Perhaps the best way I can illustrate how GROW works is to start by telling you a little about how I became involved.

I was, perhaps, an archetype of the many young men we hear about today. I became caught up in a spiral of alienation, alcohol, isolation and despair. I was tormented by massive levels of  anxiety, bordering on terror, at times I was hearing voices and misinterpreting sounds.  I could see absolutely no hope for the future. Eventually I decided to look for help.  I was given a label of pathological shyness and Librium. My first experience of help wasn’t a happy one although the psychiatrist in question was very warm and friendly. I was unfortunately asked if I minded if students sat in on the interview. I did.

The turning point for me was meeting my wife Fran. She was a very brilliant and beautiful young woman. She was however very much at risk, from a highly dysfunctional family and from many extremely distressing personal experiences.

We bought a small farm in Co. Clare and were going create the perfect lifestyle. I had been left money.  We had our dreams.

These dreams were shattered when Fran broke down after our first childs’ birth. The breakdown was psychotic, dramatic and terrifying. I experienced a huge sense of revulsion at the idea of her being transferred to the ‘mental hospital’ and insisted on bringing her home. That night was absolutely terrifying.  Fran began to scream, bang her head on the wall and pull out her hair. Next day I had to sign her into our Lady’s in Ennis. It was a huge relief to find that the staff behind the forbidding walls, were human and warm. And yet, here started a nightmare journey back into despair. Three years of frequent admissions, layers and layers of medication, and what was most frustrating, no direction whatsoever as to how we could help ourselves.

One of the real enigmas was that because Fran was so obviously and acutely sicker than I was I was promoted to well. I became seen as her carer. Fran over the years was diagnosed as suffering from post puerperal depression, schizo affective disorder and finally manic depression. She was repeatedly committed and at her most unruly spent long periods in locked wards and in seclusion and had many rounds of ECT.

In 1976 we stumbled across GROW. It was a turning point. Here we found hope, a very warm acceptance of ourselves and direction.

GROW operates through a two hour weekly meeting. The meeting is highly structured and geared towards motivating each person to do something about their mental health.  Fran and I got practical tasks, and we were given relevant parts of the GROW Program to help complete those tasks. We also got huge encouragement to break out of our respective prisons.

GROW at the time was relatively small. There were less than 30 groups nationwide. We had no staff, no offices and everything was done by a wonderful team of volunteers coordinated by a voluntary steering committee. At this time GROW in Ireland received yearly visits from members of GROW in Australia, Slowly our work began to spread. A grant from the Sacred Heart Missionaries allowed us to employ our first ‘fieldworker’. This was followed by grants from the then Program Manager, Paudie Collins in the Southern Health Board, then the South East and Midlands.

We continued to expand and in parallel to develop management and organisational structures. Things came to a head in the late 1990’s.  It became obvious that if we were to develop further we would need to radically expand our management structures, By this stage we were the largest organisation in the voluntary sector working in mental health in Ireland.  We were being steadily bombarded with requests from professionals and from people suffering from mental illness for more groups.

In 2002 we began a bold and imaginative expansion plan. The success of this plan depended on a realistic increase in funding. While only minimal funding has appeared  we have managed to achieve a huge amount.

We now have 150 groups, almost double.
1. A National Training Team and a highly successful and popular leadership training course.(This was evaluated by UCC with a grant from HRB).
2. A company handbook, safety procedures and staff guidelines which have placed us at the vanguard of the voluntary sector.
3. A thriving website with queries from all over Ireland and beyond.
4. A new brand image (thanks to voluntary help from Mc Connells Advertising,
5. We have run a series of radio ads. (courtesy of BUPA Ireland)
6. We have opened an information line and trained our administrative staff.
7. We have established highly successful groups and leadership training in the Central Mental Hospital and Arbour Hill prison.
8. We are developing a program specifically aimed at young people.
9. We also have a very successful project in St Loman’s, Mullingar that is aimed at those who have experienced long term illness and institutionalisation.
10. Our leaders are being asked to take part in all sorts of committees and coalitions. A good example of this is my own involvement in the Mental Health Commission. During my time I served as Chair of the committee responsible for our document on the Recovery Model. We also made submissions to Vision for Change and would see ourselves as being at the forefront of the move towards a Recovery approach.

GROW has a saying: “You alone can do it but you cannot do it alone” We desperately need more resources..  We are being inundated with requests for
1. New groups…. We have the potential to expand to 500 groups and beyond.  Where we have resources eg Limerick we have 7 thriving groups, where we haven’t eg Dublin City  (half the country) we only have 14
2. Training of professionals in the recovery model, (the GROW perspective)
GROW is being seen by many senior mental health professionals as a key player in the Government’s vision for the future, which seeks to place the service user at the heart of services. This fact can be seen from the number of requests we have received from
a. Trinity school of nursing: a 2 hour workshop and a chapter of a new textbook about GROW’s part in Recovery, as part of final year course and exam.
b. St Vincents’ Fairview through its clinical director Dr. Angela Mohan:
i. Workshop for multidisciplinary teams
c. St John of God Dr. O’Callaghan  Workshop for trainee psychiatrists
d. Ardee Scool of Nursing Patricia Finlay Director of nursing: Workshop on Recovery Model.
e. Limerick University: Workshop for Occupational Therapists
f. Irish College of GP’s: Workshop on Mutual Help

3. Prisons
a. A second group in Arbour Hill (due to success of existing one)
b. A two year development of GROW in Mountjoy, minimally funded by the Dormant Accounts fund
c. A group in Limerick Prison
d. A group in Portlaoise Prison
e. A group in Loughan House
f. A group in Castlerea Prison
g. An evaluation of the effects of GROW in prisons partnered by Dr Harry Kennedy 2007 Professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Director of the Central Mental Hospital.

4. Young people
a. Request for special group for young people living in care with diagnosis of schizophrenia. The group would include professionals. (Dr Angela Mohan)
b. Invitation from Tony Bates Director of Forum for Youth. to cooperate on some of our existing projects.

So Does GROW Work?

One of the questions always asked by professionals and the HSE is “Does GROW work?” “Where is the evidence.”  As well as a large number of people who are prepared to share their stories of recovery and growth (see copy of Soul Survivors) GROW has been extensively and rigorously researched. Before this presentation I circulated three conclusions from this research. The first graph shows that people who attend GROW need 72% less days in hospital in the 32 months following their first meeting compared to same length of time before attending. This compares with a matched group who also showed a fall, but of 29%.

GROW has been shown to work best with people with a history of institutionalisation and high levels of psychoticism. (ie the people most costly to the state) It also appeals to people with any mental disorder and is provenly effective in prevention. People are:-
“better able to sustain work,
more likely to cooperate with their doctors,
be on less medication and
to have better support networks, than they were before and also in comparison to others.” 

 This research has been confirmed in a study done by Professor Pat Corrigan (2003).  He identified GROW and mutual help as vital to any mental health system. Professor Julian Rappaport concluded that a Mental Health System can only be successfully provided by finding niches in the community where people can begin to recover. It cannot be solely provided by professionals.

I want to conclude by briefly telling you how GROW helped me and Fran to Recover. It did so through its weekly meetings.  These encouraged each of us to make a step by step “Recovery Plan”. I love the words Recovery Plan and if I were Minister for Health would ban the use of the expression Care Plan. I think the two different words highlight the challenge that lies ahead. To young people especially a ‘care plan’ has connotations of institutionalisation, almost like being put in an old people’s home, ‘ being looked after’ whatever your age. A Recovery Plan inevitably seeks to get you more involved… with professional help where needed, but also with organisations and individuals in the community. For myself this meant tackling the discomfort of feeling shy, creative writing classes, music, art, going back to third level study, toastmasters. For Fran the route lead through a Travellers group, the ICA, a back to work course through Fas, Languages, the church. We are both fully recovered in the sense we don’t see a consultant or take medication,  GROW also made us realise that as well as overcoming our illnesses we had to learn about Mental Health. The system is solely focused on Mental Illness which is why, I believe, so many people become trapped. This is why it is so vital that we do explore the recovery model. Maureen Gaffney recently said that psychology only really began to realise how important mental health is in the late 1990’s but that huge strides are being made

A final, hugely important detail. GROW is free to all who use it. This is unbelievably important as so often mental illness and poverty go hand in hand. GROW is extremely good value to run.  Rappaports’ research would suggest huge savings to  the State.  Less hospital days, less consultant hours, less medication as well as all the hope and leadership our members pour back into our hospitals, prisons and towns and cities. 

Thank you very much for your attention. We are glad to try and answer any questions you may have.