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.
In the final blog marking Black History Month, Diverse Minds manager Marcel Vige looks at how we can keep black and minority ethnic groups on the Government's mental health agenda in hard economic times.
With the challenges facing the country at the moment, (wage freezes, stagnant economic growth, financial turmoil throughout Europe), now might seem the best time for a new mental health strategy, a response to the stress and anxiety that accompany such troubled times.
Start the discussionIn the third blog of our series celebrating Black History Month, Frank Keating meets a man with reasons to be happy and wonders if it's time for a different approach to mental health in the UK.
At the World Federation for Mental Health conference in Cape Town I met a most amazing man from Uganda. He described himself as a recovered service user and then burst out in song, singing “I am so happy, so, so happy…”.
4 CommentsPatrick Vernon writes about some of the remarkable people who survived abuse in Victorian asylums and left their accounts for future generations, and why it’s so important to continue to record people's experiences. This part of our series for Black History Month.
Some readers may find the start of this blog triggering.
In the first of four blogs marking Black History Month, Sashi Sashidharan looks at the historical role of race in Western psychiatric theory and practice.
The relationship between race and mental health has been problematic within psychiatry over many years. Government policies in this area have become so weakened that there is little prospect of any meaningful change. Writing at the start of Black History Month 2011, it is useful go back to the foundations of this failure.
The 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 discussionYesterday the last Count me in census survey findings were published. It's been produced every year for the past six years as part of the Government's commitment to tackling race inequality in mental health services.
5 CommentsFor many years, Mind has stood up for (and with) people who are marginalised in our society.
We stood up for people in institutional care in the asylums, we stood up for people who faced a loss of liberty because of their mental health, and we continue to tackle the stigma faced by 90 per cent of people who experience a mental health problem.
But it is the plight of people who are seeking refuge in our country which has been highlighted by two new Mind reports (A civilised society: mental health provision for refugees and asylum seekers in England and Wales and Improving mental health support for refugee communities) which were launched yesterday. The product of two years of research seeking to understand the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers who experience mental health problems, the results make for interesting reading.
And it's a pretty messy picture. There's a lack of joined up policy between the Home Office and the Department of Health. Refugees and asylum seekers are entitled to access very limited services, and evidence shows that even these are being provided in a patchy way. There are cultural and linguistic barriers, and in many cases there is a lack of expertise and understanding.
Perhaps this quote from an Afghan refugee best summarises what we found:
The relationship with mental health services is one of extremes - from nothing being available on one hand, to overreaction and sectioning on the other. It is often difficult to find the appropriate middle ground.
Many people arrive in this country fleeing war and persecution because of their beliefs - they may well arrive without having had a chance to seek help for their mental health, because at home they feared for their lives. And so they may well arrive with an existing mental health need.
However it is also possible that the asylum process can add to this distress, and exacerbate poor mental health, as this Iraqi mental health advocate explains:
Family and other support systems may have been left behind...people can become very isolated.
Yet, our reports suggest it doesn't have to be like this. A Somali Advocacy Project, run by Mind in Harrow, works with the local community to ensure that people get the help they need, that interpreters (both linguistic and cultural) are on hand. Funded and evaluated by the King's Fund it offers hope of a long-term sustainable model.
Abdi, who runs this project, describes passionately the help he offers:
This sort of self sustaining model is what we have been looking for and it's giving people their life back.
So where next? Our own funding for this work, from the Lloyds TSB Foundation and Department of Health has enabled us to map available help, develop a training course for refugee community organisations, and recommend ways forward. It's a great start, and a unique piece of work but there's much more that needs to be done.
The issues around immigration are often politically sensitive, and it's not always a popular cause, but Mind is committed to helping refugees and asylum seekers find the help and support they need. We need to stimulate debate and discussion, through this blog and beyond.
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive, Mind
A civilised society: mental health provision for refugees and asylum seekers in England and Wales
Improving mental health support for refugee communities
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