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Category Archives: Mental health
How the media must mind mental health
TweetStephen Fry’s recent disclosure of his attempted suicide last year highlights that mental illness does not discriminate between the “haves” and “have nots”, the famous and the “ordinary”. None of us are immune from the feelings Fry described. The representation … Continue reading
Posted in Health, media & communication, Mental health, Music & arts, Social care, Uncategorized
Tagged health, mental health, music & arts
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On loss and learning
TweetI have lost too many friends and service users through suicide over the past 30 years. We examine our consciences to see if we could have done more to prevent such deaths, that’s a normal human reaction. It’s what empathy … Continue reading
The season to be jolly?
TweetHooray, it’s Christmas! Yes, the season to be jolly is upon us once again. But that’s OK because everyone loves Christmas, right? Well, I’m not a fan and I know I won’t be the only one shunning the Christmas cheer, … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Mental health, Third sector, Uncategorized, Volunteering, Young people
Tagged charity, happiness, health, service users, third sector, young people
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Self-harm: the power of talking face to face
TweetSelf-harm has always been a taboo subject and in my many years of mental health nursing probably provided more challenges than anything else for me. It touches at the very core of who we are and how we deal with … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Mental health, Uncategorized, Wellbeing, Young people
Tagged health, young people
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Why I always had time for George: older people and mental health
TweetI’m walking across the grounds of the psychiatric hospital on a very wet winter evening and a patient, let’s call him George, steps out from behind a bush to talk to me. He needs to tell me something that he … Continue reading
Posted in Mental health, Older people, Social care, Uncategorized, Wellbeing
Tagged health, older people
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Art fights social taboos
TweetLiving with chronic health problems and facing social taboos are issues at the heart of an international artistic collaboration about HIV/AIDS as part of the Cultural Olympiad. The powerful images here are part of the Unlimited Global Alchemy project which … Continue reading
Posted in Disability, Health, Mental health, Music & arts, Olympics
Tagged health, music & arts, Olympics
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The power of a poem: how reading broke David’s isolation
TweetGuest post by Eleanor McCann, The Reader project Whenever I arrived to read with patients at the psychiatric hospital, David was always alone. I approached him a few times but the weeks went by and he seemed unreachable, saying nothing … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Mental health, Social exclusion, Uncategorized, Wellbeing
Tagged health, service users
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We should be kind, while there is still time
TweetOver 30 years ago as a young man I first set foot in a psychiatric hospital. It was an old Victorian “asylum” in the rolling countryside of Bedfordshire. I had travelled to the south of England from my native north … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Mental health, Social care, Social exclusion, Third sector, Uncategorized, Volunteering, Wellbeing
Tagged health, service users, third sector
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Pictures of mental health
TweetThe painting here, depicting the torment of a lost past and an unknown future, is among the intriguing works in a new exhibition opening in London today which focuses on mental health. The arts event by charity CoolTan Arts, an … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Mental health, Music & arts, Social exclusion, Third sector, Uncategorized, Volunteering, Wellbeing
Tagged charity, health, music & arts, service users, third sector
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