SoNM Mental Health team present at the European Conference on Mental Health

20 Sep 2023

Ljubljana September 2023

Dr Aine O Donovan, Dr James O Mahony, Dr Maria O Malley, Mx Ryan Goulding & Professor Brenda Happell, of the School of Nursing & Midwifery University College Cork, travelled to Ljubljana to present at the largest mental health conference in Europe. The ethos of this annual conference is very much underpinned by the principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and the belief that service provision can be improved when knowledge is co-created, diversity in ideology is embraced and a space is created where the voices of all are respected and valued.

The teams diverse research presentations were underpinned by methodologies such as auto-ethnography, interpretive phenological analysis, qualitative descriptive research and systematic reviews, and topics such as; the challenges of employing ‘Experts by Experience’ in mental health nursing education; staff experiences of behaviours that challenge in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services; feelings of safety within self-practice among CBT therapists, and the experiences of transgender and gender diverse youth of healthcare services.  As Chair of the Scientific Committee, Brenda opened the conference, iterating how mentally healthy professionals are more effective in their contribution to quality mental health services and as such they need to engage in self-care and use their therapeutic skills in their interactions with colleagues.