First Hearing Voices Group started in Bristol at Our Chance (Rethink), facilitated by Don Swift. The Bristol Hearing Voices Network Self-Help Group was established following a number of local consultation meetings, organised and chaired by Tim Dowling (Co-Founder & Community Psychiatric Nurse - Grove Rd). We officially launched at an open event on 29th May 2002, introduced by Keith Hall (Member), and marked by a guest speech from Ron Coleman.

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Bristol Hearing Voices Network (BHVN) offer training covering voice hearing and other unusual experiences. This training aims to give people an understanding so they can approach Voice Hearers with some empathy, dispel misconceptions of the Voice Hearing experience, provide a perception of a Voice Hearing experience outside the medical model and not seeing the experience as an illness. Topics covered in the training include:

• A different view of a disability.
• The joys, perils and pitfalls of Hearing Voices.
• Medication - a magic wand?
• Exploring where Voices come from.
• Delusions and Hearing Voices.
• Coping strategies.
• The efficacy of a Self-Help Group.
• What is a Voice Hearing experience?
• Types of Voices and unusual experiences.
• Unusual experiences relating to the use of street drugs and alcohol.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Contact Person / Email
bristol.hearingvoices@outlook.com

Call 07748638766

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In the Real is the a film created by filmmaker and psychoanalyst Conor McCormack. This is a documentation of the Bristol Hearing Voices Network – a self-help group for people who hear voices and have other unusual experiences. The result of this collaboration is In the Real, a 59 min observational documentary film which goes right to the heart of the voice-hearing experience. In the Real was supported creatively and financially by Durham University’s Hearing the Voice: an interdisciplinary research project, led by Charles Fernyhough and Angela Woods, which aims to provide a better understanding of what it is like to hear voices when no one is speaking.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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The Inquiry into the ‘Schizophrenia’ Label (ISL) was launched in 2012 as an independent inquiry into the usefulness of ‘schizophrenia’ as a diagnosis and medical condition. It investigated the impact this diagnosis has on people’s lives. ISL was supported by national and international organisations, groups and individuals.ISL collected evidence via paid surveys which generated over 450 responses, a call to submit personal testimonies, and a focus group in Manchester. The call for evidence has now been concluded. We will update this website with findings from the inquiry and other resources that critically engage with the label of 'schizophrenia'. 

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Bridging the Gap is a 5 year Project  to develop a Befriending Service. The scheme is for anyone living in the Dundee area who is experiencing mental health illness, is in receipt of a service, is socially isolated and/or who could benefit from the support and encouragement a volunteer befriender could provide.

A Befriender is someone who respects you for who you are, encourages you to be more confident in yourself, and holds an interest in heart to be with you and support you through your difficulties. A Befriender has an understanding of the problems arising from mental distress, and offers support and understanding. However, a Befriender is not a medical professional, a social worker nor a counsellor; and their service is neither judgmental nor compulsory. It is an unpaid voluntary position. Befrienders meet up with you on a regular basis to take part in activities you both enjoy, there are no recommended activities and it is completely between you and your befriender on what activity you decide on. The timings and place for meeting are arranged between yourself and the befriender but there is additional guidance and support available from the scheme coordinator if needed.  Being a befriender is basically being a friend to someone who, for whatever reason, may need a friend but find it difficult to form friendships or finds it difficult to meet new people. The befriending relationship hopes benefits for both people in the friendship. For the Befriended, they gain support, reduced social isolation and take part in something they enjoy just to name a few benefits. For the Befriender there are also quite a few benefits, such as the following benefits:

• The opportunity to witness the effect their companionship and advice born from their own experience has on the life of the person they are befriending.
• Gain insight into other people’s experiences, which might retrospectively help them in their day to day.
• Becoming a Befriender involves a journey of personal growth and recovery.
• Gain further knowledge about Mental Health.
• Travel expenses and insurance are ensured for all volunteered engaged in Befriending on behalf of the Hearing Voices Network

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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HaVeN Community Cafe is a cafe run by our volunteers who work together to provide good food at affordable prices to all our visitors. They also offer teas, coffees, juices, toasties, hot and cold rolls to name a few and are always looking for suggestions on what we can offer. Above all, our Cafe serves to bring our community together, whether for a chat, a safe space to sit awhile or just for something tasty to get you through the day.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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HaVeN training pathways is a project which aims to support voice hearings through a variety of training opportunities designed to enhance their skills, confidence and mental wellbeing whilst also providing support to others. The training can also be undertaken by non-voice hearers who wish to continue building on or learn how to support others as well as those who are planning on or are currently studying/working in the care sector. The project has been split into phases, at the moment the project is in ‘Phase One’ which has a focus of Personal Development and Recovery. Topics in Phase One are expected to include:

• Knowing Myself
• Hidden Talents
• Personal Narratives
• Non-Violent communications
• Healthy Relationships
• Boundaries
• Recovery
• Finding Personal Meaning in Voices

Also as part of Phase One, we are planning to create Ambassadors of recovery who are to build awareness and social acceptance for voice hearers and work to reduce and eventually remove the stigma that surrounds voice hearing and those who experience it. HaVeN will connect with local organizations, universities and other public sector organizations in Dundee and offer awareness raising workshops that could include simulation voice hearing and sharing personal recover stories of voice hearers who have benefited from HaVeNs services as well as found acceptance and validation.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Peer Support at the HaVeN includes peer-led support groups for all aspects of living with mental illness and also specifically for voice hearing and other extraordinary experiences. They also provide one-to-one peer informal support or mentoring, where we match the needs of the person seeking help with the experiences of the person providing the support. Peer mentoring and befriending is an informal way of providing peer support. Our experienced and trained peer support volunteers offer their services on a regular basis to the acute wards at Carseview and also at other organisations in Dundee. This enables people to start building supportive relationships with outside agencies before being discharged, easing the transition from living in wards to moving back into the community. Many of the peer support volunteers also deliver training and awareness sessions for professionals, medical students, nursing students and other outside agencies. The team has carried out seminars with first year mental health nursing students at Abertay University in the past. On one of those occasions, one student commented that:

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Scottish Mental Health First Aid Training Scottish Mental Health First Aid has training run all year round and you can either join one of our planned training groups or request a course to be run dependent on confirmed number of participants. SMHFA is a 12-hour course and is presented in a variety of ways with the participants taken into consideration, for instance it can be 6, 2 hour sessions or two full day sessions. During the course participants learn how to respond to someone experiencing a mental health crisis and learn about the mental health problems that occur most frequently. There is also some skill development in areas such as active listening and appropriate questioning techniques. After the training all participants receive a certificate of attendance and a manual to use as a reference guide. The course includes:

• How to apply the 5 steps of SMHFA.
• How to respond if you believe someone is at risk of suicide.
• How to give immediate help until professional help is available.
• What to say and do in a crisis.
• The importance of good listening skills.
• Practice listening and responding.
• Understanding recovery from mental health problems.
• Understanding the connection between mental health problems and alcohol and drugs.
• Understanding the connection between mental health problems and discrimination.
• Some basic information about common mental health problems.
• Self-help information.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Three Phases of Voice Hearing demonstrates that esearch has shown that there are three phases in Voice Hearing:

1. Starting Phase: Named this way because of the Hearer’s discovery of the Voices, which often startles them and cause them to deny the experience and withdraw into themselves. This leads to a sense of isolation, and a fear of madness itself.
2. Coping Organisational Phase: After Voice Hearers’  initial surprise of the existence of the Voices, they will gradually start normalising the experience, trying to understand and communicate with them. This is a long process whereby the   Hearer must overcome his fright and wish to escape, to ultimately accept the existence of the Voices.
3. Three Phases of Voice Hearing: Once the existence of the Voices becomes accepted, the Hearers move on to make them part of their everyday life, however, assuming the control of their acts and choices, as opposed to obeying the demands the Voices make.

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The Hearing Voices Network (Dundee) is keen to raise awareness and encourage understanding of the voice hearing experiences, and the impact these can have on those who have experienced voices, visions, paranoia, delusional thinking and other symptoms of psychosis. We also want to continue to promote the message that it is possible to have a diagnosis of a mental illness and live a fulfilling life along with the symptoms. The Training Team is made up of volunteers with lived experiences of mental illness, whom offer a unique and personal insight into the path of recovery. They intend to provide strategies for coping with the illness, as well as to inform of things that may help or hinder the process of recovery.  The training can be tailored to fit the organisations needs and availabilities. The sessions last for approximately  2 hours, and cost £75 for groups of 12 or less people, and £100 for larger ones. Organisations that have worked in partnership with the training team in the past include:

• University of Dundee Medical School
• University of Abertay Dundee Mental Health Nursing Richmond Fellowship
• University of Aberdeen, Counselling Course Dundee City Counci, Mental Health Officers
• Pillar Kincardine

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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