Diversity Conference At UCLAN This Friday 25th November 2016

Nov, 23 2016

~Following on from last year’s highly successful event comes this year’s Diversity Conference held at UCLAN this  Friday 25th November 2016 at the Foster Building Learning Zone. The programme commences at 9.15am with registration from 8.45am and with afternoon session concluding at 4.40pm.

For two consecutive years Russell Hogarth has chaired the event and now in 2016 he is looking after the ship for the third year. Russell had the pleasure of chairing last years conference which covered the theme of raising awareness of mental health condition for both students and staff at Universities and across the community.

 For several years now Russell has had the fortunate opportunity of taking his travelling workshop across established Universities in the UK. ‘Towards a Better Tomorrow’ has highlighted areas of mental health through personal experience, which in turn raises awareness and reduces stigma.

This years conference tackles aspects mentioned above and is also designed to  promote and celebrate people who are successful despite perceived barriers, such as physical disability, mental health problem, gender in the workplace, race, low economic background etc.

Below is a brief overview of five speakers who will be sharing their personal experience of mental health :-

Liz Bromley, Deputy Vice Chancellor, will be opening the Conference along with Sana Iqbal the Students’ Union President.
 
Roger Cruickshank has a keynote and workshop to explain how he became an Olympic Skier and RAF pilot despite suffering terrible injuries in an accident, but none of that compared to his mother’s suicide.  
 
Liz Atkin discusses how compulsive skin picking dominated her life for more than 20 years before she channelled her compulsion into productive artwork. 
 
Juliette Burton is a successful actress and Edinburgh Fringe comedian who openly discusses her battles with bi-polar and eating disorders.
 
Paul Walmsley was once Britain’s most wanted man before turning his life around.

In addition there will be a number of workshops from UCLAN staff and students along with community members such as Alice Evans who openly discusses how her schizophrenia changed the whole course of her life before she became a successful lecturer at the Royal College of Art; and Molly Case who achieved national recognition after performing her poem ‘Nursing the Nation’ at the Royal College of Nursing Conference, gaining over 350,000 views on YouTube in just a few months.

Finally, UCLAN Senior Lecturer Matt Dickinson PhD will be returning from last year to tell his powerful story of psychosis for those who didn’t get the chance to hear it. He’ll also explain how last year’s conference has led to many opportunities including a Channel 4 Documentary.  

Once again, that’s Friday 25th November 2016 at the Foster Building Learning Zone UCLAN from 9.15am - 4.40pm.

All at the CCG hope you enjoy the conference and have a further insight into the world of enduring mental health conditions yet see how many have overcome such battles and our living successful lives with their condition kept under control.

^Alex Ashworth.