The morning session, “Acceptance of Violence in Women” was chaired by Dr Elizabeth Gethins, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist from Cygnet Hospital Derby’s low secure personality disorder service, Alvaston Ward. We were delighted to welcome Dr Kerry Beckley, Lisa Jenkinson, Mick Burns and Neil Piggin to as guest speakers in this session. There was also a group presentation from members of the multi-disciplinary team from Alvaston Ward who looked at the various aspects of “Women and Violence” from the perspective of women as offenders.
For the afternoon session Dr Kevin Healy, Medical Director from Cygnet Hospital Ealing welcomed his colleagues from the eating disorder and personality disorder services at Cygnet Hospital Ealing and the rehabilitation service at Cygnet Lodge Kenton to consider the topic from the perspective of “Facing Violence Therapeutically”. This involved three separate interactive workstreams led by Dr Dan McQueen, George Mithi and Dr Chetna Kang alongside service users from each of the services.
“Women and Violence is an important topic, particularly for professionals involved in women’s mental health services. At Cygnet Health Care, we offer a range of services for women with mental illnesses and the purpose of this conference was to share our insight, findings and experiences. We’d like to extend a special thanks to all our guest speakers for sharing their expertise, and to everyone who helped make the conference such a success.”Amy Stanion, Partnership Development Manager and conference organiser
Delegate Feedback
- Excellent conference which has provided me with very useful information working with women suffering from personality disorders who often present with violent and challenging behaviours.
- It was great to hear from service users sharing their experience.
- I would particularly like to thank the two service users in the eating disorder workshop for their insights and reflections on their personal journey.
- All presentations were relevant to my practice and have enhanced my understanding.
- A great, engaging day – professionally run and organised.
- A well organised event, very informative.
- Service users from Cygnet Hospital Ealing were excellent, informative and knowledgeable.
- I would love to attend another Cygnet conference!