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Catherine Hennessy
World Book Night
7 March 2011
On the occasion of World Book Night, I have been thinking of those writers whose work has illuminated for me the various lived experiences of mental health problems, substance misuse, homelessness and imprisonment. Here are some personal favourites.
The trouble with labels
14 February 2011
Friends often enquire about my work. They find it hard to relate to the concepts of partnerships and development. They want to hear about people. A person with multiple problems is helpful shorthand for those of us who work in the field but spoken out loud to a friend or relative, it sounds like jargon and it is. So I tell them about Jacky.
Partnerships work
21 December 2010
The publication of the Ministry of Justice green paper “Breaking the Cycle” has re-ignited the debate as to whether prison works in reducing offending. While this battle rages, let’s consider the fact that when it comes to reducing re-offending, there is a strong case that partnership working undoubtedly works.
The importance of getting in early
18 November 2010
This week, I was fortunate to attend the International Juvenile Justice Observatory conference in Rome on behalf of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance.
“You can’t whistle a symphony”: The value of partnership working
28 October 2010
The saying goes “you can’t whistle a symphony; you need an orchestra to play it”. Three years ago we launched a national development programme designed to act as a catalyst for the development of services for people with multiple problems, including poor mental health, who are in contact with the criminal justice system. We called it a development programme, which it indeed was, but I feel confident in asserting that partnership working has been the real leitmotif for the programme.
Finding familiar things in unfamiliar places
12 October 2010
A change, they say, is as good as a rest. So, last week I took a break from my day job at Revolving Doors to do some voluntary work delivering mental health training to staff working with homeless people in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava.
