Academics from the social work department at Bournemouth University hosted a World Café event yesterday for practitioners and students to consider mental health practice.
This builds on previous successful Social Work World Café events held at the university. These events are held as part of the wider work of the Pan Dorset Academy, which is a community of health and social care agencies and learning providers.
Our World Café events create a collaborative dialogue between practitioners, students and academics around questions that matter in social work. The event yesterday considers mental health which is a key issue for many professional across health and social care. It is a complex issue which impacts not only on individuals but on families and communities. The events are underpinned by a collaborative approach to learning, and this provides an important place for practitioner knowledge to be shared with both students and academics.
By learning from each other participants will explore:
- Working with families to improve mental health outcomes
- Interventions and ways of working at seem to be successful
- The impact of mental health on family functioning
- Identifying key mental health issues
At the World Café Event today 85 professionals from NHS, Children’s Social Care, Adult Social Care and voluntary sector have joined us to discuss the complexity of Mental Health in Families. Professor Colin Pritchard delivered the keynote on the new concept of a “Mental Health Syndrome” – an innovative model that emphasises the importance of the overlap between substance misuse, domestic abuse, neglect and mental health. Participants have considered questions such as ‘What would be the benefit of the model?’ and ‘how as a practitioner might this apply to my practice?’ The feedback so far – via questionnaire after Professor Pritchard’s presentation– indicates that 93% of participants confirm the relevance of the model to their practice.
During the rest of the day participants worked together, sharing their expertise to deepen their understanding of mental health on practice.
