First Fortnight Annual Report 2018
Ireland’s Mental Health Arts Festival
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Photo : Kieran Frost
Contents
CEO’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Snapshot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Marketing and Media Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Audience Feedback on Mental Health Attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Art Therapy Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Art Therapy Service Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 NEFELE and Europe Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Presenting Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2
What a year!!! 105 events across 17 counties over 22 days.
Photo : Bríd O’Donovan
Strategically we’ve grown into new territories our research has identified as severely affected by the impact of mental health prejudice. We placed a particular focus on the South West and North West of the country where we intend to expand our service provision in the not too distant future. This June we published our first policy paper on mental health stigma in Europe and presented its findings Thursday 14th June in Athens as part of Erasmus+ funded MENS Project to promote active living for mental health.
Accessibility and inclusiveness are the cornerstones of our programming policy as mental health applies to all of us and is something unifying that transcends the borders of European countries. We believe this festival will help strengthen the idea of the Irish seeing themselves as European and be a strong reminder of the many opportunities the European Union offers its citizens.
This September we head off to Athens once more taking with us a team of mental health advocates supplied by our Irish festival presenting partners to participate in the Erasmus+ funded EVENTS Project. This three day event will see 250 participants from 14 countries take part in activities to promote the mental health benefits of an active lifestyle, raise awareness and challenge prejudice.
For decades Ireland has been home to citizens from every corner of Europe who have enriched our society. Our presentation this festival will provide a platform to embrace the vibrancy of modern Ireland but also to reflect on the pressures that modern society can place on our mental health, with an emphasis on the European community. Through a public open call from June 2018 we will be challenging artists to submit artistically ambitious mental health themed work with an emphasis on multicultural themes and providing voices for the people of Europe.
In 2017 we made a successful bid to the NEFELE Network (Network of European Festivals for Life Enhancement) to host Europe’s Mental Health Festival in Ireland in January 2019. Preparations are well under way and facilitated by a public consultation we hosted June 7th in collaboration with the department of Foreign Affairs, Minister McEntee’s Office and the Wheel engaging with the relevant stakeholders in migrant communities and the health and cultural sectors.
The festival will be held in January 2019 in Dublin & regional venues with satellite events planned throughout the country. David Keegan CEO, FIRST FORTNIGHT
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IVAL T S E F 2018
P A N S S T O SH
number of events
105 EVENTS
number of artists
244
106% INCREASE on 2017
ARTISTS
number of days
6% INCREASE on 2017
22
number of venues
62
DAYS
10% INCREASE on 2017
VENUES
138% INCREASE on 2017
number of counties
17
COUNTIES
112% INCREASE on 2017
number of attendees
Photo : Kieran Frost
8,905 ATTENDEES
48% INCREASE on 2017 2
Marketing and Media Coverage Potential Reach 53,071,918 Advertising value equivalency (AVE) €619,552.85 FACEBOOK
11% inc in FB likes
987 FOLLOWERS
8535 -9439 from 30th nov - 30th jan
558% INC
146% INC post engagements
11% INC from 2017
61% INC VIDEOS 232% INC IN FB REACH 1ST JAN-28TH JAN from 1st Jan-28th Jan
130% Inc FB Page Followers from 1st Jan-28th Jan
7.9K IMPRESSIONS PER DAY
First Fortnight Tweets 1000 retweets
191% Inc FB Page Views
1,8k Likes
WEBSITE
4504 @FirstFortnight tweets
21,680 UNIQUE users -INC 31%
259 #FirstFortnight 1063 #FFfest18
87,092 page views-INC 60%
11% INC Twitter followers from Jan 1st to Jan 30th
76% INC from 2017
Volunteers 105 Volunteers helped bring the 105 events together. Each year we continue to be struck by the strong, unwavering and growing support shown by the public who selflessly volunteer to don a lanyard and t-shirt and serve as the change makers of our society. This year we were in a record 17 counties so our FF volunteer family now comes from all over the country and we are excited for 2019. To all of you, THANK YOU!! We wish to give a special thanks to our year long volunteers, including our volunteer Board of Directors, Communications Team and Resource Team, for their vital support. The charity wouldn’t exist today without your hard work, strong belief and passion.
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Feedback on Mental Health Attitudes Sample 1561 (57% Female, 24% Male, 19% Other)
RESEARCH 2018
47%
say their partner/ close family member has or had experienced health problems
FUTURE STATEMENTS
26%
I’d be willing to work with someone with a mental health problem.
have cared for or are a relative of someone who has had mental health problems
95% said YES (up 1% on 2017)
98%
14%
I’d be willing to live with someone with a mental health problem.
agree that anyone can experience a mental health problem
have had NO experience of mental health problems
10% increase on 2017
4% increase on 2017
27%
57%
are unsure or have conditions. (down 1% on 2017)
5% increase on 2017
15% increase on 2017
47%
14%
I’d be willing to continue a relationship with a friend who developed a mental health problem.
would delay seeking treatment for fear of letting others know that they had a mental health problem
would not want people to know if they were experiencing mental health problems
2% increase on 2017
20% said NO,
agree that the majority of people who experience mental health problems recover
97% said YES (up 1% on 2017)
of mental health professionals have experienced mental health problems due to their work
I’d be willing to live nearby with someone with a mental health problem.
46% 56% have experienced mental health problems themselves
96% said YES
experience fearing mental health issues personally in the future
(down 2% on 2017)
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First Fortnight Centre for Creative Therapies Increase in referring agencies
The First Fortnight Centre for Creative therapies has seen many changes and developments over the past year, with one therapist taking leave from her post in October 2016 and the provision of student placements to two creative therapy students beginning in the same month.
From September 2016 onwards we have experienced a sharp increase in referral numbers and demand for the service from agencies that had not previously accessed our service, we have attributed this increase to the targeted visits and information sessions provided by the Centre staff to the homeless and mental health services around Dublin during the first half of 2016, discussed in last year’s annual report.
The Centre for Creative Therapies provided a placement to one student of art therapy Crawford College Cork from Oct 2016 until Jun 2017 and one NUI Limerick music therapy student between Jan – April 2017. This has been an important development for the service which has now also become a centre for learning and the input from both the music therapy and art therapy trainees has stimulated renewed interest in the service.
In the past year we have added the following agencies to our ‘regular referrers’ list. The increase from the Community Mental Health Teams has been a welcome development and is providing a solid stream of suitable clients with lifelong mental health problems who are benefiting from the service.
With the extra workload involved in supervising students and managing the service without a co-therapist the senior therapist’s hours were increased from 2.5 days (20 hours) p/w to 3.5 days (28 hours) p/w in June 2017.
Iona Day Centre / Crosscare Cedar House Inchicore CMHT / Fairview CMHT North Circular Road CMHT / DePaul Trust
Following the success of the music therapy students’ interventions and high rate of interest in this form of therapy the First Fortnight Centre for Creative Therapies recruited music therapist Shane Cassidy in July 2017 for a 6 month contract of 2 days (16 hours) p/w, we are happy that we have been in the position to extend this contract for a further year from Jan 2018.
Phoenix care centre / Mater Hospital MHT
Addition of new modality on offer to clients The addition of music therapy has enabled us to reach clients who couldn’t engage in other forms of therapy. The music therapist has set up a therapeutic choir which has an ‘open door’ policy to all residents of Haven House, the familiarity that clients have with the therapist has created a non- threatening environment where we have noticed a number of clients enquiring further about the service and going on to self-refer as per best practise guidelines.
In March 2018 the senior therapist Eithne McAdam will take maternity leave. In order to further expand on the therapeutic modalities on offer and to research the effectiveness of such, drama therapist Sinead Moloney has been offered a 6-month contract of 2 day, Tuesday & Wednesdays (16 hrs p/w) to cover some client hours. The service will be in operation Tuesdays- Thursdays only, with a cross over day for both therapists on Wednesdays. JP Swaine will offer the therapists operational support on a fortnightly basis. 5
Centre for Creative Therapies - Activity Summary September 2016 - September 2017
TOTAL CLIENTS
NUMBER OF REFERRALS
NUMBER OF ASSESSMENTS
HOURS OF THERAPY PROVIDED
DNAs
COMPLETED INTERVENTIONS
28
46
352 71
33 17
Since September 2016 (to Nov 2017) we have provided 1:1 art psychotherapy and music therapy to 21 people and group music therapy to 11 people, as well as 1:1 music therapy to 7 people. The average duration of art therapy interventions are 25 weeks+ with shorter term music therapy interventions of 12 weeks. We currently have a waiting list of 10 people seeking art or music therapy. We can see year on year that there is a growing demand for this type of therapeutic intervention.
Summary The service continues to build on what has been achieved to date; we continue to deliver a unique and innovative intervention in homeless mental health. We have seen continued engagement from service users and we are maintaining a clear commitment to continuous service improvement for service users at the forefront of our work. Both therapists are building on their learning and professional capabilities and exploring further case study material to highlight the aspects of the arts therapies that are of benefit in complex cases. This will inform the greater body of research work both with the target group, best practice in the arts therapies and the arts therapies evidence base.
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First Fortnight in Europe NEFELE and Europe Update
It’s in our nature around here to ask can we do more. A simple idea of finding a space to come together and share our stories as humans with experience of mental health problems has now brought us many years along a road that has deepened our understanding of mental health as a cultural and social issue as well as a health concern.
In 2015, NEFELE was funded by Creative Europe with partners from Greece, Ireland, Spain Italy and Lithuania. It aims to strenghten all kinds of artistic creation connection with the field of mental health seeking to broaden the cultural activities that combat stigma. This project delivered the first edition of the European Mental Health Arts Festival in Athens October 2016 lead by our Greek lead partners EDRA. It advocates satellite festivals in the 4 partner countries, development of tools for the professional support of the artists and for the networking and promotion of the idea of an Art and Culture Festival that focuses on mental health throughout the EU.
As volunteers and citizens we built our ideas, models and frameworks so we could give them away. Our festival and its well defined production system is like an open source piece of software or architectural designs. We don’t want to keep it to ourselves but rather, share it so people can use it and do more good with what we have developed. According to estimations from W.H.O. mental ill-health effects every fourth citizen at least once during their life and can be found in more than 10% of the European Union (EU) population during any given year. Just as this year’s festival is spreading it’s wings across more counties as ever before, our European projects are gathering a head of steam.
First Fortnight and it’s partners oversaw the establishment of the NEFELE network (Networking European Festivals for mental Life Enhancement) and the organization of it’s founding Congress in Athens in January 2017 with 22 members currently from 10 countries. In 2014 First Fortnight began to program sports based discussion events as part of it’s cultural mission by launching the Corinthian Series.First Fortnight and Corinthian have since established European wide connections through the MENS project and it’s sister project EVENTS. Both projects are co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus + sport program and aim to develop a collaboration in the fields of mental health and sport.
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8 Photos : Kieran Frost, Shane Horan, Alan Finn, Owen Humphreys
First Fortnight would not be possible without the generous support of...
PRESENTING PARTNERS
GRANT AIDED BY
MEDIA PARTNERS
SUPPORTED BY
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design : www.padhraignolan.com
www.firstfortnight.ie
13 Earl Street South, Dublin 8. D08VF10. Tel: 01 5986263 Email: info@firstfortnight.ie Registered Charity Number: CHY20530
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