Wednesday, October 8th 2014 is a joyous day for the folks at Aras Follain as they gather to celebrate 10 years of Peer Support and Recovery in Mental Health.
It is now 10 years since a group of local people came together in North Tipperary, but more particularly in Nenagh to work and develop Peer Support suited to their own needs.
What is Peer Support?
There is no one universally accepted definition of Peer Support. But Sherry mead offers the following:
“ Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared responsibility, and mutual agreement of what is available. Peer support is not based on psychiatric models and diagnostic criteria. It is about understanding another situation empathically through the shared experience of emotional and psychological pain. When people find affiliation with others they feel are “like” them, they feel a connection. This connection or affiliation, is a deep, holistic, understanding based on mutual experience where people are able to “be” with each other without the constraints of traditional (expert/patient) relationship.” (Mead, 2001).
So as part of the 10 year celebrations Aras Follain is hosting an afternoon session in the Community Centre, Tyone on Wednesday 8th October from 4pm to 6pm:
Introduction to Peer Support, Tim O’Connor & Eileen Gleeson
Presentations by Dr. Teresa Tuohy & Dr. Mike Watts on the findings of the findings of their PhD research.
Presentation on the development and continued growth of Aras Follain Peer Support Centre.
Refreshments after in Aras Follain.
Mike Watts has been involved in recovery from mental illness for the past 40years. As a young man he experienced paralysing levels of social fear and auditory hallucinations which seriously curtailed his life. In the 1960’s he was diagnosed with ‘ pathological shyness’. Mike along with his wife Fran joined the peer support organisation GROW in 1976. In 1980 Mike returned to 3rd level study and gained a BA in psychology through UCG, did a Masters in family therapy in UCD and in 2012 completed a doctoral research study exploring processes of recovery through peer support through TCD. Mike has been a member of the Mental Health Commission from 2002-2007, an advisor to Amnesty, Economic Social Forum, a director of the Wheel and has also worked for GROW.
Mikes research ‘Recovery as a re-enchantment with life’ is based on the experiences of 26 Irish adults aged from 30-70, all of whom chose to embark on a peer support ‘Recovery; route towards addressing their ‘illness’.
Teresa Tuohy is a TCD PhD graduate of the School of Nursery and Midwifery and has been involved in mental health recovery for a number of years and believes strongly that peer support is crucial in regaining and maintaining mental health.
Teresa’s research ‘Mothers Voices: is a study of mothering based on the lived experiences of women with mental health problems’.
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