Events

Past events

Towards (neurodiversity-)affirming responses to autism

Joint UCLUS + UCL DClinPsy End of Year Conference 

Friday, June 21, 2024, XLG42 Christopher Ingold Auditorium, 20 Gordon St, London WC1H 0AJ

The Conference will address current findings, questions and dilemmas in autism reseach, presented by an ensemble of expert speakers. The event is co-hosted by the UCL DClinPsy and the UCL Unit for Stigma Research (UCLUS).

Cochairs: Professor Katrina Scior & Professor Will Mandy

Speakers:

• Dr Marco Bertelli
• Professor Liz Pellicano
• Dr Monique Botha
• Shereen Everett
• Marianne Fanous
• Team STORM
• Dr Emeline Han
• Dr Richard Pender
• Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou, Professor Edmund Sonuga Barke, Dr Steve Lukito & young adult co-researchers
• Dr Hassan Mansour

 

Book launch: Ahmed Hankir in conversation with Katrina Scior

25th April 2024

The UCL Unit for Stigma Research (UCLUS) is honoured to host this event to celebrate the publication of Breakthrough. Described by Prof. Vikram Patel as “An inspiring rebuke to the nihilism which prevails in society about persons living with mental illness due to myths, misinformation and stigma”, Breakthrough traces Dr Hankir’s personal recovery journey from impoverished and shunned psychiatric patient, to becoming an NHS Consultant psychiatrist and winner of a WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award.

 

Conference: Healthcare provider mental health: Going beyond wellbeing narratives

6th July 2021

Videos from the event can be viewed on the UCLUS YouTube Channel.

The event included talks from leading figures in the field such as Sonya Wallbank from NHS England, Professor Neil Greenberg from King’s College London, Ahmed Hankir (aka The Wounded Healer’, the psychologist and author Caroline Elton (Author of ‘Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors’), Jo Billings and Charlie Cole from UCL, Natalie Kemp and Anna Chiara Sicilia from in2gr8mentalhealth, and Professor Katrina Scior, director of UCLUS. The event culminated in the official launch of the guide ‘Supporting and valuing lived staff experience of mental health difficulties in clinical psychology training’, published by the BPS. 

BPS Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology Annual Conference, Glasgow

13th - 14th November 2018 

Panel Debate: How do we create training environments that embrace and support openness about personal experiences of mental health difficulties?

Chair: Katrina Scior, UCL

Panellists: Laura Golding (Univ. of Liverpool), Gavin Richardson (Univ. of Glasgow), Lorna Hogg (Univ. of Oxford), Natalie Kemp (Founder of In2gr8mentalhealth Forum)

Symposium: Supporting trainees who have lived experience of mental health problems

Chair: Katrina Scior, UCL

Paper 1: To disclose or not to disclose: Factors influencing disclosure of personal experiences in trainee Clinical Psychologists on the University of Bath Programme

Sarah Howkins (Univ. of Bath), Lorna Hogg (Univ. of Oxford) & Anna Strudwick (Univ. of Bath)

Paper 2: Factors involved in trainees’ decision making regarding disclosure of lived experience

Laura Willets, Laura Golding and Beth Greenhill (Univ. of Liverpool)

Paper 3: An intervention designed to support decisions regarding disclosure of lived experience: The HOP-MHP project pilot

Katrina Scior, Henry Clements, Anna Hildebrand & Harriet Mills (University College London)

 

BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Annual Conference, Manchester

23rd -24th January 2019

HOP MHP: The acceptability and feasibility of a self-help intervention supporting mental health professionals with lived experience in reaching disclosure decisions.

Harriet Mills and Anna Hildebrand presented results of UCLUS’ HOP-MHP pilot trial.

 

Standing up for Myself (STORM): End of Project and Celebration Event, UCL

4th September 2018

The STORM research team led by Katrina Scior, self-advocate advisors, STORM group members and facilitators, colleagues from Rix Research and Media, and other guests celebrated the end of the project at an event on Tuesday 4th September 2018. The event was fully accessible to people with learning disabilities and was attended by participants involved in the research, self-advocacy groups, third sector organisations, clinicians within the NHS and researchers from other institutions. The first half of the event focused on the development of the programme, the work of our self-advocate advisors in shaping the content of the intervention and the findings of the pilot trial. In the second part, we heard from groups who had participated in the trial regarding the impact of the programme and their plans for standing up for themselves. Natasha from Lingfield College read a moving poem about acceptance and difference, Ben and Niall from Harpenden Mencap told us about the ‘talking group’ they have set up and run ‘after the STORM’, People First Dorset screened a music video about Hate Crime inspired by the STORM programme, and Bexley Mencap spoke about their experiences as STORM group participants. The STORM team launched the new STORM Wiki developed in collaboration with Rix Research and Media, based at the University of East London, and shared the potential of this tool both in supporting STORM group facilitators and also as a platform for developing a peer-led version of the STORM programme in the future. As part of the event, members of the audience split off into a hands-on workshop (4 teams) where they helped make a STORM event Wiki. The audience used pictures, words and/or video clips to say what they are proud of (which is an activity in session one of the STORM programme). The resulting Event Wiki was presented back to the audience at the end of the event. This was a very special part of the afternoon and fully in line with the vision of the STORM programme that people with learning disabilities have many qualities and strengths that often go unnoticed and that they matter equally; not ‘if only’ or ‘as long as’ but equally, full stop. Here is a flavour of the event Wiki:

This project and event were supported by the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund. Photography by Laurie Poole (UCL) and Paul Davies (Elfrida Society).

 

 

 

IASSIDD: European Congress, Athens, Greece

8th July 2018

Keynote: Dr Katrina Scior, Exclusion vs belonging within diverse communities

UCLUS Symposium consisting of 3 papers

1. Understanding and challenging stigma at multiple layers (Dr Katrina Scior)
2. Standing up for Myself: a psychosocial group intervention to increase the capacity of people with intellectual disabilities to manage and resist stigma (Lisa Richardson and Laurie Poole).
3. Using film-based digital methods to challenge intellectual disability stigma in African countries (Authors: Dr Debbie Odukoya, Dr Winnie Chege & Dr Katrina Scior)

10th and 11th July 2018, The Open University, Milton Keynes

Social History of Learning Disabilities Conference,  Advocacy and the social history of learning disability:

How are self-advocacy and/or family-advocacy changing; and how can they flourish?

Title: The Standing up for Myself Programme (STORM): Building confidence to say no to bad attitudes. Kristina Fenn (UCL), Laurie Poole (UCL) and Harry Roche (Ambassador, Royal Mencap Society) shared STORM group members’ experiences and testimonials of completing the STORM programme and discussed ways in which self-advocacy can improve well-being for people with learning disabilities.

8th May 2018, University College London

The first UCL Interdisciplinary Conference on Disability

 Challenging intellectual disability stigma at multiple levels, Dr Katrina Scior.

18th April 2018, Grand Challenges Showcase, University College London

A scoping review to examine intellectual disability stigma around the globe

Dr Katrina Scior and Dr Maria Kett

23rd March 2018, British Psychological Society Northern Ireland Annual Conference

Keynote: Supporting people with intellectual disabilities in constructing positive identities

Dr Katrina Scior

16th February 2018, Unit for Stigma Research Public Launch (UCLUS)

University College London

At this event innovative work was presented relating to the UCLUS two core areas of research: (1) the impact of stigma on openness/secrecy around experiences of mental health problems; (2) evidence based interventions at multiple levels to challenge stigma faced by people with intellectual disabilities and their families. We were joined by guest speakers including Prof Pat Corrigan, Dr Clare Gerada, Sue Baker OBE, Ahmed Hankir, Oonagh Smyth and Kate Oldroyd from Mencap, and Self-Advocates from the Elfrida Society and Lambest Learning Disability Assembly. Read about the event in this feature.

 

19th December 2017, Seattle Club, Durham University

Development of a psychosocial intervention to increase the Capacity Of people with iNTEllectual disabilities to manage and resist STigma (CONTEST)

Lisa Richardson (Research Associate) and Laurie Poole (Research Assistant)

30th November 2017, British Psychological Society, North/South Thames Faculty for Learning Disabilities

Standing Up For Myself (STORM): A public health intervention to increase the capacity of people with intellectual disabilities to manage and resist stigma

Dr Katrina Scior (Principle Investigator), Lisa Richardson (Research Associate) and Laurie Poole (Research Assistant).

UCLUS at the 8th international Together Against Stigma Conference

Two members of the UCLUS team presented their research at the 8th international Together Against Stigma Conference, held in Copenhagen in September 2017. Katrina Scior presented on ‘Lived Experience and Stigma among Mental Health Service Providers’, a topic that was clearly of concern to researchers, clinicians and anti-stigma campaigners from around the world. Bettina Friedrich delivered two presentations, ’ Talk About Change: An Evaluation of a Mental Health Intervention in a Californian School’ and ‘Building a Bridge? The portrayal of Asperger’s in the Danish/Swedish series “The Bridge”’. 

Mencap Big Day Out 2017

Members of the UCLUS team working on the STORM project had a fantastic day at the Mencap Big Day Out event, at the Drum in Wembley on Thursday 22nd June 2017. We ran a stall in the marketplace to invite interest from local groups for people with intellectual disabilities to take part in the initial pilot of our new group programme ‘Standing up for Myself’ (STORM) and/or pilot a new questionnaire we have designed ‘Myself and the World’ to explore how individuals with intellectual disabilities feel about the way they are treated in society and the way they feel about themselves as a result. Overall, the stall was a huge success as we generated interest from many groups from various parts of the UK, who were attending the event to celebrate Learning Disability Week 2017.