mh20 Visuals, in association with DRRIG is please to announce a Film Bursary Scheme

Time Table
Official Call – February 28
Deadline for submissions – March 11
Interviews and decisions – March 14-18
Finished films received – June 15
Screening – The screening will take place as part of the Exeter Fringe Festival

Your idea needs to…
speak to mental health issues
be focused on recovery
be original
be made by people in Devon
be no more than 15 minutes long
have a distribution plan

Where do I start?
Each bursary will be a maximum of £500. this will cover or be a contribution to the production costs and can be used for a variety of things such as general expenses, small items of equipment, cast and crew, facilitates, etc.
You can use anything from a camera phone to a high-end HD camera
The mh20 Visuals team can help and advise, may be able to provide some equipment and can offer access to a FCP edit suite

How to submit
A synopsis – less than 1 side of A4
Tell us about the Team
Send CVs & links to a showreal if you have one
Include a brief production plan

Send submission (or direct any questions) via email to tobit.emmens@nhs.net or via post to Tobit Emmens, Research & Development, Wonford House, Dryden Road, Exeter, EX2 5AF

We are wrapping up a new intern policy, and I wanted to get the word out early. If you are in your final year or recently graduated and are interested in gaining some experience of working in a research & development environment of a busy mental health NHS Trust, then read on…

Perhaps you are studying software engineering and have fallen in love with Ruby, or maybe you are a sound engineer, or learning cinematography, perhaps you are training to be a social worker or are PhD student. Whether you are a designer, artist, scientist, doctor, student, business administrator, lawyer, or… you name it; we will consider it. What we are looking for is your innovative input into the work we are doing. This might include developing GPS systems to track people, writing software to deliver CBT, making a series of short films, helping to run a conference, helping to run creative consultations or conducting literature reviews. The possibilites are endless.

Ove the next 12-months we are looking for a number of interms who can not only help us shape our ideas, but also help deliver them, while gaining valuable experience, contacts, and building your own networks. We are also interested in hearing from you if you are looking for volunteering opportunities.

Someone once said “that somewhere in the world, someone is doing the thing you said could never be done.” well, if this has caught your attention, started to fire your imagination, then this is your invitation to act. Please email me (tobit [dot] emmens [at] nhs [dot] net) a copy of your CV, a paragraph or two on your aspirations and if relevant a link to some examples of your work.

In return we can offer you some real experience in a dynamic, exciting and innovative corner of the NHS/social enterprise world. We can also cover reasonable travel and out of pocket expenses.

Our aim is to make mh2011 an attendee-centric event, placing the attendee’s learning as the priority. The conference will not just be a place for ‘experts’ to broadcast information but also a time for attendees, or rather participants to begin in engaging with the content and with each other.

How are we going to do this? One way is that we want to encourage people to start talking to people before the conference. In our minds, the Conference will be the final touch point in a range of touch points leading up to the event. As well as the traditional call for abstracts and the presentation of these, we also want to begin conversations in advance, helping us to ‘crowd-scource’ some of the content. This process should allow us to not only curate content from what people are talking about, but also support the active participation in shaping, forming and most importantly using what all of us, as participants, can contribute.

Please use the comment function below to start these conversations, or indeed your usual social networks. We are using the (twitter) hashtag #mh2011 for the event and we look forward to joining in the conversation.

If you are an expert in any of the following areas please mail (tobit.emmens ‘at’ nhs.net) me a CV/resume detailing publications / speaking experience.

• Older adults / silver surfers, mental health and internet use
• Depression and cCBT

There will be other specific areas that emerge, so we will keep you posted.

We can cover travel expenses.

So this post is coming from my holiday hide away, with the intent to share our plans as they are developing.

1. Our event website – trying to get a site built in the middle of the holiday season was never going to be easy, but we hope to have the site live and full of content by mid september, so please be patient.

2. What’s in a name? First European Conference… Back in February this year I spent an great day at the event Chris O’Sullivan organised on the internet and mental health. Chatting with Chris at lunch at that event inspired me to organise something along similar lines… So technically, this is the second conference in the UK on the internet and mental health. We plan on building on the foundations Chris set out and to continue to dig into the theory and practice that is inspiring many of us to do what we do. European… we chose this as we wanted to draw a distinction from the US paradigm. Although we will drawn on this for our event, we are clear that there are significant cultural and practice differences between UK/EU and the USA.

3. Some speakers: we have some awesome speakers lining up, these include Prof Sonia Livingstone, Dr danah boyd*, Dr Michele Ybarra, Scott Gould, Dr Antonio Casilli and more still to be confirmed.

4. Invitation to submit abstracts – this should open in October. Abstracts (there will be plenty of guidance) can cover anything research or practice related to the internet / technology and mental health. Abstracts will be welcomed from anyone with an interest in this field. Abstracts will be judged for inclusion as either a written (poster) or oral presentation.

5. The date: March 10-11, 2011. Please put it in your diary now. There will be other mental health research events during this week and we will keep you informed of these as those plans become firmer.

6. loads more to say, but heck, I am on holiday, so it will have to wait!

*danah is unfortunately unable to attend in person, but we plan to have a video presentation from her, recorded especially for this conference.

The two day conference will explore the latest research background on day 1 and on day 2, the challenges faced when working with vulnerable groups in an online setting. We will focus on ways in which the technology can affect mental health, intended and unintended consequences of online safety work, ethical dilemmas and how social media and online strategies can be developed both to promote good mental health and support people with mental health problems to recovery.

Using the Internet, social media and new technology may well be a way in which health services and the third sector can deliver more relevant and appropriate care for young people and adults and conference participants (whether academic, practitioner or manager) will come away with a clearer understanding of this complex area.

*by the Internet we networked technologies; this includes mobile phones. We are also extending the remit to technology more generally.