Coming of age conference

Coming of age: 21 years of service user involvement and survivor action
Leicester University 6 to 7 September 2006

A service users and survivor only conference

Twenty one years on from Mind's national conference in 1985, where service users were given an equal share of the platform for the first time, Mind organised a 24-hour conference comprised solely of delegates and speakers who are service users and survivors.

As part of the celebrations to commemorate Mind's 60th anniversary (and their ongoing commitment to promoting the voice of service users), this conference was organised exclusively for people who have had direct experience of mental distress (including service users and survivors). This was to ensure that everyone got an opportunity to share their views and network in a space where users and survivors from all backgrounds could come together without influence from service providers or decision-makers with no personal or direct experience of mental distress.

The conference:

• celebrated the achievements of the past 21 years of service user involvement and survivor action
• was a forum to share current experiences of service user involvement and survivor action
• and asked the question "Where do we go from here?".

Coming of age conference papers.

Coming of age speaker biographies.