Advertise on podcast: Centre for Mental Health

Andy Bell welcomes three brilliants guests to explore how to tackle mental health inequalities from the perspective of people with lived experience. Deborah Williams, founder of The Women’s Association, navigated postpartum depression following each of her pregnancies, but it wasn’t until her third postpartum journey that she found support. Christopher Egan is lived experience lead at We Are Survivors, where he draws on his own journey as a former client to advocate for male survivors of sexual harm. Sarah Rouse is a local councillor in Malvern, who after a lifetime of misdiagnosis, found self-awareness and self-acceptance through training as a mental health counsellor. We explore the missed opportunities that prevented our guests from getting the right support, the things that have made a difference for their mental health, and how they are leading with lived experience to advocate for better mental health for all. This is the second episode in a two-part series supported by a grant from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). If you appreciated this episode, we’d love your support to keep our work going – please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate

In the first of a two-part series, supported by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), Andy Bell is joined by Danielle Bridge, Shoana Qureshi-Khan and Martin Bisp – three people leading voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations dedicated to tackling mental health inequalities. In this episode we discuss the structural barriers that can prevent people from getting the mental health support they need, and how community-based work and culturally competent care can help to tackle these injustices.

Thea sits down with Chris Frederick, an expert by experience who has been charting a unique course in his work on suicide prevention. Chris's experience of poor mental health led him to set up Project Soul Stride, through which he is collecting people's stories and building knowledge around Black mental health and suicidality. With this evidence, he's been challenging systems and services to improve mental health support and suicide prevention to better meet the needs of Black people. Show notes and full transcript can be found here: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/podcast-chris-frederick/ If you appreciated this episode, we’d love your support to keep our work going – please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea is joined by Penny East, External Relations Director at Think Ahead which runs a training programme for mental health social workers. They talk about the role of social workers in providing mental health support and how that often tends to be overlooked, both in policy and in public awareness. They also discuss why we need to build a more diverse range of skills into the mental health workforce to properly meet people's needs. Show notes and full transcript can be found here: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/podcast-penny-east/ If you appreciated this episode, we’d love your support to keep our work going – please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

What does the new government mean for mental health? Kadra Abdinasir, the Centre's Associate Director of Policy, sits down with Thea to discuss the impact of new announcements and what the Government needs to prioritise to build a mentally healthier nation. Show notes and full transcript can be found here: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/podcast-kadra-abdinasir/ If you appreciated this episode, we’d love your support to keep our work going – please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea Joshi sits down with Venus Madden. An Occupational Therapist by background, Venus shares her experiences of miscarriage and postnatal depression, as well as the impact of moving to the UK from Hong Kong as a teenager. We discuss how facing inequalities in health care have shaped her and how she's using her story to call for change in maternal mental health. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea is joined by Thahmina Begum, an artist and art psychotherapist based in Leeds. Thahmina talks us through some amazing projects she's led, using art as a vehicle for communities to process racial and intergenerational trauma. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Has mental health culture gone too far? Thea Joshi welcomes Andy Bell to unpack recent comments from government ministers and proposed plans to reduce access to benefits for people taking time off work for their mental health. They discuss what's driving this backlash, and explore where we're actually at on our journey from mental health awareness to mental health literacy. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea Joshi is joined by Frederico Cardoso, the Centre's Senior Economist, to hear about a major new report calculating the economic and social costs of mental ill health. While a £ sign is an imperfect measure of the toll that mental health problems can take on people's lives, this economic analysis has broken new ground in assessing the scale of the problem and the consequences for our economy and society of failing to act. Frederico breaks down and contextualises the figures in the new report and shares some of the solutions that would support better mental health and reduce costs in tandem. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea Joshi sits down with David Woodhead, our Associate Director of Research, to hear about what LGBT+ History Month means to him. He shared how his experiences as a gay man have affected his mental health, for good and ill, and about his journey from addiction to recovery. It was a really moving conversation, and it exemplified the way that lived experience, albeit painful, brings a depth and a richness to our fight for better mental health. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea Joshi is joined by Claudia Turbet-Delof, a local councillor in Hackney, Mental Health Champion, person centred therapist and human rights campaigner. Claudia shares her experience of growing up in poverty in Bolivia, moving to the UK and facing depression and racism. She tells us how these experiences, and witnessing the power of collective struggle by indigenous people in her country, have driven her ambition to make mental health a fundamental human right. Please note that this conversation does make reference to racist language and sexual abuse. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com

Thea Joshi is joined by Centre for Mental Health’s current Writer in Residence, Andrew K Kauffmann. Together they discuss OCD and its battles, from diagnosis and labels, to therapy and everyday life. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com Show notes: Read Andrew's Writer in Residence piece on OCD 'Life with OCD: an anti memoir' here: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/life-with-ocd-an-anti-memior/ Check out Andrew's most recent Writer in Residence piece on men's mental health here: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/a-sermon-that-no-one-will-hear-the-clarion-call-to-act-urgently-on-mens-mental-health/ Useful contacts for OCD resources: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/useful-contacts/

Thea Joshi is joined by Centre for Mental Health’s Associate Director for Policy, Kadra Abdinasir, to discuss the way racial trauma affects multiple generations of a family. They discuss A Constant Battle, a collaboration between the Centre and King’s College London, which investigates how the experiences of racism towards both parents and children affect their mental health and parent-child interactions. Kadra shares insights from the research and unpacks the concept of trauma, pointing us to actions that could address the severe impact of racism on mental health in the UK. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com Show notes: Learn more about our recent briefing, A Constant Battle: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/briefing-62-constant-battle Check out Living While Black by Gilaine Kinouani, recommended by Kadra during the episode: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436 Read our report, A Mentally Healthier Nation: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/mentally-healthier-nation Check out the Leaders Unlocked network, mentioned by Kadra during the episode: https://leaders-unlocked.org/

[Content warning: this episode discusses self-harming and suicide.] Thea Joshi is joined by ZeZe Sohawon, an award-winning mental health activist who campaigns for better support for people at the intersection of autism and mental health. ZeZe shares her own lived experience of being on a low-secure inpatient unit, and what helped her to get better. She also shares the vision behind her new charity Emotion Dysregulation in Autism which is working to improve the mental health of young people. She discusses what’s needed for more culturally competent mental health support, and the inequalities facing autistic young people who are struggling with their mental health. If you appreciated this episode, we'd love your support to keep our work going - please donate today: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/donate Music by scottholmesmusic.com Show notes: Learn more about ZeZe's new charity - Emotion Dysregulation in Autism here: https://www.emotiondysregautism.org/ Check out their Podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/300fnb414ZS3Mu6xXgMWhk?si=513851a39987437a&nd=1) and follow ZeZe on X, formerly known as Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FZeZeJonesBoi Read our blog by Zainab on her own experiences of the difficulties she faced as a Muslim trying to access mental health support in the UK that acknowledged her cultural and religious context: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/blogs/it-just-me-mental-health-muslim-communities Download our Muslim Mental Health factsheet made in partnership with Woolf Institute: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/fact-sheet-muslim-mental-health Watch our Festival of Ideas event on Children and Young People, where ZeZe Sohawon was a guest speaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaAwF4kgPl8&feature=youtu.be

Thea Joshi sits down with Centre for Mental Health chief exec and returning guest, Andy Bell. Having been at the Centre for over 20 years, Andy shares the changes that have been forged in mental health in that time, and the distance we have yet to travel to eradicate persisting inequalities. They discuss how to balance frustration at slow progress with a sense of optimism that allows us to continue the hard work of making mental health equality a reality.