The Worldwide INTERVOICE Network: Information on National Initiatives
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For information about national networks and other initiatives click here
INTERVOICE Online Forum
The INTERVOICE Online discussion forum
You are welcome to become a member of our online discussion forum! Join our supportive group and tell us about your views and experiences now
INTERVOICE facebook page
INTERVOICE Newsletter
Read our latest newsletter here
INTERVOICE Online BookShop
In association with Working To Recovery we have collated the most useful publications on mental health issues that have influenced our thinking and work. You can read book descriptions, reviews and order online through our Amazon powered book shop click here
Feedback
Read a selection of the comments we have received from people telling us about their voice experiences here
Read a selection of the comments we have received from people telling us about what they think about our website here
TV and Radio Programmes
Madness Radio: Hearing Voices Movement Jacqui Dillon
Jacqui Dillon, voice hearer and director of the UK Hearing Voices Network, discusses how the movement of people who hear voices is creating self-help alternatives to traditional and often abusive mental health care. Listen to the interview here
Hearing Voices: Easy to understand introduction to the issue of hearing voices:
Online broadcast and transcript using a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world you live.
See information about more TV and radio programmes on the subject of hearing voices here
EVENTS
Meetings, conferences and training events from around the worldFebruary 2010 Hearing Voices Group Facilitation Training London, England
The London Hearing Voices Groups Project is running a 4 day training courses for people interested in becoming group facilitators. The course is designed to help both voice-hearers, and non-voice hearers, develop the skills necessary to facilitate a Hearing Voices Group.
More information here
3rd March 2010 Setting up and Supporting Hearing Voices Groups Swansea, Wales, UK,
With Paul Baker, a workshop for workers and voice hearers involved with - or - planning to set up Hearing Voices Groups. More information here
4th March 2010 Setting up and Supporting Hearing Voices Groups Bangor, Wales, UK,
With Paul Baker, a workshop for workers and voice hearers involved with - or - planning to set up Hearing Voices Groups More information here
5th March 2010 Setting up and Supporting Hearing Voices Groups York, Englands, UK,
With Paul Baker, a workshop for workers and voice hearers involved with - or - planning to set up Hearing Voices Groups. More information here
10th April 2010 7th Making Sense of Psychosis ConferenceUniversity of Auckland, New Zealand
First call of papers: Hosted by the New Zealand Branch of I.S.P.S. The Keynote Speaker is Jacqui Dillon, Chairperson, UK Hearing Voices Network
More information here
INTERVOICE NEWS
Normal Difference, Mental Health Kariobangi
is a new project supported by INTERVOICE in Kariobangi, one of the many ghettoes in Nairobi (Kenya) offering respectful and empowering support for people suffering from conditions like depression, anxieties, delusions or unusual experiences. You can see photos & read their aims and objectives here and find out more about the organisation & how you can help here.
The fast growing Italian Hearing Network has a new website, you can visit it here. Our congratulations are extended to Marcello, Angelo, Cristina and Alessandra for their hardwork in developing the national network. They will be hosting a forum for Italian speakers as part of the INTERVOICE Forum very soon.
Wellington, New Zealand. We are pleased to say that a Hearing Voices Network Support group is starting in Wellington, New Zealand
More details here.
New Hearing Voices Network set up in Victoria, Australia Voices Vic is an exciting new program of Prahran Mission which supports the development of peer support groups for people who hear voices across Victoria.
More details here.
A NETWORK is being set up to support the estimated 20,000 Tasmanians who experience voices.
Hearing Voices Network Australia soon will be operating in Tasmania under the auspices of Richmond Fellowship Tasmania. More details here.
Głos Wewnętrzny: Poradnik praktyczny dla osób słyszących Głosy
Hearing Voices Information now available in Polish here.
New Hearing Voices Group set up in New South Wales (NSW), Australia
Our congratulations to the newly established Hope Hearing voices Network for NSW and Sydney, Australia. You can visit their website here.
New Hearing Voices Group set up Portland, Oregan, USA
Our congratulations to the newly established Portland Hearing Voices Group. You can visit their website here.
New Hearing Voices Group set up in Denver, USA
Our congratulations to the newly established Denver Hearing Voices Network and to Molly Martyn the director of the new group for all their hard work in setting up the organisation. You can visit their website here.
Hearing Voices: The Personal Stories of Voice Hearers
Intervoice and Ben Gray are putting together a book on the experiences and stories of hearing voices. Would you contribute to this book, if so find out how here.
If we are going to change and improve voice hearers' lives, then your stories are the first place to start.
Calling for Volunteers interested in talking about their Voices
Are your voices meaningful or insightful to you? If so find out how you can help a new research project here.
Listening to Experience: Opening Up Democratic Partnerships in Mental Health: An Open Letter and Petition
Dr Ben Gray, academic and voice hearer has drafted a petition and open letter entitled 'Listening to Experience: Opening Up Democratic Partnerships in Mental Health', this initiative is intended to draw attention to the need to place the person with mental health problems and their experiences at the forefront of mental health care.
Read the petition and find out how to help with the drafting process or express your support here
You can download a copy here
Working across the world to spread positive and hopeful messages about the experience of hearing voices
Setting up and Supporting Hearing Voices Groups
Setting up and Supporting Self help and Peer Support Groups for People who Hear Voices: One Day Training Workshops facilitated by Paul Baker
Swansea, Wednesday 3rd March 2010 (in association with Wales HVN)
Bangor, Thursday 4th March 2010 (in association with Wales HVN)
and in York, Friday 5th March 2010
Special discount price for voice hearer and worker partnerships attending the WELSH events- £75 inclusive when a worker attends with a voice hearer - thanks to sponsership from HVN Wales
Following the success of the workshops held in Leeds and Birmingham in November 2009, Paul Baker, the coordinator of INTERVOICE will be facilitating 3 more workshops for workers and voice hearers involved with - or - planning to set up Hearing Voices Groups.2
More information and booking details online here
Download a brochure and booking form here
VOICE COLLECTIVE: New peer support group for young people who hear voices
Mind in Camden, London has launched an exciting new project to support young people (aged 12-18) who hear voices, see visions or have other unusual sensory perceptions. They are working in partnership with a range of agencies experienced in supporting vulnerable young people to develop peer support groups across London.
Visit the VOICE COLLECTIVE website to find out more here you can also download an information leaflet here
Available Now! Questionniare for children and young people who hear voices
This questionnaire has proved to be useful in getting a fuller picture of chidrens voice hearing experiences.
Download your copy here
Open letter to Oprah Winfrey
in response to the program about
“The 7-Year-Old Schizophrenic”
We have written this letter in response to the Oprah Winfrey program about Jani, "The 7-Year-Old Schizophrenic”, broadcast on the 6th November 2009.
"... We want to tell you about an alternative and more empowering approach to the experience of hearing voices that we believe will be of interest to your viewers. 145 members of the mental health community around the world, including voice hearers, relatives, citizens, academics and educators, therapists, nurses and researchers have been moved to sign this letter. Such is the level of concern we feel about the circumstances that Jani finds herself in."
Read the Open letter here and download your own copy here
A second version of the open letter written for mental health professionals, academics, policy makers and other people interested in the issues raised by the program. It conforms with academic standards and has been restructured with this in mind, it includes some new information and is referenced. We have done this to ensure members of the professional mental health community can be sure that the information containedin the open letter is evidence based and has been subject to scientific research. Read it here and download your own copy here
New information leaflet for parents and carers intended to help you to develop new and more empowering ways of thinking about your child's experiences and to help you find ways to assist your child. Click on the title to read this very helpful information leaflet
Marius Romme, Sandra Escher, Jacqui Dillon, Dirk Corstens, Mervyn Morris
A new analysis of the hearing voices experience outside the illness model resulted in accepting and making sense of voices. This study of 50 stories forms the evidence for this successful new approach to working with voice hearers.
For book details go here
Paul Baker
An introduction to the experience of hearing voices; with advice about how to cope and make sense of the experience and descriptions for voice hearers and workers of new ways of helping to cope better with troubling voices.
For book details go here
Courage, Determination, Creativity and Optimism are the core messages delivered at The First World Hearing Voices Congress
Maastricht, 17th - 18th September 2009
You can read all about the event here
We are people
who hear voices, family members, friends, mental health workers, activists, and concerned citizens.
Find out how we work together here
Find out what visitors think about our site here
Find out what visitors tell us about their voice experiences here
You can help, please visit our donations page here
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At this year’s INTERVOICE meeting, Prof Marius Romme resigned from his formal duties with INTERVOICE. Marius has done outstanding work with the formation of Hearing Voices Networks around the globe, and we wish him well in his retirement!
A message from Professor Marius Romme, MD, PhD, President of INTERVOICE
CASL petition calling for the abolition of Schizophrenia Label
The Campaign for the Abolition of the Schizophrenia Label is petitioning the UK Prime Minister - calling for the abolition of the diagnosis of schizophrenia on the grounds that it is outdated, unscientific and stigmatising, presenting as a barrier to effective and appropriate care/support to the individuals diagnosed with this label. If you live in the UK or are a UK citizen click here to sign the petition.
There is also an International Petition calling for the abolition of the schizophrenia label, you can sign it here
Find more about the Campaign for the Abolition of the Schizophrenia Label visit their site here
See article by Marius Romme about why he thinks the SZ label should be abolished here
Know?* Studies have found that between four and 10 per cent of people across the world hear voices.
* Between 70 and 90 cent of people who hear voices do so following traumatic events.
* Voices can be male, female, without gender, child, adult, human or non-human.
* People may hear one voice or many. Some people report hearing hundreds, although in almost all reported cases, one dominates above the others.
* Voices can be experienced in the head, in the ears, outside the head, in some other part of the body, or in the environment.
* Voices often reflect important aspects of the hearer's emotional state - emotions that are often unexpressed by the hearer.
Twelve more essential facts about the experience of hearing voices here
See Greek language version here 
See Italian language version here 
"Many people who hear challenging voices have found that a turning point in learning to cope with this experience has been finding different ways of talking with and understanding their voices. Learning to understand the motives of your voices and different ways of talking with them can help the relationship to change between the voice hearer and the voices...."
Click on the title above to read more about talking to your voices
Latest entries on this site:
The First World Hearing Voices Congress Maastricht, 17th - 18th September 2009
In section: About INTERVOICE |
Beyond consultation: the challenge of working with user/survivor and carer groups
In section: Alternative perspectives |
Renaming schizophrenia - a good or bad idea?
In section: Research |
Interviews with voice hearers in Cambodia
In section: Research |
