Welcome to the ‘Trauma & Recovery – An Introduction to the Journey’ webinar.
In October 2020, Mental Health Ireland and partners coproduced and hosted the ‘Sharing the Vision – Translating Policy into Practice’ webinar in celebration of World Mental Health Day.
Feedback from those who attended on the day expressed a clear interest in trauma, trauma-informed care, and healing from trauma.
With this in mind, and with ‘Trauma-informed’ as one of the four Service Delivery Principles of the Department of Health’s Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone, 2020, Mental Health Ireland and partners from organisations across Ireland including UCC, Mayo Recovery College, Galway Recovery College, the Office of Mental Health, Engagement & Recovery, Carmha Ireland, and others have come together to coproduce an event to begin to explore trauma, recovery, and the journeys we travel with them.
We are delighted to have special guests Dr. Tony Bates, Dr. Sharon Lambert, Billy Clarke, Dominika Stoppa, Dr. Marie Oppeboen, and John Saunders presenting at the webinar. To read more about them, scroll down.
The theme will be explored through keynotes, personal narratives, art, music, poetry, and a panel with a Q&A.
Enjoy the recording of the webinar.
Immediate Supports
If you are having a hard time coping and feel like you need immediate mental health support, there are a number of immediate supports available to you. We have listed them below. We would also recommend letting someone you trust know how you are feeling. Sharing our difficulties out loud can lessen the weight of them.
HSE Information Service
The YourMentalHealth information line is a handy information service you can call any time, 24/7. A member of their team can tell you about the mental health supports and services available to you, how to access different services provided by the HSE and their funded partners, opening hours, and more. The information line is not a counselling service.
Freephone: 1800 111 888
Other Supports
We have compiled a list of some of HSE and other supports available across the country to support your mental health. The list includes therapeutic supports, peer supports, recovery education, and more. You can also click here to learn about the Recovery Education services across Ireland.
Click on the images to download the documents.
Poetry & Music by Billy Clarke.
Poem entitled “This Part of Me (Frozen in Time)”
and song entitled “Such a Weight”.
My creative journey through trauma to recovery
A personal narrative from Dominika Stoppa about a journey through
trauma using Creativity.
Read more about our Speakers & Panelists.
Dr. Tony Bates
Tony was the Head of Psychology for 30 years in St James’s Hospital, Dublin. Trained for seven years in the USA with Cognitive Therapy Centre in University of Pennsylvania, where he carried out his doctoral research. Established and directed the MSc in Cognitive Psychotherapy in TCD (1997). Founded Jigsaw – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health in 2006. Appointed Adjunct Professor of Psychology UCD (2018). Columnist with the Irish Times and broadcaster on RTE. Tony lives fulltime in North Sligo, on a cliff surrounded by the sea. He looks after 4 hens, 3 cats, a pair of rabbits and feeds over 200 wild birds.
Dr. Sharon Lambert
Dr Sharon Lambert joined the teaching staff in the School of Applied Psychology in 2014 following a number of years working within community-based settings that provide supports to marginalised groups. Sharon’s research interests revolve primarily around the impact of trauma on development, its link with substance dependence and mental health and consequent considerations for service design and delivery. Sharon conducts research with community-based partners such as addiction, homelessness, criminal justice, and education organisations. The research looks at both primary psychological trauma (Adverse Childhood & Community Experiences) and secondary traumatic stress. The impact of trauma on wellbeing and outcomes is explored and the application of research and theory to service delivery is of significant interest.
John Saunders
John Saunders is the outgoing CEO of Shine, supporting people affected by mental ill health and incoming Executive Director of EUFAMI, a European NGO supporting family organisations in mental health. He was a member of the Expert Group established in 2003, to review and update mental health service policy resulting in A Vision for Change and a member of the NESF Working group on Mental Health and Social Inclusion. In June 2009 he was appointed as Chair of the 2nd Independent Monitoring Group to oversee and report on the implementation of Vision of Change policy. John is presently a Board member of the Citizens Information Board and Chair of the Mental Health Commission. John has recently been appointed as the Chair of the National Implementation Monitoring Group established to oversee and report on the implementation of Sharing the Vision, the current National Mental Health Policy. John has qualifications in nursing and a degree in Economics and Public Administration.
Dominika Stoppa
Dominika Stoppa is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur, artist and educator. She is the founder of Creative Mandala™ Method, an illustrator and colouring book maker as well as the owner at Stoppa Art + Design Shop in Castlecomer Craft Yard, Co. Kilkenny. Her blog and YouTube channel ‘Creativity For Wellbeing’ provides resources to help improve wellbeing using creative methods. Voluntarily, Dominika is Vice-President of Network Ireland Kilkenny and manages the Castlecomer Craft Yard.
Billy Clarke
Billy Clarke is a Recovery Education Facilitator with the Mayo Recovery College. He is a musician, poet and writer who uses the creative arts as a means of healing, making sense of, and recovering from the effects of trauma.
Marie Oppeboen
Marie is a consultant psychiatrist, co-founder and CEO of CARMHA; a not-for-profit counselling and peer-support service for adults with co-existing addiction and mental health issues in North Tipperary. She has a medical degree from Trinity College Dublin (2008), worked and trained as a psychiatrist in a variety of mental health services across the Mid-West, until leaving the public services in 2018 to progress the development of CARMHA in collaboration with a group of “experts by experience” and local community champions.
Marie’s main interests include addiction/“dual diagnosis”, trauma and trauma-recovery, peer-support, trauma-informed care, recovery-oriented service development and design, participatory research, advocacy and community engagement. Her interests, career and perspectives have largely been shaped by her own personal and family experiences of trauma and mental health issues, seeking opportunities to listen and learn from people with lived experience, and by her own personal journey of healing, growth and recovery.
Marie is passionate about reform of mental health services, reducing stigma and changing society’s perspectives on mental health and addiction. Throughout her career, she has been an active advocate for change on a local and national level.
Click the logos to find out ore about each of our partners and contributors.