Ballinasloe will be the venue for a major conference on mental health tomorrow.

'Promoting and Developing Best Practice in Mental Health Care: Your Vision Realised' aims to enable professionals, carers and service users to share information, knowledge and expertise. The conference will also allow participants to reflect on their own personal experiences as well as the standard of services that are currently being delivered.

Minister of State for Disability and Mental Health, Dr Jimmy Devins, will deliver the welcoming address at the conference and speakers include Declan Patton, Lecturer in Mental Health, University College Dublin; P.J. Harnett, Nurse Practice Development Coordinator, Kerry Mental Health Services; Mike Kelly, Nurse Consultant, Psychological Interventions, Dorset Healthcare, NHS Trust and Chris Kelly, Clinical Nurse Specialist & Lecturer/Practitioner, Dorset Healthcare, NHS Trust. During the afternoon, there will also be four concurrent sessions, titled 'Audit and Governance', 'Acute Care', 'Practice- Based Initiative' and 'Users and Carers'.

Paula Kerr, Nurse Practice Development Coordinator, HSE West, and conference organiser said it is hoped the event will enable delegates to hear and think about 'real' practice-based initiatives that have been implemented and evaluated within services nationally and internationally.

"It will also demonstrate the value and benefits of what can be achieved when professionals, service users and carers work in collaboration. The conference will also allow attendees the opportunity to forge new links and share good practice, with the ultimate aim of improving the standard of services and care that people receive."

The conference, which is supported by HSE West, the Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit, Galway, and the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery, will be held at the Charlton Shearwater Plaza Hotel in Ballinasloe between 8.30am and 4.30pm tomorrow, Thursday, 8 May.

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