A few years ago, I worked free-lance in central London as a sort of facilitator on behalf of the local mental health services. I had been trained as a social worker and for decades previously had worked as a manager of community centres for people with long term mental health diagnoses.
But nowadays, I was more often on a bike,… continue reading
Tag Mental Health
Live Music Sweeps the Board
Augustin Doing Life
“Augustin Doing Life” is the title of a poem I wrote eight years ago. The Augustin of the title is Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the much better known and also more fanatical Maximilien Robespierre, both swept along by the upheavals of the French Revolution, and quite early in their lives, destroyed by them. They were executed together, at Augustin’s… continue reading
… Dignity and Light
Two new poem collections are about to be uploaded on the website of the project I run, called “Poems for…“.
One of them is on Learning Disability and is called “Poems for… Bridges to Learning Disability” The other is on mental ill-health and is called “Poems for…Self at Sea“.
The poems in both collections bring… continue reading
Mental Health Witness – how to consult with people who have turned to you for help
Here is a version of a message just written to a mental health manager who recently sent me a draft-“user involvement strategy” being put together for the service where she works. I am soon to retire from a part-time post as free-lance consultant to a group of mental health service users. My task has been to facilitate the process by… continue reading
Smoking and the Skills of Love
I believe that in its serious and commendable efforts to protect the Nation’s Health, the State is guilty of an injustice of high order as far as the mental health community is concerned. I would go further and describe this injustice as an abuse of state power, almost a case of bullying. My complaint concerns psychiatric hospitals across the UK… continue reading