Guest Speakers

We regularly invite Guest Speakers to talk to Group Meetings about their specialist areas.  There is usually no charge to hear visiting speakers and we aim to arrange the visits on a six-weekly rota on our usual meeting slot where possible.

14th March 2023

Jay Howard from Hampshire Constabulary's Mental Health Team will join us to talk about his work.

26th November 2019

Fiona Allen of Caritas Portsmouth spoke at our meeting on 26th November.

Caritas is an agency for social action in the Diocese of Portsmouth, existing to improve the organisation or integration of social action in the Diocese.  Current projects include the INSIGHT mental health drop-in centre at the Cathedral.

10th September 2019

Rosie Penlinton of the Clinical Commissioning Group is working on a project to improve the Mental Health Crisis Service.  She spoke to, and got feedback from, many carers who have been in contact with the service.  Rosie put on a focus group and distributed a questionnaire, and also like to heard about people's experiences directly.

This was a good opportunity to have a say in the improvement of the Mental Health Crisis Service as many of us experience mental health as well as addiction issues within our families.

4th June 2019

Tracey Batchelor, a Family Support Worker from the Society of St James spoke about SSJ's Family Support Project, which is designed to support young people up to the age of 18 where alcohol is having a negative impact on family life.

7th May 2019

Mark is a Recovery Worker from PUSH (Pushing Change).  He spoke at the Group Support Meeting on 7th May to share his experience as an addict and, eventually, as a Recovery Worker.  Members got the chance to ask him about his relationship with his family during his addiction years and what finally made him turn his life around to help others.

28th August 2018

Karen is a Family Support Worker at Parent Support Link, Southampton.  She spoke at our Group Support Meeting on Tuesday 28th August to tell us about a six month pilot project being set up by the Society of St James called Systemic Family Work.  This involves working with the recovering addict and their family member, and she is hoping for referrals from Rebound to participate in the project.  

5th June 2018

Leigh Westmore - Society of St James

Martin Cook - Solent NHS Trust

Leigh is a Senior Recovery Worker at the Society of St James and Martin is a Clinical Lead.  They will provide training and information about the use of Naloxone (Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan among others, is a medication used to block the effects of opioids, especially in overdose.  Naloxone may be combined with an opioid to decrease the risk of misuse.  - Wikipedia)

Leigh and Martin will also provide information about the use of non prescribed drugs that users get from dealers on the streets and the Internet.

The Speaker Meeting will take place at our regular Group Meeting on Tuesday 5 June, starting at 7:00pm, at the Portsmouth Carers' Centre, Southsea.

Please let us know if you are coming along by clicking "Interested" or "Going" on the Event post on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/234576170429765/

3rd April 2018

Dean Dolman - Society of St James

Dean is a Recovery Worker at The Hub, and spoke at the Group Meeting on Tuesday 3rd April.

He shared his story about his struggle with addiction, his relationship with his family at the time and his eventual road to recovery.

His talk will concluded with a short Q&A session.  

There is a full report on his presentation on our blog

19th September 2017

Anna Jackson and Jan Tribe - Society of St James

We were pleased to welcome Anna Jackson and Jan Tribe of the Society of St James, who spoke about the Recovery Hub, Day Recovery, the services of the Society fo St James and an overview of support services available in Portsmouth.

There is a full report on their presentations in our blog.

18th July 2017

Sue Atkins - Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth

Sue is a Sister at the QA Hospital, Portsmouth, who manages the Alcohol Intervention Team.  She gave an update on the work of the AIT, and answered questions from the audience.  

23rd May 2017

Ryan & Nathan - Recovery Hub, Society of St James

Talked about services available to help those in recovery from drug addiction, provide information on the Needle Exchange programme and give some Naloxone and overdose training.  See our blog for a report.

28th March 2017

Bryony, Mental Health Specialist at St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth

Spoke about medication prescribed for dual diagnosis patients

1st November 2016

Lawrence Taylor - Founder of Baytrees, instigator for the funding of Rebound

4th October 2016

Stewart Roberts - Family Support Worker, Building Futures - Substance Misuse Service, Winchester Prison

23rd August 2016

Steven Evans - Recovery Community Coordinator, Winchester Prison

12th January 2016

PC Dan McGarrigle - The Role of the Police

27th October 2015

Carla Roadknight - Modern Matron Orchards, St James' Hospital

13th September 2015

Jo Purdy - Probation Service

12th August 2015

Flick Drummond - Parliamentary Candidate, Portsmouth South

2nd June 2015

Janet Dee - Portsmouth Counselling Service

10th March 2015

David Southon - Baytrees

2nd December 2014

Nathan & Ryan - Recovery Hub

8th July 2014

Carla Roadknight - Mental Health Services