Compassion in mental health reporting
“Ask me about what I would change about societal attitudes towards mental health issues and I’d have a long, long list. However, pretty close to the top of the list would be addressing the attitude of the media towards mental health.” Cari Literally discusses a newspaper report about the ‘disruption’ caused by a person with mental health issues.
What do you call a person who receives mental health services?
There are people who have had bad experiences of mental health services – you only have to look in the comments sections of my posts on this blog to find people who have nothing good to say about mental health services - who would answer “victim”. (I just thought I’d get that in first). But this […]
So we’ve raised awareness about mental health, what’s next?
Summary I’m hearing a lot of noise, but not seeing much action on healthcare delivery As I mentioned earlier this year, recovery from my mental health crisis seems a long way away. Little seems to have changed health-wise. Being trapped by inertia is one thing, but having next-to-no support from the NHS in this field is […]
A foot in both camps
Over the last few weeks I have enjoyed following @Northwestdoc. It has struck me that much of what Dr Holmes as said has rung true with what I have been saying and, coming from a medical professional, this really interested me. I wanted to know more so I asked Dr Holmes to write a guest […]
Room to breathe in defence of the NHS
“We need to engage with the already existing, vibrant user-led movements and NHS workers challenging conventional mental health care and think about what these movements could offer for health care as a whole.” Ramona argues that we can criticise NHS mental health care at the same time as making the case for why privatisation would be worse.
Should professionals write publicly about real cases?
I had a very interesting and thought provoking email correspondence with a reader of The Masked AMHP blog recently. The reader initially found the accounts on the blog of real situations interesting and at times amusing, but then started to think about how they would feel if they were reading about themselves. The reader raised […]
So who is in charge?!
“Here’s what’s wrong with mental health care in the UK << he modestly claimed! 1. No one is in charge of it – at all. 2. It’s not a system – it’s a coincidence.” Mental Health Cop considers the ‘mess’ that is mental health services.
The other way around
“There can be absolutely no doubt that the provision of mental health care across the country is not currently coping with demand. Equally, I do not believe that the responsiveness of Crisis Teams has moved with the times either.” Nathan Constable argues for a better response to people in crisis.
Male mental health
There are various things going on at the moment that got me thinking about male mental health. Here are a range of different issues that have hit my radar over the last few years: 1. We know that around 75% of suicides are men – we also know that men are less likely to seek help when […]
In the shoes of… Alison Cameron, Patient leader & active citizen – Part 2
The first part of Alison’s story can be found on the Whose Shoes? site here. Alison Cameron - Half Life - Part 2 Alison on a ‘Sailaway’ holiday that played a significant part in her road to recovery… I started in small ways after having the seed of hope planted by hearing the inspirational Doctor Rachel Perkins speak. I […]
One step forward - one step back?
Today, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary have published a joint report with the Care Quality Commission, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and HM Inspectorate of Prisons into the use of police cells for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. This matter has been subject to increasing scrutiny over recent years as there have been a number of […]
Delays and more delays: The College of Social Work AMHP Practice Survey 2013
It’s official: Mental Health Act Assessments are beset with unacceptable delays all over the country (or at least England). That’s the message from The College of Social Work’s recent AMHP Practice Survey, the results of which were released at the end of May. And it’s the AMHP’s (and of course the patients) who are suffering the […]
Why the #Woolwich murder is almost certainly not about #mentalhealth
The events that took place in Woolwich yesterday [Tuesday] were truly shocking, tragic and indefensible. A young man killed in the street by two individuals, apparently motivated by Islamist extremism. Scrolling through the responses on both new and old media has been a depressing stream of bloviating blowhards, all rushing to insist that the tragedy […]
You don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone
From July 2012-February 2013, I was a CAMHS service user. I saw the consultant psychiatrist 4 times, an assistant psychologist 5 times and the CPN a few times a month. During this time I would also see my GP at her request, sometimes every week or sometimes every 2 weeks. Never more than 2 weeks […]
I say, I say
“I say, I say. My wife’s gone to Northern Italy.” “Genoa?” “I should think so, We’ve been married for 20 years.” Can you remember jokes like this? Harmless and mildly amusing now but if read out by Tommy Cooper they would have the house roaring in laughter? Let me try one. “I say. I say. […]
My reaction to Adebowale
“…mental health is core police business. It always has been and it always will be. The only question is whether we want to plan and properly prepare for it as we do with many other areas of our work, or whether we can keep busking.” Michael Brown reviews the Adebowale Report into the handling of mental ill health incidents by the Metropolitan Police.
It’s all we have and it has to change
An interesting debate is ongoing at work. Officers are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that they actually have no powers to deal with mental health crises in private places and are beginning to openly ask the question “So what should we do?” The fact that this realisation is dawning after 30 years is also […]
Police mental health
“The two groups in our society whose attitudes have remained fairly entrenched about mental ill-health are the police and mental health professionals. This needs to change along with the rest of the society in which they operate.” Michael Brown calls for the police to reconsider their approach to mental health - including for their own officers and staff.
Could do better - MUCH better
“In twelve months it seems that the Home Secretary has spent a considerable amount of time talking to her counterparts but having little or no impact. Her other action was to write to someone else and ask them to deal with it locally.” Nathan Constable argues that if police are required to deal with mental health issues then this needs legislative change and not inaction from the Government.
This week in mentalists – the ‘was Thatcher right? edition
Hello! It’s that @markoneinfour from that One in Four magazine. There was lots of things that I was going to write about this week (launch of Healthwatch, legal challenges to the government over benefits, the return of popular quiz show Catchphrase to our screens) but it won’t have escaped your notice this week that a certain divisive political […]