Conference

Mental Health Nursing,  Jul 2006  by Donaghy, Gerard

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Eighth Northern Ireland Community Nursing Network Conference

Obi Amadi, lead professional officer, Amicus/CPHVA, chaired the Eighth Northern Ireland Community Nursing Network Conference, 'Community nursing - delivering innovative solutions to public health needs'. She welcomed delegates to the joint CPHVA/MHNA conference, the first time it has been held jointly by the two organisations.

A key theme running through the conference programme was how nurses were delivering innovative solutions to emerging public health challenges, including working with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups and providing effective, accessible care to patients with mental health problems.

Strategic overview of developments in community nursing in Northern Ireland

Professor Martin Bradley, chief nursing officer, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS)

Addressing the inequalities in health in Northern Ireland, Professor Bradley pointed out the disparities in health in terms of gender and class. In the case of life expectancy, males at the lower end of the social class spectrum can expect to live 12 years less than women at the top end of the social scale. Meanwhile, as the mortality rate among people in the higher social classes improves, it is in fact getting worse among those who are less affluent.

'The reality is', lamented Professor Bradley, 'that in the UK, we do not do well when it comes to trying to tackle inequalities in health and social class'.

In the broad context of health and social care in Northern Ireland, Professor Bradley said it was imperative to shift the activities traditionally found in tertiary and secondary care more into primary care, 'But it's also about how we can continue to encourage the population to look at how they self care and how to avoid people coming into secondary and tertiary care', he added.

Addressing diversity in public health

Fionuala Devlin, head of promotion and education, Equality Commission NI

Fionuala Devlin opened by stressing how important it is to respect the contribution that BME people make to the province, as the Northern Irish economy needs its migrant workers to sustain growth.

Yet in spite of this, there are still high levels of discrimination in Northern Ireland.

Miss Devlin outlined some of the work the Equality Commission has undertaken to tackle discrimination. They have developed a code of practice to assist those who are involved in the housing sector, to help them understand what forms of discrimination exist and how they may unwittingly discriminate against BME groups in the provision of housing.

They have also produced a broad strategy for the promotion of issues that affect Travellers, which deals with education, health, accommodation and employment.

With their counterparts in the South, the Equality Authority, they have carried out an Intercultural Week to raise the profile of migrant and ethnic communities, and the Commission is currently supporting 26 cases under the Race Relations Order, of which 60 per cent are from migrant workers.

Miss Devlin commended Section 75 of the Statutory Duties (Northern Ireland Act 1998), which obliges public authorities to have due regard of the need to promote equality and opportunity. She said: The key message today is that separate can never be equal; providing the same service to different groups of people differently neither supports equality nor is in the interests of good relations'.

Workshops

One of the workshops presented by practitioners Geraldine Conlon-Alli and Mairead Donnelly demonstrated how the difficulties experienced by BME groups in accessing health care - as outlined by Miss Devlin - could be reduced by the introduction of a model, which has successfully brought together members from migrant communities to help address health and social care needs.

The workshop on facilitating the development of a mental health home treatment service was delivered by Bob Brown, senior professional officer at the Northern Ireland Practice and Educational Council for Nursing & Midwifery (NIPEC), and three of the mental health project facilitators from the Southern Health and Social Services Board (SHSSB).

Mr Brown revealed that 70 per cent of patients who are treated using a home treatment service are not readmitted to hospital, possibly because there is more one-to-one treatment on the home treatment service than in psychiatric hospitals.

The ethos behind the service, he said, 'is to help service users manage their condition and take control of their care'.

However project facilitator Francis McConnell warned that 'specialism will ruin mental health nursing if it is allowed to continue at the pace it is currently progressing at'.

Suicide Prevention Strategy

Colm Donaghy, chief executive, Southern Health and Social Services Board (SHSSB)

Colm Donaghy spoke to delegates about his work leading a suicide taskforce to oversee the implementation of a Suicide Prevention Strategy for Northern Ireland.

The taskforce undertook a number of actions to develop the strategy. After initially engaging with as many stakeholders as possible, they commissioned an analysis of suicide and self-harm in Northern Ireland.