Network Lead
Dr David Crepaz-Keay
Head of Empowerment and Social Inclusion, Mental Health Foundation.
David is Head of Applied Learning, at the Mental Health Foundation; a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health; and was a founder member of the National Survivor User Network, the UK’s leading network led by people living with a psychiatric diagnosis. He is also an ethics committee member of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics; a former technical advisor to WHO Europe and a former senior mental health advisor to Public Health England. Within the Collaborating Centre, he is Lead for the Values-based Practice in Public Mental Health Network. David has substantial personal experience of using mental health services, including time as a detained patient, and now applies this experience and the learning from it in a systematic and productive way to improve outcomes for people who experience mental ill-health.
Background and aims
The network is open to all, and particularly welcomes voice-hearers.
The aim of the network is to improve understanding of what it is like for people to hear voices through research and personal experiences. Hearing a voice in the absence of another speaker – what psychiatry terms an auditory hallucination – is an experience which can take many forms and occur in a variety of clinical and non-clinical contexts. With the importance of attending to the experience of voice-hearing already recognised in psychotherapeutic and Hearing Voices Movement approaches to working with voices, this network aims to listen to the experiences of voice-hearers.
The Network provides a space for learning and aims to improve the understanding between mental health professionals and people who hear voices, so as to promote person-centred practices. This is in keeping with the aims of the Collaborating Centre which aims to promote excellent clinical care.
Values Based Practice (VBP) is an approach to working with complex and conflicting values in healthcare. Values based practice focuses on individual cases, so that we hear the unique values of the people involved (as patients, carers, mental health professionals, clinicians and others) in decision-making.
When a mental health professional or a team works with a voice-hearer there is a risk of assuming that they share the same values. However, this assumption may not be correct. Underlying differences, not recognised and possibly not spoken about, may lead to a lack of rapport and engagement. Where medical treatment is coercive, and even forced on an individual, a working relationship may break down altogether. Therefore, it is important that differences in perspective are recognised, discussed, and taken into account.
A key part of the process of VBP is the effective collaboration of voice-hearers mental health professionals, and researchers. Shared patient experiences, and patient stories can be used as training resources to demonstrate the link between VBP and collaborative practice. In exploring and developing the links between education and VBP the Network provides a framework to enable effective communication between voice-hearers, mental health professionals, and researchers.
The Network hosts workshops, and encourages collaborations between members, and interested organisations. The network also aims to promote the understanding of voice-hearing among the student population of Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, and other Universities, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Mind, Restore, other charities, and the general public. The network aims to raise public awareness of voice-hearing with a view to normalising such experiences and empowering patients / voice-hearers to optimise / augment their functioning.
Objectives
- To provide support and opportunities for practical help from charities and organisations.
- To support voice-hearers in getting the best possible help.
- To explore methods – for example, voice-hearers’ first-person accounts – for developing training resources.
- To provide a forum to foster effective communication between network members, charities and other organisations with a view to developing research and education.
Working Methods and Meetings
The objectives will be taken forward by means of regular workshops, hosted by members of the network. These organisations at present include other networks (i.e. Whiteness and Race Equality Network) within the Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and Oxford Brookes University.
For more on our meetings please click here
Members
The Network is open to all those with an interest in or involvement with values based practice in the context of understanding voice-hearing. This includes but is not limited to voice-hearers, researchers, health and social care professionals, patients and service-users.
To join the Network please email one of the Network Leads.
For a list of current members click here