networks-and-communities/member-microsite/community-
psychology-section/news/festival-community-psychology-20th-21st-november-2015-manchester

- Maximising the impact of psychology on public policy, 19 November 2015, Newbury

https://www.bps.org.uk/events/maximise-impact-psychology-public-policy-dcp-south-central-
agm-event