Dylan, backstage.

No, it's not Bob!

I'm having quite a week but it's not THAT amazing!

It's Day 2 of the INTAR (International Network Towards Alternatives and Recovery) Conference and we've had another incredible array of keynote speakers including the inspirational Bhargavi Davar who's come over from Pune in India where she works amongst the most excluded communities, employing whole body approaches to dealing with people's distress, recognising that mind and body are inter-related. Her talk on 'Gender, Culture and Mental Health' had the place abuzz... As did this morning's other plenary speaker, Rameri Moukam who spoke about her work with Pattigift in Birmingham, an organisation dedicated to providing culturally oriented therapies for people of African descent. What a dynamic speaker she is!

This afternoon we listened to anthropologist Prof William Sax, over from the University of Heidelberg, talk about his work on 'Recovery as Healing and Ritual' - based on many years living with Dalit (formerly known as 'Untouchable') communities in North India.

I took photos of all three of them but it's this picture of Dylan Tighe that I like the best. Dylan's an actor, playwright and musician from Dublin who took the short hop across the Irish Sea to play us some songs from his debut album 'Record' this afternoon. I was delighted to introduce him!

The songs on the album all deal with his less than happy experiences of the psychiatric system and his need to create a truthful document about them to counterbalance the version recorded in his clinical notes - from which he also read extracts. His final song, a new one, not on the album, speaks of being "OK now" away from the system and of "no more laments in minor keys". Great stuff. You can check him out here.

I'm hoping to get Dylan over again in October to play a 'proper' gig for World Mental Health Day.

I've got 3 sessions to chair tomorrow so I'm off for a short walk to clear my head before bedtime!