Training College:
Pre-Conference Training College
Choosing your Programme: A message from Diane Froggatt, Public Relations and Development Officer
Stream 1: Families as Partners in Care: How to Formally Include Families/Caregivers in your Mental Health Service
A course for mental health providers, administrators, policy makers and family advocates or those wishing to work with families in formal mental health systems. Instructors: Dr. Grainne Fadden & Dr. Margaret Leggatt.
A new light is shining into relationships between mental health professionals and family carers. Increasingly, professionals are seeing gains in formally including family carers in the treatment team. They are benefiting from providing families with advice and support as well as providing a forum for the exchange of information so valuable to improving care for the patient. In line with a large body of research that proves the benefits of “family interventions”, WFSAD has been promoting the implementation of these family services aimed at improving care for the patient and reducing stress for the family. There are techniques and skills to be learned to make this happen and to ensure that it is an optimum experience for you! Whether you are a social worker, a psychiatric nurse, a community or hospital psychiatrist, a mental health worker, a manager or a policy-maker and administrator, you should sign up for this “Families as Partners in Care” Training College Day.
The training will be given by experts already working in fully comprehensive services. Professor Grainne Fadden, the Director of the Meriden Family Programme in Birmingham, England has trained hundreds of people to become Family Therapists and has seen the value of their work in practice. Dr. Margaret Leggatt, a former president of WFSAD and a keen developer of provider training in Australia, will also be an instructor. Content will cover: working in interdisciplinary settings, building trust about family programs; and approaching government or administration in order to institute these evidence based programmes. You will also be given tips on how to implement this work, and how to overcome the challenges. Graduates will receive a copy of the WFSAD Families as Partners in Care Guidebook that will be published just prior to the training.
This project is supported by an educational grant from Eli Lilly.
Stream 2: Reason to Hope: “An International Education Course for Family Care Givers”
A course for international families and family leaders, adapted from the Schizophrenia Society’s Canadian “Strengthening Families Together” program (2006) and WFSAD’s Strengthening Families Through Empowerment Programme (2001).
There are few families that can survive the difficulties that arise when a loved one becomes unwell with a psychiatric disorder, without help. Families need emotional support that will respond to their loss, pain and guilt. In addition, they need information about how best to handle their changed lives and skills to do so. “Reason to Hope” is a course that provides these and other aspects of caring. It is a brand new instruction tool that takes into account cultural norms and values, treatment beliefs and economic situations in which people live, in order to serve the wider global population. The course will be in two parts. The morning sessions will focus on key areas of the course (usually given in 8-sessions), while the afternoon will be devoted to the training aspects of delivering the course in a variety of cultures, settings and countries.
This project is supported by educational grants from Astra Zeneca UK and Canada.
The fee for each course will be $150 Canadian including lunch, Graduation reception and course publications. Attending a training course and the conference will cost $500 (plus tax).