Shaping Our Lives: From Mental Illness to a Social Model of Madness and Distress

Logo of Shaping Our Lives: A National Network of Service Users and Disabled People

From Mental Illness to a Social Model of Madness and Distress (1)

There are growing concerns about UK mental health policy and services. They are widely seen as being in ‘crisis’,chronically underfunded and having fallen far behind physical healthcare. There are also more fundamental worries that they are over-reliant on a narrowly-based medicalised conceptual framework which can be stigmatizing and unhelpful for service users. 

Authors: Peter Beresford, Rebecca Perring, Mary Nettle, Jan Wallcraft

Foreword: Tina Coldham SCIE Trustee and Chair of the SCIE Co-Production Network www.scie.org.uk

Funding: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Link address:

1. http://www.shapingourlives.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FROM-MENTAL-ILLNESS-PDF-2.pdf

AMHP not condoning cuts — Approved Mental Health Professional no longer prepared to 'follow orders'

Above title by Swheatie of the KUWG

From Community Care magazine online

‘Why I’m retiring from social work to fight the cuts damaging our service’

After 42 years in social work, Terry Skyrme is stepping down to channel his energies into campaigning. Here, he explains why.

September 22, 2014 in Adults, Mental Health, Your Say

Picture: Design Pics Inc/Rex

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by Terry Skyrme, social worker and Approved Mental Health Professional

I have been a qualified social worker since 1972, right at the birth of the generic social services department. In a few weeks time I will complete my last shift. I’ve felt driven to retirement. This post aims to explain why.

For the last five years I’ve worked as a social worker for a mental health crisis team and as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) in Norfolk.

When I joined, the team had five social workers. We managed to carve out the space to do proper social work. We worked at times of crisis with patients and their families to help resolve social and family problems. We carried out our duties as AMHPs and had a degree of pride in our work. We truly felt we were making a difference, protecting patients’ rights, advocating for their entitlement to services and using our knowledge of local resources.
I realise now we were lucky. When our mental health trust became a foundation trust in 2009 things changed. The trust claimed this as a great achievement. In retrospect, it heralded the beginning of serious cutbacks....

Continue reading on Community Care website.... 

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Crisis in Mental Health Services — Social Work Action Network London public meeting, Saturday 8 November

From Social Work Action Network, London

Date, time, place, and speaker details

Our forthcoming meeting 'The Crisis in Mental Health Services' which we're hosting in London takes place on Saturday 8th November at John Barnes Library, 275 Camden Road, Islingon, N7 0JN from 10:30am-4:30pm. (Caledonian Road tube.)

The meeting features speakers including Peter Beresford (Chair of Shaping Our Lives and Professor of Social Policy), June Sadd (Mental Health Survivor and Trainer) plus front line social workers and Disabled People Against Cuts. We'd love you to come, but also to tell your colleagues, service users, friends, trade unions and others about it.

The plan of this meeting and the charter is build a coalition of user led organisations (ULOs), front line mental health practitioners and all others to build radical alternatives to austerity and fragmentation in Mental Health services.

Interest in this meeting and the SWAN Mental Health Charter gathers pace, so we must announce a change in venue - the meeting will now be held at the larger John Barnes Library (not Finsbury Library as previously advertised) 275 Camden Road Islington London N7 0JN - the nearest tube is Caledonian Road.

We hope to be able to offer free food from a local community group supporting adults at risk. There is free Saturday parking in a road adjacent to the venue and the venue is accessible to wheelchair users and people with mobility impairments.

Admission details and why this meeting is important

Any expressions of interest?

NB: If you are interested in attending the event, please email swanlondon AT googlemail.com - it will help us plan. Also, if you would like to be involved in helping out on the day, make contact using the same route.

The next general SWAN London evening meeting will be a few days beforehand on Tuesday 4th November at 18:30-20:30 at a venue TBC. This will focus on the effects of austerity on Social Work and the Frontline programme. We will also devote a section of the meeting to planning for the mental health meeting.

In solidarity

SWAN London

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Social Work Action Network (SWAN) London

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