The Trainers:
A Brief History
Sybil Ah-mane and Jan Holloway met in psychiatric hospital in 1991.
They stayed in contact after their discharge and found their experiences both as mental health workers and service users brought them closer together.
Jan has appeared in three of Sybil's films, which address mental health issues. They both found that the process of film making gave them the space to talk openly about their experiences and explore the issues raised by their circumstances.
The idea of 'Learning from Psychosis' soon developed and it was decided that one of the films could act as a learning tool for the one day training package.
Both women noticed that traditional mental health training relies heavily on written text and is generally written in an obvious style.
The package they have developed instead uses experiential exercise and visual stimuli to enable mental health professionals to gain a deeper understanding of the emotional and social consequences of being diagnosed.
Their first package was successfully delivered to Newham Community Mental Health trust in June 1998. They have since given workshops at various settings including a 'Women and Mental Health' conference in Nottingham.
They have received very positive and encouraging feedback from participants confirming that their approach is both educational and thought provoking.
A fifteen minute film, 'Four Other Stories', which was specifically produced with the package in mind, has just reached completion.
They have recently completed editing their new booklet which contains guidelines for future work and biographies of trainers. Jan's story will be published in a forthcoming book, 'From the Ashes of Experience'.
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