Alan's Experience
Alan Rowland Profile
Alan has 25 years experience in Visual Communications and Marketing; 18 years were spent as Managing Director of his own company, providing advice and guidance on many aspects of ‘Visual Communications’ to business and industry, primarily in graphic design & photography.
Leonardo da Vinci, an EU funded project is another passion. Alan has been involved in a 2 year project ‘Harmonising Mental Health Nursing across Europe’ and a 2 year project ‘EX-IN, Experts by Experience’ for which he wrote a module entitled ‘Comprehensive Assessment’, for a 4 day training program. The module has a recovery focus which included a range of 8 individual ‘Recovery Tools’ which are in use across Europe. Alan has lectured and worked in Norway, Germany, Holland, Italy and Slovenia.
Voluntary Work
Running an Arts and Crafts class was his first involvement in supporting clients. From there he worked on some informal research and project development for 9 months for North Birmingham Mental Health Trust.
House of Commons Select Committee
Having accessed mental health services Alan has personal insight into the journey of recovery, which he put to good use when he gave evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee for the National Service Frameworks (NSF).
Crisis Resolution Home Treatment
Having worked along side a Home Treatment Team during this period, Alan became passionate about implementing evidence based 24-hour services. In 2002 he jointly organised a conference at Birmingham City University that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore issues related to Implementing Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Services.
National Institute for Mental Health England (NIMHE) Training
Alan has been involved in delivering training for NIMHE over a 5 year period, supporting mental health trusts with the transition and implementation of ‘Functionalised Teams’ across the West Midlands Region.
Birmingham City University
BCU highly values Alan’s creative approach to lecturing on mental health issues and he is a regular visiting lecturer on the ‘Recovery’ and ‘Crisis’ Modules. Evaluations of his lectures by students are amongst the highest in the faculty.
World Health Organisation (WHO)
Supporting the de-institutionalisation of mental health services in Kosovo and Albania and working in partnership with professionals involved in the development and delivery of training have both involved Alan’s expertise.
Support, Time and Recovery Worker
In January 2006 took up post in a Home Treatment service and is currently working in a 24 hour crisis resolution setting; this has given Alan another dimension in helping people understand the complex issues around Home Treatment implementation and development.
Shared Perspective
Shared Perspective training is delivered by professionals and clients working in partnership. Over the last 4 years Alan has put his experience and knowledge to use in the training of new Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Teams in England, Wales and Scotland.
On-Going
In November 2008 Alan’s lecture at Hamburg University on his experiences of the last 7 years to a mixture of professionals and clients was considered an outstanding success. He also delivered Recovery Training to professionals in Hamburg and Bremen which focused on the importance of humanity in supporting recovery in mental health.
