Report on Healthy Eating Conference held at the Banff Springs Hotel on Friday 24th August 2001 Introduction The link between good diet and good health has long been known and recent research has also identified important dietary factors in maintaining good mental health. The need to promote a healthy lifestyle as an aid to recovery from mental illness, or at the very least to help maintain a manageable level of functioning, among service users was recently highlighted at The Arches. Consequently, funding was made available through Aberdeenshire Council Social Work Department for NSF (Scotland) to provide a healthy eating/living programme for service users at The Arches. To launch the "NU-U Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Programme" a conference on healthy eating was planned. Service users, carers, mental health professionals and voluntary organisations throughout the North East of Scotland were invited to attend and experts in the role of dietary factors in mental health were asked to speak about their findings. A healthy buffet was also provided. A fee of £8 per person was agreed, though this was subsidised by half for service users at The Arches. Morning Session After a brief introduction by Angelika Eberhard, Regional Manager for NSF (Scotland), the morning session was taken over by Professor Ian Glen from the Highland Psychiatric Research Foundation in Inverness. Professor Glen Professor Glen spoke about the important components in food that provide the nutrients required for a healthy brain and specifically the essential fatty acids required for good mental health. He also covered the effects of smoking and anti- psychotic medication in brain chemistry and the interactions between diet and medication. The talk was interesting, informative and pitched at just the right level to make it very worthwhile for service users, carers and professionals alike. This stimulated the audience to ask many questions, which Professor Glen answered in the same informative way. At the end of his question and answer session, Professor Glen provided handouts explaining the roles of different dietary components and medication in controlling brain function. Lunch A healthy buffet lunch was provided, consisting of fruits, salad, oatcakes, coronation chicken on wholemeal bread sandwiches, pitta bread and salmon vol-o-vents. It was generally agreed that the lunch was delicious. Afternoon Session The afternoon session began with a presentation on "The connection between food and schizophrenia" by Mike Perera from Newcraigs Hospital, Inverness. This recovered some of the areas dealt with in the morning session and also looked at specific foods that can have positive or negative effects on schizophrenia. Another lengthy question and answer session followed and handouts listing the foods to look for and those to avoid were provided. At the end of this talk there was still around 20 minutes of the afternoon session left, so a short presentation on "Famous people and mental illness" was given by Howard Kennedy, NSF (Scotland) Youth Worker. Angelika Eberhard Angelika Eberhard closed the conference and thanked the speakers for their presentations and the audience for their support. Results The conference was well attended by a variety of professionals, service users, carers and voluntary sector mental health workers. Table 1 shows the exact breakdown of attendees. Table 1 The conference was well received and many positive comments were made both during and afterwards. A feedback form will be sent out shortly and these will be collated to provide a detailed assessment. Since the conference, there have been good numbers of service users joining the "Nu-U Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Programme". Conclusion A full conclusion cannot be given until the feedback forms have been analysed but the conference appears to have been a great success, judging by the comments made afterwards and both the numbers and the enthusiasm of service users who have joined the "Nu-U Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Programme" at The Arches.