Centre for Mental Health

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 preven...

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 impro...

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 workfor...

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 ep...

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...

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.co...

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...

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 an...

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 r...

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 d...

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 Wr...

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 inter...

[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 charit...

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 continu...

How is children's behaviour in schools linked to their mental health? And what impact are behaviour management approaches having on young people's mental health? This episode, Thea Joshi sits down with Charlotte Rainer from the Children & Young People's Mental Health Coalition and Daisy*, a member of the Coalition's parent-carer advisory team, to discuss the Coalition's new research on behaviour a...

Thea Joshi is joined by award-winning mental health activist and anti-racism campaigner António Ferreira. From providing guidance for an Eastenders storyline about a young Black man with schizophrenia, to his campaign to end tokenism in the charity sector, António is a force of nature in using his own lived experience to drive real change in mental health. They discuss António’s journey, how his e...

Thea Joshi is joined by Emma Bailey and Hannah Moore from the Equally Well campaign, which we run in partnership with Rethink Mental Illness. They share how Equally Well UK is working to improve the physical health of people with severe mental illness, with the critical aim of reducing the unacceptable mortality gap that people with severe mental illness are faced with. Emma and Hannah discuss how...

Thea Joshi sits down with Chantal and Jamie from Off The Record Croydon to discuss the work they do with young people who have experienced youth violence. They discuss the challenges facing the young people they work with, the unhelpful narrative of young people as 'hard to reach', and the distinctive approach Off The Record takes to meet young people where they're at. Show notes and full transcri...

For our last episode of 2022, Sarah Hughes, outgoing chief executive of the Centre talks to Thea Joshi about her time at Centre for Mental Health. She reflects on the preconceptions she had about policy and research before joining, and the shift in her understanding about how we create change. They discuss what's changed in mental health over her time at the Centre, and what needs to happen next....

Thea Joshi hears from Ed Davie, Policy & Public Affairs Lead, about the cost-of-living crisis and the toxic impact poverty has on mental health. He shares some of the evidence on the links between poverty and poor mental health, and on the rising levels of poverty and inequality we're facing in the UK. They discuss the tangible actions Government needs to take to address poverty, as well as what w...

Thea Joshi is joined by Ayanda Sibanda (Changemaker Coordinator at The Diana Award), Aaliyah Mulenga (one of our Young Changemakers) and Kadra Abdinasir (Associate Director for Children and Young People’s Mental Health at the Centre). Listen in as we learn about the Young Changemakers programme, which is equipping young people with the tools to produce social action projects aimed at tackling ment...

Juliet Snell joins Thea Joshi to discuss how we can better support children's mental wellbeing. Drawing on our evaluation of a BBC Children in Need programme, Juliet talks about the rediscovering the power of relationships, fun, creativity, and self-expression in building children's mental health. Show notes and full transcript: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/blogs/podcast-juliet-snell M...

Thea chats with Steve Gilbert about his own experience of the Mental Health Act and how this shaped his work as Vice Chair of the Independent Review (led by Sir Simon Wessely). Steve discusses the weathering effect of racism on mental health and the way the pandemic shaped our understanding of racial inequalities. Show notes and full transcript: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/blogs/podca...

Thea speaks to independent policy expert Tom Pollard about the fundamental issue of poverty, mental health and the benefits system. They discuss his recent research on how using food banks impacts people's mental health, why he decided to retrain as a mental health social worker, and what is needed to truly address the vicious cycle of poverty and poor mental health. Show notes and full transcript...

Author and campaigner Hope Virgo joins Thea Joshi to discuss her experience of anorexia, her campaigning around BMI and menu calorie labelling, and how she is navigating pregnancy while in recovery from an eating disorder. They also discuss the challenges and frustrations that come with campaigning, and what Hope does to maintain her own wellbeing.  Full transcript: https://www.centreformentalheal...