What we do
The main focus of the EOP is the workshops we run called ‘Experiences of Psychosis.’ These are interactive, creative, unique events for a wide range of people including nurses, psychotherapist, crisis and mental health workers, clinical psychology, nursing, occupational health and creative therapy students and people from the community such as loved ones of people experiencing psychosis. In the last year alone we have run our workshop for approximately 130 people, and we receive more requests all the time.
The participants gain a new perspective on psychosis, people have had real revelations in the workshops about their professional and personal lives. Each workshop is a unique event and we share different aspects of knowledge with attendees and ourselves, and all our perspectives evolve. Everyone wants to know the best way to support someone dealing with psychosis but there’s no easy answer- we create a space for complex exploration and nuanced conversations that change minds. The workshops are a chance for attendees to meet people who have experienced psychosis but are not unwell at that point, and give professionals a chance to speak to people who can step back and talk about what they have experienced.
We have developed our own structure to facilitate exploring psychosis using lots of different perspectives, like art, philosophy and our own experiences to create deeper conversations. Feedback from group and participants helps us gain confidence that we are raising issues that are important and reflect what people want to explore. After our workshops, participants will able to treat their patients better than we were treated, and everyone attending can think more about how we treat each other in society.
What would be lost if the cuts take place?
Without a group and a facilitator it is hard for us to get access to opportunities to share our points of view -unless these things are set up and facilitated, where will people get the information from?
The wider community wouldn’t have access to this collaborative space which generates new ways of thinking about psychosis and society which cannot be got anywhere else. The wider community would lose the chance for professionals to learn how to interact with people experiencing psychosis better, which helps the professionals and their patients.
We would lose the opportunity to not just be seen as patients, or as a source of information to fit into a medical model, like a standard training, but to be seen as valued people, able to generate new knowledge through collaborations. Removing collective advocacy would remove access to the kind of insight you cannot get without having lived through it from people it could help, and remove our opportunities to share that insight, which helps us.
Read more testimonials here.