Day 1 ENUSP Empowerment Seminar 2015 Brussels

Since my laptop is having some problems, I couldn’t make my blogs on site during the past 2 weeks. So my blogs hare having some delay this time.

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DAY 1 of ENUSP Empowerment Seminar

From 13 to 15 December 2015 the Empowerment Seminar of the European Network of (ex) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP, http://www.enusp.org ) took place in Brussels. The Empowerment Seminar “Strengthening the (ex) user/survivor voice in Europe” was organized with support from Mental Health Europe (MHE, http://www.mhe-sme.org ) under the European Commission Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme. 22 participants from 16 countries took part. It was great to be amongst peer activists and to discuss our strategies for further advocacy.

On Sunday 13 December 2015 I woke up early and travelled to Brussels by train. Prior to the official programme we had a lunch with the ENUSP members and board members in the Irish pub next to the Hotel First Euroflat, our meeting venue. It was great to see all those amazing pioneers who are pushing for the voice of (ex)users/survivors to be heard at all levels.

At 15.00 we all gathered in the meeting room at the 7th floor of the hotel, and as a start of the Empowerment Seminar all participants introduced themselves. Most of the participants already knew each other, but for some of us it was the first time to join an ENUSP Empowerment Seminar, so we all introduced ourselves. There were 22 participants from 16 countries. It was very nice to hear about the variety of user-led initiatives and strategic advocacy at various places in Europe. It was a very nice and inspiring start of the Empowerment Seminar. After the introductions, various ENUSP board members reported back on various activities that have been undertaken by ENUSP in the past year.

First Olga Kalina, chair of ENUSP, presented a solid overview of the current internal affairs and working structures of ENUSP. She explained that the regional election procedures for board positions as described in the draft By-laws is working well. Also, several former board members of ENUSP have accepted the role of being a Consultant to the board, and they are sharing their expertise with us. In addition, work is in progress to digitalize the archives with access for all the board members, and ENUSP is in a process of renewing the website for a better access to our information. Communication is improving overall, including that the external correspondence is done via the official email address of ENUSP, several new tools are in place for our internal communication (Yahoo email list, dropbox, google hangouts). It is also good to note that quite some members filled in the questionnaire to give input to the ENUSP submission in the EU review, and in regards of external communication, the ENUSP Bulletin was released successfully in September 2015. The renewal of the memberships with the new forms is taking time, and some additional changes to the forms may be needed, especially concerning the individual members. Also, there have been several successes in representation, such as ENUSP submissions for the EU review, and ENUSP input to the EU Joint Action on Mental Health, ENUSP critical input to EPFs position paper on adherence and compliance to treatment which was successfully taken into account by EPF, and the recent ENUSP submission against the Draft Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention concerning involuntary treatment and involuntary placement. So it has been an active and successful year of advocacy by ENUSP. As a final point, concerning the financial resources of ENUSP, efforts have been made to apply for grants, however, so far this has not resulted in funding yet, so the issue of funding remains a priority for ENUSP.

Many of these activities are also described in the ENUSP Bulletin of September 2015 (see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/290650879/Bulletin-Sept-2015 )

Then I elaborated a bit more on my experiences of bringing ENUSPs input to the review process of EUs implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which took place this year at the sessions of the UN CRPD Committee in Geneva. EDF was of great support in facilitating our participation during the sessions. ENUSP was one of the very few organizations that brought up issues under article 12, 14, 15 and 17, despite the fact that the EU has no direct ‘competence’ over the implementation of these articles in its Member States. And this turned into a success. The Concluding Observations on the EU review issued by the CRPD Committee contain firm recommendations in our favour, such as on article 12, 14, 15 and 17, which are a victory for us, and very useful for further advocacy.
I also elaborated briefly on the ENUSP submission to the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics, in which ENUSP objects against the Draft Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention concerning involuntary treatment and involuntary placement of persons with so-called mental disorder. Additionally on the same matter, ENUSP was involved in a joint letter together with MHE, MDAC, and UN OHCHR regional office for Europe.
I then proposed that in my opinion, it would be good for ENUSP to focus more on the Council of Europe developments, since their conventions and protocols are of such major influence on the domestic legislations which still allow for forced psychiatric treatments (which is contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). And since the EU has limited possibilities to influence domestic legislation on our issues, it may be wise to prioritize to engage with Council of Europe affairs. All participants of the ENUSP Empowerment Seminar agreed to putting more attention to the Council of Europe developments, and we will make efforts to reach out and seek engagement with the relevant Council of Europe bodies in as many ways as possible, including by registering ENUSP to their NGO Platform.

Then Liv Skree and Hege Orefellen reported on several awareness-raising events held at the UN in Geneva, called side-events, to inform several UN Committees on specific themes that are important for persons with psychosocial disabilities, such as on the right to legal capacity, liberty, freedom from torture, ending impunity, and on double violence against women. In the past couple of years, several of these side events were organized by WNUSP and its European members (with main support of We Shall Overcome from Norway). Several of these events are available on video (you can find the links in the ENUSP Bulletin page 12, http://www.scribd.com/doc/290650879/Bulletin-Sept-2015 ). The side events are a very good way of raising awareness and deepening understanding on specific themes, and experts from various UN bodies have confirmed that they find the input given by persons with lived experience extremely valuable. Another positive aspect of the side events is that it is a good way to cross-link our issues with other human rights organizations, so that we can learn from each other and empower each other. All participants agreed that we definitely aim to do more side events at the UN level in the future, taking into account that such events need to be resourced.

Next was John Kidney, who reported on the 3-day Communication Training he had followed earlier this year, upon invitation of the European Patients Forum (EPF). John has been working on a Communication Strategy for ENUSP since he attended the Training, and he will be hosting a working group on ENUSPs Communication on Tuesday. John is working on an overview of the needs of ENUSPs Communication, in order to identify a range of adequate media for all the purposes , such as the website, the ENUSP Bulletins, email, facebook, twitter, creating closed and open forums etcetera. The main priority is the ENUSP website, http://www.enusp.org , which unfortunately has been having problems for a while, and we have already decided with the ENUSP board to move the website to a Wordpress account, which is easier to use. We have found professional support in our network who can help to design a solid user-friendly page and transfer all the data and archives. We hope to have the new page up (with the same link http://www.enusp.org ) early in 2016. Also internal communication can be improved, since the amount of emails can be overwhelming. All participants agreed that communication is very important to facilitate good networking, and everyone appreciated the amount of work being done by John on the side of Communication affairs.

By then, it was time to close the session of the first day, and to get at ease and move to the Welcome Dinner downstairs which started at 19.00. The dinner was followed by an ENUSP board meeting in the lobby bar of the hotel. It was getting quite late, and it was a quite intense meeting, uncovering some friction points and overcoming these by finding our common grounds and seeing our challenges as “recovery processes”. It was really good to meet in person, and to be able to grow a closer connection, and to work on the growth of ENUSP, again interpreting our vulnerabilities and challenges as being a recovery process, which is a truly empowering analogy.

After that, most of us went back to the Irish pub for a social drink. We had a nice time, talking to each other and sharing various experiences. It is a huge struggle for each one of us in our national contexts, and it is so great to be able to get together and share our activities as peers, understanding and empowering each other, and linking it together to common grounds, and linking to international levels of policy making and developments. I truly felt connected and inspired. It’s the power of peer support.
I had a great and relaxing evening with good laughter. It was all nice. Eventually I went to my hotel room rather late. Normally I would have used some time in the evening for blogging, but since I had no laptop at the time, I was free and had used the time maximally to socialize. I really enjoyed it.