Soteria Network Conference 2009

SOTERIA NETWORK CONFERENCE 2009

A Soteria House – A Real Alternative for Helping People through ‘Psychosis’
Making It Happen in the UK

A one-day conference in Saltaire, Bradford for everyone interested in alternatives to current biomedical approaches to ‘psychosis’ organised by the Soteria Network.

Tuesday 3 November 2009
Victoria Hall, Saltaire, Bradford BD18 3JS

* We know about the problems with current practice
* We understand that people want alternatives to hospitalisation and medication-based services predicated on dignity, respect and choice
* We believe the time is right to create a Soteria House in the UK

Speakers will include:
* John Bola – world authority on minimal medication approaches to ‘psychosis’ and colleague of Loren Mosher (founder of the first Soteria House)
* Fiona Venner – manager of the Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service
* Adam Jhugroo – Evolving Minds, Bradford

The conference will start at 9.45am (registration from 9am) and close at 4.30pm. There will be a bookstall and workshops dedicated to exploring the practical issues surrounding setting up a Soteria House in the UK

Cost: There is no fixed price – the organisers invite attendees to make a contribution based on their ability to pay across a scale from £0 to £100. As a guide, an appropriate contribution from waged professionals could be between £50 and £100, and from the unwaged or service users £0 to £15. Lunch and refreshments are included in the price.

To book a place, please contact Dawn McCarrick on T: 0121 331 7151 E: dawn.mccarrick@bcu.ac.uk
For queries, please contact Paula Quick on 01629 812738

* A Soteria House was originally developed as a residential alternative for people diagnosed with ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘psychosis’, moving away from using such medical language and thinking to explain subjective experience. Common elements of the Soteria approach include finding personal meaning in the experience of ‘psychosis’ by ‘being with’ clients; and no or minimal use of antipsychotic medication (with any medication taken from a position of choice and without coercion). The house is run with primarily non-medical staffing; preserving residents’ personal power, social networks, and communal responsibilities.

For more information, please see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteria
www.health.bcu.ac.uk/ccmh/soteria_network.htm