We aim to keep alert to developments in the field of mental health and share these through this website. We will cover news relating to policies and practice, research findings, publicly expressed views, regional happenings and national and international events such as conferences.
We are glad and grateful to hear of news to pass on. We’ll try to be comprehensive, however we apologise if we inadvertently miss some items of significance.
The Medical Model in Mental Health: an explanation and evaluation.
This article sets out clearly and convincingly why the medical model in mental health is fundamentally flawed, and how psychiatry is essentially different from other branches of medicine, describing the implications of this difference. Recommended! The medical...
Knocking on the doors of the psychiatric establishment as Nearest Relative
Knocking on the doors of psychiatric establishments as Nearest Relative. This article (see link above) is a moving, illuminating and heart breaking account of a mother's encounters and attempts, as her daughter's nearest relative, to have her voice heard. She...
UK NATIONWIDE APPEAL FOR A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST A SELECTED PARTNERSHIP NHS TRUST EMPLOYING MEDICAL MODEL PSYCHIATRISTS
There have been many campaigns for choice and more compassionate approaches to mental health yet little has changed in the psychiatric system. This report may, however, prove ground-breaking, in that it sets out to note and challenge the many harms perpetrated by...
Wisdom from the System: https://wisdom.maydaytrust.org.uk/#home
This is an online (zoom) discussion on June 30th (in England, (different for Scotland and Wales) for people with all kinds of experience of systems, whether homelessness, social care, mental health or criminal justice. Please see the website (see in heading) for...
Soteria Bristol: local group launch meeting.
The Convenor of Bristol Soteria has sent this account of the launch meeting. First Bristol Soteria Network Meeting 29th February, 2020 A small group of us met in central Bristol for our first meeting as a local group. We were all from different backgrounds but...
Only Connect….
In these physically isolating times we still endeavour to heed E. M. Forster's advice to 'only connect.' There's much current advice out there too, on how best to cope positively with imposed isolation at home, and I won't replicate it. I'll just connect by sharing...
Something to share this Spring Day
I love this poem by John Clare at this time of year, and hear it in my mind's ear when I'm on an early morning walk and see the 'pilewort', commonly known as celandine, unfurling its petals to the day. A 'pingle' is a small enclosed space - it's a regional,...
Soteria Network AGM 2019: Presentation of an exciting new therapeutic initiative for Devon
Please click here to view the presentation.
Join us for Compassionate Mental Health in Cardiff this March
Join us in Cardiff on 25-26 March for Compassionate Mental Health. How you can support this event Our vision is to inspire people so that they can live well after a mental health crisis. We’re looking for partners to sponsor the event, so those living with mental...
Extinction Rebellion
I've heard of a 'new' psychological term, 'eco-anxiety'. Well, I've been feeling near 'eco-despair' for a long time, but I discovered Extinction Rebellion via a Guardian article last November. I joined the Exeter group - found some wonderful people - and it's...
Olive Bucknall: An obituary
Olive Bucknall, a well-known campaigner for the reformation of mental health services, has died after a short illness brought on by a series of strokes. She was 97 and until recently had lived at home. Olive’s story formed the basis for the chapter ‘Relatives and...
