Features

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2017 kicks off this week until 29 October. 

What better time to plug Mindreel, a valuable learning resource that provides access to over 100 films that address a range of mental health issues.

The films featured on Mindreel were selected in conjunction with the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. Most are films that were submitted to the Festival, and many are award winners. Iriss was a partner in the development of the resource.

The Keeping It Real conference at Stirling University on 26 April 2017 celebrated Service User and Carer Involvement in Professional Education and the difference it makes.

This was about showcasing good practice, sharing ideas and future ambitions, and discussing key challenges.

Sara Hitchens spoke eloquently (see attached presentation), reflecting back on the first national conference at Stirling University in 2013 (Real Lives: Real Difference) and the learning journey. She identified three essential ingredients for effective service user and carer involvement:

July 1 marks Canada Day and this year the country is celebrating its 150 anniversary; which means a big party, parade, fireworks and lots of other festive activities.

On the 1st of June 2017, Iriss and SSSC ran a workshop in Glasgow which asked:
 
‘What does good leadership look like in Scotland’s social services?’
 

BBC radio, iPlayer and topic-specific podcasts such as Woman’s Hour allow people access to a variety of interesting audio content, which can be listened to at a time and place that suits them. The increasing use of mobile devices also means that people can easily access and download audio content when on the move - travelling to and from meetings, driving the car, or when enjoying leisure pursuits such as walks and runs.  
 

Short summary of the Iriss SEEDS workshops, which shared experiences, evidence, discoveries and successes

To mark Co-Production Week, guest blogger Emma Barrett Palmer gives her take on co-production.

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In the aftermath of first Brexit and now Trump, 'co-production' is not at the top of the To Do list for some of the most influential world leaders. 

So why do we know that it is still the right thing to do? Why is there still a growing movement of people dedicated to the collaboration cause?

Big P politics aside, I want to start by focusing on the small p politics.

Social Services Knowledge Scotland (SSKS) is a website and digital library dedicated to social care. Content relates to policy, practice and personal development within social services in Scotland. It was originally developed in partnership with Iriss and other sector organisations, and is built on NHS Education for Scotland 's long-established information technology, The Knowledge Network.

From November 2016, there will be improvements to the website. These include:

This year, Iriss is excited to be working with women and practitioners in the criminal justice system to enhance relationship-based practice through co-design.

At Iriss, we’re often asked about what’s worked and what hasn’t in our projects. On October 3rd, we hosted an event to share the learning from two co-design projects that we’ve run recently - one with older people and practitioners who worked together to improve the pathway from hospital to home; and the other with people who access, or may in the future access, self-directed support (SDS) and practitioners - Pilotlight.