Centre for Mental Health Centre for Mental Health

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.

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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.

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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.

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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/