Jul
15
2011

Day 4: Thursday = Saturday

The day started on a sad note – a member of staff here was a close friend of a local man whose brother’s family have all just been murdered. Everybody around them feels very traumatised and upset. A few of us talked about it first thing this morning, and we were all affected by the [...]

Jul
15
2011

Day 3: Kabul Medical University

Yousuf has arranged for us to go and meet the Chancellor of Kabul Medical University today, and we were planning to go this afternoon – but the Chancellor has to go to an urgent meeting at the Ministry of Health, so we have been asked to go at 0830. We wonder if the urgent meeting [...]

Jul
15
2011

Kabul, the hospital and the psychiatrists

The days starts at 7.30 here – meet for a cup of tea before being driven off the hospital for a 8 am briefing. The briefing was for the whole IMC team, and about eight were there for it this morning: surrounded by flipcharts, to-do lists, everybody with at least one laptop on their lap. [...]

Jul
15
2011

End of Day 1 in Kabul – a security briefing

Inside IMH, antique tables with modern PCs , and an elegant sweeping wooden staircase with a huge satellite dish on the roof gave a hectic workaday feel in a setting of well-faded grandeur. The basement bunker was my first appointment, with the recently-arrived head of country security plus our own house’s security guard. I was [...]

Jul
12
2011

Day 1 in Kabul – helping to ‘heal the wounds of war’

Why Kabul and what has this project to do with English PD services? There is a connection, but it is a bit tenuous – and it’s probably better if Bodd explains … “The plane from Bahrain looked to be fairly empty when I did the online check-in , but when I was the last one [...]

Jul
11
2011

Dr Rex Haigh goes to Kabul to help set up PD-style TCs

Dr Rex Haigh, a Berkshire based psychiatrist, is this week in Kabul, Afghanistan, working with Dr Yousuf Rahimi to help him set up training programmes based on therapeutic community principles. Dr Yousuf Rahimi, also a Berkshire psychiatrist, has received a 1.5m Euro grant to help rebuild psychiatric services in Kabul over 18 months with the [...]

Jul
07
2011

Emergence prepares for its first Open Day

An action packed day awaits the 150 delegates* attending Emergence’s first Open Day on Friday July 8. The day will start with a keynote presentation from Meredith Vivian OBE, Emergence’s newest recruit. For many years Meredith was Deputy Director of Mental Health Care Pathways at the Department of Health. This will be followed with a [...]

Jul
01
2011

Emergence to hold Open Day on July 8

Emergence, the national service user-led organisation which support everyone affected by personality disorder, is holding its first ever Open Day on July 8. The day is for anyone interested in becoming involved with Emergence, finding out about the work they do, looking for new employment opportunities or interested in exploring how the organisation can support [...]