April 2023
Patient and Client Council launches ‘Positive Passporting’ initiative to support health and social care users.
The Patient and Client Council has launched a new initiative focused on providing the public with an early resolution process to health and social care issues and building connections between services to better meet people’s needs. The body which supports the public in health and social care has developed the solution focussed initiative using relationships with partner organisations to secure the right help at the right time from the right place, as part of its Patient and Client Council Connect work.
A group of over 80 guests attended the launch of the initiative which coincided with the organisation sharing its strategic intent and direction to 2025. Guests heard from Peter May, Permanent Secretary for Department of Health, outgoing Chief Executive, Vivian McConvey, and newly appointed Chief Executive, Meadhbha Monaghan.
Speaking about the Connect initiative and the strategy to 2025, Patient and Client Council Chief Executive, Meadhbha Monaghan, said; “Through a process of review since 2020, the Patient and Client Council has opened up many conversations with the public, with our partners in the voluntary and community sector and with decision-makers across health and social care. Taking this and our own work into account, we have identified a number of key areas for delivery, including the development of our services to Connect, Support, Engage and create Impact. The ‘Positive Passporting’ initiative which we are launching today is a foundation of these four strands and focuses on connecting; placing the user at the centre of the solution and using relationships within our networks to broker better outcomes. It involves establishing an informed connection between services, to ensure the most appropriate response to meet user needs, rather than simply redirecting or signposting to another service. The aim is to minimise the likelihood of people falling through gaps in services or experiencing a ‘revolving door’ when seeking support to address issues.”
The ‘Positive Passporting’ concept is anchored within the Patient and Client Council service standards of mediation, partnership, co-production and relationship-based approach to working in partnership with other agencies to ensure all users at point of contact with the Council, have an avenue of advocacy and support which the organisation will positively connect the individual to. Through PCC Connect a ‘network of networks’ approach is being rolled out with partners including NICCY, the Children’s Law Centre, the Homeless Prevention Forum, Migrant Help, Carers NI, British Deaf Association, Information Commissioners Office and the Public Sector Ombudsman.
“We believe the most effective way to amplify the voice of the public across the breadth and complexity of health and social care services, is to develop a network of networks consisting of individuals with lived experience and partner organisations. Through this network, the hope is that diversity of experience, expertise and collective voice can be maximised, provide strong evidence-based engagement, drive collective action and ultimately improve outcomes for people.”, Meadhbha concluded.
Welcoming the Connect initiative, Department of Health Permanent Secretary, Peter May addressed attendees at the event. He said: “Both the Department of Health and I fully support partnership working which needs to be a central part of the work to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for service users. I commend the work PCC is doing in relation to Positive Passporting. Sharing knowledge, skills and learning with partner organisations across the HSC and the community and voluntary sector to try to improve services and outcomes for the public, is something we should all strive for.”
For information on the Patient and Client Council and the Connect programme, visit www.pcc-ni.net.
April 2023
Réalta musicians premiere new piece, and bring local young musicians to share the stage, through Live Music Now
Teenagers from Limavady and Dungiven will share the stage this month joining forces with traditional music giants, Réalta, at a first ever concert organised and hosted by local charity Live Music Now. The music charity will bring an evening of traditional music and poetry to the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre on Friday 28 April 2023 as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations. In partnership with Bank of Ireland, the evening will feature poet Anne McMaster whose work has been published extensively in the USA, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
Musicians from Réalta have been working with Live Music Now in the area for several years and have been given a very special commission to write a piece in honour of the local people and area, taking inspiration from the local landscape, myths and legends. They’ve also been working with young traditional musicians from Dungiven and Limavady to create music, and bring it to a public performance, alongside the well-known repertoire of traditional tunes Réalta are known for.
Commenting on the project, Alice Lewis, National Director for live Music Now, said; “Described by Irish Music Magazine as “A full bodied pipe and whistle extravaganza” we are thrilled to work with Réalta to make full use of the intricate melodies and driving rhythms that make Irish music so loved throughout the world and bring together young musicians to enjoy and learn from this experience. Réalta members Conor Lamb and Deirdre Galway, have been working in the area for several years, and have developed a real affinity and connection with the local community. We are so excited to have commissioned them to write a piece in honour of Limavady and to present this at a special public event. Groups of young musicians from Limavady and Dungiven have had an amazing experience to work with two of the best on the traditional music scene.
“This is very different to our regular work in special schools and care home settings, but it has grown out of the very real inspiration and community connections the musicians have developed through their music-making. Through this project supported by Bank of Ireland, through its ‘Begin Together’ fund, and Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Rural Grants programme, Live Music Now have been able to stretch ourselves in a different way, and as a result we have unlocked new creative collaborations. We can now bring new music alongside Réalta’s own music to an event for the local community to enjoy.”
Gilly Campbell, Director of Arts Development, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, added, “The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is delighted to support this project from Live Music Now through the Rural Engagement Arts Programme. We know that taking part in arts activities can raise self-esteem, boost confidence and motivation, as well as alleviate isolation and loneliness. The pandemic and the resulting lockdowns across the UK have taken a toll on individual lives, with mental health and well-being adversely effected and this has been particularly compounded in rural communities which are characterised by smaller and more dispersed populations.
Thanks to The National Lottery players, this funding will increase opportunities for people living in rural communities to engage and participate in meaningful arts activities, enriching their lives for the better. The Arts Council believes that the arts can make a vital contribution to building wellbeing, confidence and healthy, integrated communities.”
The event takes place in Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre on Friday 28 April 2023 starting at 8.00pm. Please note this is cabaret style seating and a ‘bring your own’ event. Tickets £12, concession £10 are available online via Eventbrite;
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-music-now-presents-realta-tickets-577040903877
April 2023
Blinded by the very force it imagines it could handle Donovan Wylie
Belfast Exposed is delighted to present Blinded by the very force it imagines it could handle, a new film from Donovan Wylie and Peter Mann. The work examines the enduring legacy and architecture of the Troubles, as we mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and features never before seen footage from the demolition of the notorious Maze/Long Kesh Prison in 2007.
Blinded by the very force it imagines it could handle builds on work done by Wylie as part of his landmark exhibition The Maze (2004) - which was shown at Belfast Exposed - that saw Wylie given access to the Maze/Long Kesh site as in stood empty in the post-Good Friday Agreement political landscape.
By the early 2000s, the Maze had become a location synonymous with the Trouble, due to its role in holding 'special category' prisoners with links to paramilitary organisations and as the site of the infamous Hunger Strikes of the early 1980s. It was arguably one of the most famous prisons in the world. Built in the 1970s specifically for paramilitary prisoners, the Maze itself was constructed on the site of Long Kesh Detention Centre, which had been the centre of internment between 1971-75. With the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the prison was gradually emptied, and paramilitary prisoners were released as part of the peace process. The last four inmates were transferred out of the Maze in September 2000.
Despite this, the site was maintained and kept in readiness for several years, prepared in case conflict returned. It cast a long shadow over the early years of post-Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland, as the first steps towards a devolved, power-sharing government were being made.
It was in this context that Wylie was given free, unsupervised access to the Maze in order to document the site. His images captured both the physical structure of the prison, as well as the psychological impact of the Maze's architecture. The Maze brought Wylie widespread critical acclaim and was a powerful documentation of living history in Northern Ireland.
In 2007, Donovan Wylie and filmmaker Peter Mann recorded the demolition of an internal perimeter wall of the Maze/Long Kesh Prison, as part of Wylie's work to document the demolition of the site following the prison's final closure. It is this, previously unseen, work that forms the basis of Blinded by the very force it imagines it could handle.
In this new work, Wylie continues to chronicle the architecture of conflict. His work is rooted in the idea of art as an antidote to the nihilism that conflict can induce, and is influenced by his experiences as a child growing up during the Troubles (Wylie was born in Belfast in 1971). In Blinded by the very force it imagines it could handle, the scenes of the demolition are directed so that at different moments we feel oppressed by the wall of the Maze, and then paradoxically protected by it. The almost overwhelming sound as the wall is destroyed evokes Wylie’s childhood memories of sleep broken by explosions in the city, and the destruction of the wall creates a space into which a sense of peace emerges. The film features excerpts of Simone Weil's ‘The Iliad or the Poem of Force’, read by Paula McFetridge.
Belfast Exposed will also be using Blinded by the very force it imagines it could handle as an opportunity to publicly open the Bank Gallery, a new complex of exhibitions and event spaces and artist studios on Belfast's High Street. This will be the first public event held in the Bank Gallery.
Speaking about his new work and the legacy of his documentation of the Maze, Donovan Wylie said:
‘Sometimes there is a moment where you feel safe enough to look back, you have travelled far enough to gain some perspective, and confident enough not to go back to broken sleep but awake, clear and conscious. In 2006 I was the only person given full access to photograph and film the demolition of the Maze/Long Kesh prison. A place I had come to know incredibly well since I started photographing it in 2001 and a place that loomed large in my childhood. It felt essential to do it, but in the months and years that followed finding the right way to show it became harder and harder. Showing this work for the first time, 15 years after it was photographed, feels something like this new clarity….and so within our full grasp’
Commenting on the work and upcoming exhibition, Belfast Exposed Director Deirdre Robb said:
‘Donovan Wylie is one of Northern Ireland’s pre-eminent visual artists and we are delighted to once again be showing his work. Wylie’s long-standing interest in the architecture of conflict and the legacy of the Maze specifically continues to be highly relevant in Northern Ireland, as we mark 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and this work is no exception. As Wylie himself has said, producing this work 15 years after the images and video were first recorded has given him clarity in his approach to the subject. The result is a poetic, moving piece of visual art that is a poignant record of Northern Ireland's history’
The exhibition will feature 20th April – 28th July | Belfast Exposed Bank Gallery.