Each week we publish blog posts on a whole range of topics, relating in some way to mental health — written by Mind staff, service users and health and policy professionals. Some blog posts may not reflect official Mind policy.
We welcome comments and questions on our posts, but have a few ground rules to keep the site welcoming and interesting to every body. The first rule is the most important: be respectful of other commenters and bloggers.
Guest post from Sara Kirkpatrick. Sara reviews Joanne Limburg's 'The Woman Who Thought Too Much', which was recently shortlisted for Mind Book of the Year 2011
Can I say that I didn’t want to open this book? A strange way to begin a review maybe, but it’s true. I wanted to read it; I didn’t want to read it. As someone who has experienced postnatal depression and almost paralysing levels of anxiety, I was wary of finding too much of my own experiences and myself in the book.
Start the discussionLast week, the Dilnot Commission published its recommendations on the future of funding for adult social care in England.
Well, from Mind’s recent surveys prior to these consultations, we know that social care services provide essential support to many people with mental health problems.
24 CommentsIt was a real privilege to be invited to speak at the official opening of the High Royds Memorial Garden in Leeds at the weekend. The garden lies just a few yards from the old High Royds asylum, on the site where nearly 3000 unclaimed bodies of patients are buried in unmarked paupers’ graves. It was an intensely moving event; I met one woman whose great-grandmother had spent 59 years as an inpatient in the hospital, and was buried on this site.
8 CommentsDo doughnuts make you depressed? The Daily Mail, in an article yesterday, has given a list of ‘surprising everyday triggers’ that it believes can cause depression.
Depression is a much more complex condition than the article implies. While some of the possible causes suggested by the article may be factors in triggering or worsening depression we don't know why some people are likey to experience depression and not others. Simplifying and focusing on a small selection of possibilities is unhelpful.
12 CommentsGuest post by Debora Singer, Policy and Research Manager at Asylum Aid
In January, Asylum Aid published Unsustainable, our new research into the quality of the decisions made by the Home Office when women seek asylum in the UK. It reaches stark conclusions about the reforms needed to our asylum system – and also shines a light on the mental health problems affecting women when they flee persecution abroad.
1 CommentGuest post from Glen, on the difference one caring mental health professional can make.
In 2009 I moved to London and to the care of a new support worker at the local Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). Annie was my third support worker that year, but she was amazing from the start.
33 CommentsYesterday marked the end of Refugee Week and the end of Mind’s series of blogs on refugee mental health. The series has provoked some interesting responses from our supporters on the blog and on our Facebook page, and has been retweeted repeatedly.
For some people, it was the message of the importance of providing sanctuary that struck a chord.
1 CommentGuest post from Judith, on mental health discrimination in the workplace
I've had a history of depression since I was a teenager. I had to spend several months as an inpatient in my teens. However, with support and medication I learnt to manage my problems. I moved away from home, got my A-levels and went to University.
21 CommentsIt’s six months since I started here at Mind as Head of Communications. I’m very proud to be working for a charity that’s close to my heart that raises awareness of such important issues. It’s been a busy and exciting time, and although public awareness of mental health is gradually improving, it’s clear that there is so much more we can do and I'd like your help to improve our communications material.
16 CommentsGuest post from Abdi Gure from the Somali Mental Health Advocacy Project at Mind in Harrow.
We know that there are a lot of factors that effect refugees’ mental wellbeing, and that they face enormous challenges in accessing appropriate services based on their needs.
2 CommentsGuest post from Andy Keefe at Freedom From Torture: how a holistic approach to treating survivors of torture can allow people to regain hope.
Torture is a global problem and it destroys people both physically and mentally. I have worked with survivors from over 70 different countries over the years, from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe. Over 90% of the survivors we help at Freedom From Torture are refugees or asylum seekers who come to us from all over the world.
2 CommentsGuest blog from Aysel Kirmizikan, Senior Bilingual Counsellor at City and Hackney Mind, on her experience of providing practical and emotional support to refugees.
Imagine you are running away from war or ethnic cleansing in your home country. Your life is in danger: finding refuge anywhere in the world would be a relief initially.
Start the discussionThe slogan for Refugee Week (20 to 26 June) says it all: “Different pasts, shared future”. A man or woman may be born in a distant country, raised in a different culture, exposed to persecution and forced to travel a long distance to reach safety, but through contact with a community of fellow survivors and carers, can achieve recovery and begin a new life in the UK.
Start the discussionThe future of the NHS is all over the media. Stung by criticism from politicians, health professionals and the public, in April the Government announced a pause in its reforms and set up a 'listening exercise'.
The group overseeing the listening exercise, charged with investigating people’s concerns and recommending changes to the proposals, was the NHS Future Forum. I was asked to be on the panel of this group, and for the last few weeks have worked to ensure that the concerns and needs of people who use mental health service are represented on the panel. While it’s clear that many people hugely value the NHS and the way it supports mental health service users, it would certainly be wrong to assume that nothing needs to be changed (perhaps the impression created by some media coverage).
5 CommentsFollowing the election on 5 May 2011, the new National Assembly for Wales consists of 30 Labour Assembly Members (AMs), 14 Conservative, 11 Plaid Cymru and 5 Liberal Democrats.
Start the discussion