East Midlands Network on Spirituality and Mental Health

To Bulwell, Nottingham, this morning, for a meeting of the East Midlands Network on Spirituality and Mental Health (EMNSMH) at Highbury Hospital. It's my first visit to Bulwell and my first (six-minute long) trip on the Robin Hood Line from Nottingham station. I'm mildly disappointed that no arrows are fired at the train from the surrounding woods when I made this remark to someone at the meeting, I was told that if I'd stayed on the train for another few stops ...).

The quarterly meetings of this network are usually held at Kingsway Hospital, Derby, where the network was founded in summer 2007 - all barring the last one (Oct 2009) which was held in Leicester, at our Welcome Centre. Only five people attended that meeting and I'm apprehensive that we'll have even fewer this time. If that turns out to be the case, I fear we'll decide to pack it in today. Thankfully, my fears prove groundless. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this meeting felt like something of a rebirth for our network.

A good omen: I find a decent cafe on Main Street that serves a nice hot veggie breakfast: English muffin with scrambled egg, cheese and mushroom. That's the kind of thing that sets up the day nicely for me, especially in a strange town on a bitterly cold morning like this one. Guided by my iPhone GPS I walk a quarter of an hour or so to Highbury Hospital. There's a lot of building going on here, and our meeting is in what appears to be high quality temporary accommodation.

There are eleven in attendance including me, representing (in geographical terms) Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire (and myself, Leicestershire). We also have a visitor from the West Midlands counterpart of our network - Capt. Keith Shaw, from Staffordshire. I met Keith when I went over to spend a day at a meeting of the West Midlands network, in Jan 2009. I still owe him a set of the our leaflets! In terms of "interest", we have representatives of practitioners (psychiatrists and psychologists), spiritual or pastoral care providers, chaplains and service users. It's pointed out by Sarajane Aris (chairing) that I'm the only one there not directly paid by the NHS. There are several new faces around the table; introductions take a full hour!

Katja Milner (Spirituality Healthcare Worker, Notts Healthcare NHS Trust) gives a PowerPoint presentation introducing Values in Healthcare, a personal and team development programme for healthcare practitioners, which is being used in Nottinghamshire. Katja describes this programme as helping healthcare professionals tap into what it was that attracted them to this kind of work in the first place and helping put them back in touch wth those values and principles, as well as helping them nurutre their own sense of spirituality.

To close her presentation, Katja gives us a five-minute guided meditation, using one of the CDs from the "Peace" module of the "Values in Healthcare" resources. The theme of the meditation is "Inspired to be me".

This approach is inspired by the teachings and leadership of Dadi Janki, Administrative Head of Brahma Kumaris. The Janki Foundation for Global Health Care is "a UK-based charity which encourages research and awareness in the field of health and spirituality. It is dedicated to positive human development and whole-person healthcare, an approach that considers the needs of patients and practitioners at the levels of body, mind and spirit." Some attendees at this meeting have attended training provided by the Janki Foundation and described it as having been beneficial and enjoyable.

When I get the chance to input to the meeting, I stress the potential for involvement of this network with the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership. The nature of EMNSMH's engagement with mental health care in its many forms would allow it to bring a distinctive contribution to REDP's work.

Dave Waldram, the voice of service users in this network, reported on a conference on Mental Health and the Exploration of Faith which took place in Derby, 2 Feb 2010. Downloads from this conference can be found at the Diocese of Derby Faith in Action website.

Sarajane tells us about two regional conferences on spirituality and mental health to be held in the East Midlands (probably both in Derby, but there's the possibility that one of them could be in Leicester) in October and November respectively.

One memroable thing to take away from this meeting is an aphorism from Vaclav Havel, chipped into the consultation by Hugh Middleton: "Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it."