The British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorder Conference (BIGSPD) held its annual conference hosting over 500 delegates at the ‘Belfast International Conference Centre (ICC). As part of this conference Mel Ball (Director for Lived Experience) was invited along as a plenary speaker where she provided an oral presentation titled “The Wind and the Sun: A Fable of Lived Experience Leadership”, and inspired many with her career journey, influence and also was able to share how MPFT are leading the way in terms of our co-production and lived experience developments, which are so crucial to our work and in which Mel holds the position as the first board level lived experience director in the NHS.
Dr Gary Lamph our newly appointed Reader in Mental Health Nursing (Keele University) / Honorary Nurse Consultant (MPFT) has been a long-standing member of the executive team and was at this years conference officially announced as the new Co-President of BIGSPD for the next 3 years alongside Fi-Kuhn Thompson (Lived Experience Lead for the Complex Emotional Pathway (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust). BIGSPD is a long-standing advocate for the power of co-production and this is represented in its Co-Presidency and Co-Produced Executive Board. Next year’s annual conference will be taking place in Liverpool.
Pictured: Mel Ball (Director for Lived Experience) and Dr Gary Lamph (Reader in Mental Health Nursing, Keele University and Honorary Nurse Consultant, MPFT)