Sophy has proposed a conference; here is a summary of what she wrote:


Who would come to the conference
What would the agenda be?
Do we want to educate schools and health professionals or
Do we want to help the parents?
Would parents be interested?
Would we even get health professionals interested?
Would it be an opportunity to get press awareness?
Would a conference be of interest?
and then of course, we have to look at the cost...How much would people be willing to pay?

I add these questions:
Where should it be held? (Sophy suggested London)
Who would organise the event? (Sophy says she can 'make it happen', but this would need more than one person)
Where do we get the funding?
When? (Sophy suggests September, 2011 presumably)

What does everyone think? Your thoughts would be really appreciated...

There are two parents here who are definitely interested and maybe their daughter.

Simon

Count me in- we need to raise awareness of this awful condition. We need to make the ""professionals" understand the problem, not just the effect on the child but the whole family, and also for families who are despirate for help.

I will have a word with our GP and CAMHS and ask for their opinons.

Fantastic idea, and we would get press coverage hopefully.

Sar x

Sounds a great idea but would be alot of work. If you set up a voluntary group you might be able to get funding from children in need or possibly comic relief as part of their funding criteria is to help people who are facing/dealing with difficluties in their lives and i think our kids and us fit that bill.

What a wonderful idea! Pity I am not in the UK. I have experience organising teacher/educational conferences so could have lent a hand. The psychologist who suggested it? might have some very good ideas and you never know - come on board to do quite a bit of the organising once someone takes over. You really need an organisation that is willing to put money behind it. If it was here I would approach the Anxiety Association of Australia and ask them and get them to organise it but also have the input and help in a big way so that it represents what SR parents want and not just from the point of view of psychologists/psychiatrists. I would imagine something I'd like to see is lots of angles - from the parents - the psychologists - the researchers - the educationalists - the kids who have been through and made it to the other side (if they are willing to talk), teachers, what therapy works (CB etc) and what medication has worked (so that that angle does not dominate). Workshops for parents with SR kids to talk together for support would probably be something needed too? And a question - What would the best intended outcome be? Lots of work.....but if you can get an organisation to want to do this with you - then it sounds very worthwhile.
The hardest thing in fact is the registrations and having very good organisational skills relating to this. An organisation is in a much better position because they have a central place for this and they already have an account. An individual can do this, however, as long as an account is set up and a contact phone and email for any time of day.
I guess it is the money side that needs careful consideration re where the money will come from to pay speakers and for the venue etc.
The anxiety association here has run two workshops for parents and teachers and interested people on SR but they were on the other side of town so I couldn't actually get to them at the time (during the day). That is also a start - if you wanted to try something small first.
Good luck - a great idea!
Linda

This might be of help further down the track?
http://www.parentinguk.org/2/funding
And this is the site that promotes the workshop that the Anxiety Assoc ran that might give some ideas.
http://www.adavic.org.au/product-view.aspx?Id=60
Linda

Hi,

I am having a coffee over the xmas break with the lady who is organising this conference. I will update when I have more news. It looks likely to happen next september and will let you know more details when i have them and if it is relevant to parents.

sophy