Royal College of Psychiatrists
Volunteering & International Psychiatry Special Interest Group (VIPSIG)
Committee Meeting Minutes
Friday 14th August 2015
Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
Present
Peter Hughes (Chair), Mandip Jheeta (Secretary), Mohammed Abou-Saleh, Ayesha Ahmad, Ben Baig, Sally Browning Heather Dipple, Louay El-Tagy, Gabriel Kogo, Raman Rashwany, Howard Ryland, Ashok Singh, Sophie Thomson
Apologies
Mohammed El-Tahir, Lena Jawad, Ana Miorelli, Ruairi Page
EXECUTIVE MEETING
No specific matters arising. Proceed to general meeting.
GENERAL MEETING
Minutes of last meeting (29.5.15)
Agreed to try one Birmingham meeting/ yr. Possibly Jan/ Apr 2016 TBC
Still working on VIPISG website link
PH now co-opted member of College Human Rights Committee
Matters arising
Confirmed regular schedule for VIPISG committee meetings: 1:30pm executive, 2:00pm general meeting
Feedback from Chair, Peter Hughes
VIPISG session at College International Congress went well
Myanmar training went extremely well. Yangoon & Mandaly training went very well. Nwè Winn Thein has organized funding for Burmese Prof of Psychiatry to visit UK. Training will be repeated in January for GPs, and also Train the Trainers course. mhGAP translated into Myanmar language. Meredith Newland did 3 month proper pre & post evaluation. As VIPSIG generally we may need to do better at evaluating pre & post for our events. Hopefully, will be able to collaborate with Meredith on this.
PH doing webinar on humanitarian work 2.9.15 16:00
All interested members encouraged to volunteer for College volunteer scheme
PH will be going to mhGAP October WHO meeting Geneva
PH’s survey preliminary findings:
Strong finding people weren’t getting enough preparation before trip or support afterward.
Volunteering is hugely helpful in various skills and transcultural skills gained
A lot of people didn’t know about volunteering scheme even though they had gone out with scheme,
People should be aware benefits of scheme- funding, college stamp/ approval etc
Volunteer scheme
HD not receiving info anymore from college volunteer scheme
140 people registered as college volunteers.
Programme has moved towards shorter assignments
PH now on College human rights committee. Syria & Palestine could be potential for human rights committee links
There is a Palestinian Humanitarian Group, but no plans for MH projects
PH recently talked to Human Rights Watch, who were reporting tying, beating and locking up in Somaliland private hospitals
Workshop at College International Congress 2015
Session went well. Very good feedback ratings (5/5) on College Conference app. Informal feedback was also very good
Session was fully booked, but number of DNAs- perhaps due to workshop scheduled on last day
Value to NHS could be very good new angle for next workshop- about value of volunteering and how to convince employers of benefit etc.
E.g. ‘What benefit is there to NHS of global mental health volunteering?’
HD: has had colleagues who have had leave refused, even for 1 week
PH: one example raised of deaneries not allowing deferred intake to do global volunteering activities. Deferred entries would help
If College had a position to support global volunteering would be very helpful
Prev survey of medical directors, showed they have been supportive if cost neutral
Future events
Confirmed we will be doing mhGAP event at Springfield Hospital, date TBC, likely Sep 2015
Issues of different funding arrangements at College if over 50 people attending. We may consider additional smaller events held in College
BB: described how mental health first aid training good for police and fire fighters.
Psychological First Aid (PFA) training event, we will do, date TBC. Principles include focus on listening in empathic way, low intensity psychological intervention
PH: recently did Springfield PFA event with HCAs
SB: IoP also running other PFA training ongoing, charge £200+
½ day PFA & ½ day orientation to volunteering prev considered. Could also integrate orientation into country-specific mhGAP events
PFA skills are very underrated
Discussed could do PFA with mhGAP-HIG (Humanitarian Intervention Guide)
RR, MAS kindly volunteered to help
We will discuss appetite for HIG event at upcoming mhGAP training
We could do a HIG version training session at College
We will discuss appetite for this at next mhgap event
Feedback from VIPSIG leads
MJ, finance:
ST:
Highlighted pots of money for trusts
Focus has been on training in UK
We could use money to invite people abroad for attachments
Could spend on marketing and website
We could spend bursary for support for other health professionals to do global volunteering e.g. professionals struggling with finances
SB, retirees:
Nick Rose did event about volunteering, and introduced VIPSIG at College retirees event
Some interested people talked to SB
Retirees often state that finance is an impediment to volunteering
RP, feedback forwarded ahead of meeting:
Facebook & twitter going well, people looking at things
2 trainees have contacted re: joining VIPSIG
Twitter going well
Website
Some training videos added. More videos would be good
David Setchell (College website design) pleased w/ our new website, www.vipsig.com
Please inform ruairipage@doctors.org.uk if further ideas/ photos/ videos/ tweets etc
We now have VIPSIG advertising/ promoting leaflets
We may consider VIPSIG T-shirts for events etc.
LJ, feedback forwarded ahead of meeting:
Good website
Presented MH in Cambodia poster at College International Congress
Pan-London psychiatry trainees conference in November 2015. VIPSIG could do a session
PTC:
HR has done podcasts for newsletter. College has a machine, and the publications department do the editing. College also has a camera. HR thinks we could do a podcast, easy to do. No cost for college. Contact is Julia Burnside in College. HD happy to an Ethiopia podcast, ST also re Myanmar. Volunteers for this most welcome
Diaspora:
Research:
AM sends apologies
BB believes huge gap globally for research skills. Feels research often hard to set up. Training about research skills in medical schools
AA: Has ethics background, can do research article. Research agenda for VIPSIG needs working out more.
PH: Evaluation of international projects may be best
ST: good angle would be about what LAMICs can teach HICs, and finding solutions to impossible
Turning the world upside down website recommended
RR: Basic standards for ethics in LAMICs could be helpful
AA’s input on ethics would be much appreciated and expertise. AA has done some ethics committee standards work in Palestine in paediatrics.
MAS: Could highlight what high income countries can/ do learn from LAMIC
Also investigating researching mhGAP training and its impact. Some work ongoing in Sri Lanka.
Feels what VIPSIG is doing could be evaluated. Could be significant untapped area.
HR: could link this to MSc programme, their students could be interested in developing this
Centre for Global Mental Health have asked PH to teach on their introduction module
BB: highlighted difficulties of start to finish evaluation. Research is a large piece of work
ST: Therefore: audit could be good, relatively simple with significant impact
Encouraging recruitment into psychiatry
Global MH related events very popular amongst med studs/ FYs, often they are unaware psychiatry has good volunteering opportunities, encourages recruitment into psychiatry
Historically, we have had good trainee attendance at VIPSIG mhGAP events, and quite a few medical students
We will promote upcoming mhGAP training to students & trainees
If another conference, could even pitch at trainee level esp. foundation doctors
HR: expanding FY placements could be good opportunities. Could do FY specific events
Could have global mental health themes for university psychiatry summer schools
MJ: Somaliland presentation has gone down well at Universities’ national PsychSoc conference
Essay Prize
Went well last year. 2015/16 prize to be advertised soon
MedMinds Birmingham Uni prize winning essay highlighted as UK volunteering & encouraging recruitment into psychiatry
Links
mhGAP humanitatrian version started in Iraq and Liberia, more narrative than prev mhGAP manual
RR: Potential for Iraq links if there is a need, may have potential links
MAS & RR: HIG numerous potential for various middle Easy countries inc. Iraq, Lebanon. Iraq subcommittee may be able to contribute
Another edition due next week
Myanmar training
Website & social media
Need to do redirection from old website
Maybe add some explanation on difference about VIPSIG & volunteers programme
Need to add webinar
Needs mhGAP manual & humanitarian version links on website
Finance & fundraising
Film making about volunteering could be valuable investment. We have budget. Would need professional support. Spirituality SIG making video
Martin Elphick’s wife Deidre made a Malawi/SMMHEP project film
International volunteer activities
Try to publicise MHIN- mental health innovation network, a collaboration between LSHTM & WHO Geneva. Could promote the webinars. Their webinars are very good, accessed through MHIN website.
MAS: Hoffman report: American Psychological Association collaborating with Pentagon and torture techniques. MAS to contact PH to bring up in Human Rights Committee for potential College statement about saying MH professionals should be against use of torture.
Discussed if College should have statement on domestic violence, FGM, unmodified ECT, chaining, beating, violence to patients, hitting patients. BB & RR saying complexities when very limited resources etc.
AA: Could document more about psychological impact long-term of drones, repeated bereavements, uncertainty i.e. how negative to well being. Could bring up in HRC.
ST noted it could be good to start with raising and highlighting issues.
RR: Claims in northern Iraq of some abuses by NGOs. Discussed if this could this be raised by HRC
PH: HRC could audit attitudes of VIPSIG members to HR issues
MAS: Syrian Refugees task force at college working on for 1 year. Now set up. Trying to raise awareness. Noted the task force is politically neutral.
MAS & PH have Lancet article coming soon
ST: Kashmir project: online supervision ongoing. Trying to evaluate how it works
Gondor Ethiopia happy to be contacted about
AS: highly recommends Malawi SMMHEP project
AS: MSF looking for Eritrea volunteers, will ask if they want to link with college volunteer programme
PH: Ghana project for higher trainees looking for people.
HR will send to PTC contact. Possibly only overseas experience recognized for training.
UK volunteering activities
Need to promote more. Essay prize helps to encourage this.
Newsletter
Needs more entries.
We need to market how it gets to everyone and publicise better
People encouraged to submit from all countries
New angles on older projects/ updates also very helpful
Potential ideas:
Ethics
What psychiatry is like in my country…
PTC/ European federation etc.
Retirees
Try to publicise MHIN- mental health innovation network & webinars
Puzzle
mhGAP-HIG, PH could do
More humanitarian rights submissions
AOB
We need to reach out more to psychologists
Conference discussed future national conference: HD, AA, LET interested
Victor Doku: we will confirm if continuing as secretary if health/ other issues
Med stud reps very enthusiastic
Dates of next meeting confirmed, 27.11.15. October meeting cancelled
Dates of next committee meetings
Venue: Royal College of Psychiatrists, London. 1:30pm- executive meeting, 2:00pm- general meeting.
Friday 27th November 2015
Friday 29th January 2016
Friday 13th May 2016
Friday 19th August 2016
Friday 11th November 2016
Please join us. All disciplines, students, trainees and non-psychiatrists very welcome.
(Please email PBarton-Hanson@rcpsych.ac.uk beforehand to inform of your attendance as per building security policy)
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