The Global Leadership Exchange provides a platform for incredible networking opportunities, offering health and social care leaders the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences.
Carr Gomm is sending our Global Ambassadors to the Netherlands to attend the Global Leadership Exchange as part of our International Collaborations project.
At Carr Gomm, making international connections is essential to sharing our values, approaches and philosophies globally. In 2024, our International Collaborations project launched a Global Ambassadors scheme, which will send Carr Gomm staff from across the organisation to different countries worldwide for cultural exchanges, international conferences and learning opportunities. The first of our Global Ambassadors will be attending the 2024 Global Leadership Exchange in the Netherlands.
The Global Leadership Exchange is not just a conference, it’s a week-long learning event that takes place every two years. It’s a platform that brings together leaders in mental health, disability, and substance use from around the world, offering them the opportunity to share knowledge, experiences, and ideas. This year, the Leadership Exchange will be held in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 24 to 28 of June, and we are excited to be a part of it. Attending such events not only enhances our professional network but also broadens our understanding of global health and social care practices.
We thank our Global Ambassador, John Warburton, for his commitment to attend the Global Leadership Exchange in Utrecht next week. In advance of the conference, attendees have been invited to a smaller ‘match’ that will explore specific issues in greater depth.
Here, John shares his thoughts and early preparations for his chosen match, expressing his excitement and anticipation for the learning and networking opportunities that the Global Leadership Exchange will offer.
“Not long to go now! I recently had my first meeting with the other attendees of my ‘match’ for the Global Leadership Exchange – essentially a smaller focus group looking at a specific issue. The match I’m attending is looking at ‘Peer and Lived Experience Leadership’ in mental health and substance use. It was incredibly refreshing meeting so many people who had dedicated their work to using their own lived experiences to help others. The breadth of experience was also quite awe-inspiring – I met attendees that varied from a Clinical Pychologist with lived experience of psychosis from Ireland to someone working to decriminalize sex work in New Zealand and everything in between. I have to admit I was more than a little intimidated being in a room with all these leaders in their respective fields, compared to me as a Link Worker!
This got me thinking about what kind of work people are doing closer to home that is looking to the global and international stage. I took time to speak to George Sparrow, a Service Manager for Carr Gomm based in East Lothian, who explained a bit more about his work as part of the National Care Service Working Group, working alongside policymakers and elected MSPs to help make the National Care Service Bill a reality. I also spoke to Gill Moreton, Clinical Lead for Lifelines Scotland, about some of the international research that has come out of the Rivers Centre and the role that Rivers has played in helping to get Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder recognised and included in the ICD-11.
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Carr Gomm Global Ambassador John will be attending the Global Leadership Exchange Conference in the Netherlands.
However, it still feels that I’m walking in the footsteps of giants. The question remains for me – what will I do? What do I have to contribute to these ongoing conversations?
For context, a little bit about me – I’m a Specialist Link Worker at the Rivers Centre, a Public Social Partnership where I primarily signpost people who are receiving treatment for psychological trauma to services that can help them with social issues they might be facing. I’m also someone who has experience of complex interpersonal trauma and is also out as Queer at my work. I’ve been working recently to help bring my lived experience into the support I offer but doing so in a way that centres the person and is helpful to them. This is a challenge, as you never know fully how someone might react to self-disclosure – at its worst, it can be destabilising for the person and disrupt the working relationship. However, at its best, it can be affirming and validating for the person and adding credibility to your advice.
Whilst Lived Experience is something which has gained increased notice and support in the international community when it comes to mental health in recent years, the 12-step movement in substance use, which is built around peer support, has origins going all the way back to the 1920s. Yet despite this, within health and social care today, lived experience is often limited to specialised and dedicated roles, and yet, lived experience is not limited to people in these roles. In fact, the reason many of us go into health and social care is because of our own experiences – there is a reason, after all, that Jung’s ‘Wounded Healer’ is a theory which endures so profoundly. Yet despite our lived experiences, as part of our training, we are very much encouraged to create a ‘professional persona’ that rarely, if ever, acknowledges our personal selves or experiences.
So for me – one of the key things I want to get out of the match is to get further ideas about how we can create frameworks and training to allow staff to have the skills and confidence to use their experiences as much as they wish within their professional practice.
The match is due to take place at Sint-Willibrordusstichting, a former psychiatric hospital in Heiloo, The Netherlands. It reminds me in some respects of our own celebrations for Carr Gomm’s 25th birthday at RBS Gogarburn last year. These spaces hold a lot of very difficult memories for many people, even as they were being treated in places that tried to do good. By creating a greater role for lived experience and having people with lived experience in leadership roles, we can look to more effectively co-create services that are guided both by theory, but also experience. It is my hope that in doing so, that we can bring more of ourselves into our work and, by doing so, improve the experiences of the people we work with.”
In the coming weeks, check back for updates on the Global Leadership Exchange and to hear what valuable information our Global Ambassadors have gained.
To learn more about Carr Gomm’s Global Ambassadors, please visit our International Collaborations page.
