SOCIAL CARE IN CHILD & ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ANNUAL CONFERENCE

As busy Social Care professionals and students we can all relate to feeling overloaded with information, learning and training at times. With this in mind we wanted to choose a theme for the morning of our conference that would feel current, would challenge people’s knowledge base and professional thinking but most importantly would remain relevant to our everyday practice when we walk out of the room!

The needs of our Transgender Youth and their Families are quickly becoming a key issue for all Health & Social Care Professionals and particularly for those working on the frontline in Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). We will have the pleasure of being joined by two key players in this ever growing arena for the morning.

Key note speaker, Vanessa Lacy has worked with TENI since 2010, currently she is the Health and Education Manager. In her role she designs and delivers training for health care professionals throughout Ireland. She was directly responsible for creating the family support group TransParenCI in 2011, which currently support over 250 families. She has a BA (Hon) in Psychology and is currently in the process of transferring her MA research to PhD level. Vanessa has worked on numerous occasions with media, and is a published author, both in media and academically. She sits on a number of HSE and Tusla committees on both national and regional level, she is also Chairperson of TransParenCI and is also a proud parent.

Key note speaker, Dr Aileen Murtagh is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist in St Patrick’s University Hospital, where she provides inpatient and outpatient care to transgender youth and their families. She has visited a number of specialist clinics, including the Center of Expertise for Gender Dysphoria Amsterdam, KOI (Knowing Our Identity Service) Belfast and collaborated with clinicians from the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), Tavistock Clinic, UK. She has consulted with the HSE in relation to service developments needs of transgender youth. She has delivered training to a variety of professional groups with regards to transgender healthcare e.g. GPs, undergraduate and postgraduate psychiatric trainees, MDT members, parents etc. She presented an audit on transgender youth attending CAMHS at the first national transgender conference.

Key note speaker, Suzanne O’Daly is a Social Care Leader whom has worked in the Linn Dara Child and Adolescent Mental Health service since 1994. She has extensive experience working in a number of settings such as the Inpatient Unit, Residential Unit for Autistic Children and Adolescents, Special school for autism and three Community CAMHS teams. She is currently working in the Linn Dara Adolescent Day Programme which is a therapeutic treatment programme for young people experiencing mental health difficulties from the ages of 12 to 18 years.

Suzanne facilitates therapeutic groups such as Anxiety Management, Social Communication skills, WRAP programme and the Decider skills programme (supports the teaching of skills to help emotional regulation and managing emotional distress). She engages in individual key working and family work with the young people and their families.  Her professional training includes a Certificate in Marte Meo Therapy. She is also trained in the use of the ADOS, ADI-R and Storm assessment tools. She recently attended the Maastricht Hearing Voices Interview skills workshop and completed level 2 training as a WRAP group facilitator.

Agenda;

9:30-10:00 Registration Tea/Coffee

10:00-10:15 Leanne (Chair person)

10:15-11:15  Vanessa Lacy

11:15-12:30 Dr Aileen Murtagh

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:15  Suzanne O Daly

2:15-3:15  CAMH Special Interest Group AGM