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Experts by Experience celebrated in Copenhagen
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How I Sean Barnes promoted Experts by Experience in Copenhagen, Denmark and presented at the multinational conference.
Mental health in detention
I am an Expert by Experience and recently spoke at a conference examining Mental Health Detention in such settings as psychiatric hospitals and social care facilities.
The multinational conference was held in Copenhagen in November and included experts accounts of how mental health detention can impact the mental health and vulnerabilities of people who experience it.
It was co-hosted by the Association of the Prevention of Torture (APT), the Council of Europe and the OSCE. More than 60 representatives attended from National Preventative Mechanisms (NPMs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and came from twelve countries across Europe and Central Asia. This meant there was a rich diversity of perspectives offered at the conference.
My lived experience
It was because of my lived experience of being detained under the mental health act that I was invited to speak as a member of the conference’s Mental Health, Vulnerability, and Intersectionality Panel.
Drawing upon my lived experiences and my employment in the role of Expert by Experience I was able to speak about how peoples’ ethnicity and socioeconomic background can impact their experiences of mental health detention. This included looking at how groups and situations are treated under current safeguarding practices.
I shared my personal experiences of being detained under the Mental Health Act, which helped raise awareness of the challenges and risks faced by people with mental health conditions in places of detention.
Celebrating Experts by Experience
As part of an interview session, I introduced the Care Quality Commission's world leading Experts by Experience programme to the conference.
I explained how I introduce myself to people using a service that’s being inspected or on a Mental Health Act Review impacts on the responses I collect. I always introducing myself as a former patient, we have common ground and people have said it made them feel more comfortable to talk to me and open about their current experiences of being detained.
I learned from other people representing European countries and Central Asia at the conference how they had tested and trialled similar Experts by Experience programmes, but they had not been successful. People shared how they found it too stressful to visit wards like those they had experienced themselves. It also appeared that similar programmes didn’t have the same structure, training and support that Experts by Experience have here in England from our employer Choice Support. And they didn’t work with a named Mental Heath Act Reviewer like we do with the Care Quality Commission.
The conference celebrated the success story I shared of our Expert by Experience programme, for monitoring places where people are or may be deprived of liberty, and for breaking down barriers to hearing about peoples’ lived experience.
Copenhagen: an experience to remember
I was proud of the positive feedback I received from the conference organisers for sharing my personal experiences and views on the themed discussions as a panel member.
I learnt so much at the event, like how other countries deal with shared staff issues such as education and training, mental pressure, and compassion fatigue. I also found it interesting to see how different countries' different strategies and ways they have of working. For example, in providing ratings for services, running IT systems, and drafting reports.
I very much felt valued for being asked to attend the conference and to present.
It was an important conference where I was able to contribute and gain new international insight.
I also made the most of my trip, visiting the Christmas markets and taking in the architectural beauty of Copenhagen.
I really appreciated the opportunity to represent Experts by Experience, Choice Support, and the Care Quality Commission abroad and look forward to my next adventure.