Feature: How a Cumbrian Community is Building Working Class Confidence
by Craig Gent
The cost of living crisis is only compounding crises of poverty and mental health nationwide. But one community in Barrow-in-Furness is pulling together.
Tag: mental health
Long Read: Mental Healthcare Often Isn’t Care at All
by Micha Frazer-Carroll
Carceral approaches to mental healthcare are on the rise in Britain. This should worry us all, argues Micha Frazer-Carroll.
Analysis: How About a Sick Pay System That Doesn’t Make People Sicker?
by Charlie Hertzog Young
By forcing people to work through illness, our inadequate sick pay system is a tool of domination, writes Charlie Hertzog Young. Let’s replace it with one that puts people before profit.
Opinion: The Government’s New Mental Health Funding Will Be Spent on ‘Helping’ Depressed People Into Work
by Jay Watts
Liz Truss just announced £122m of new funding for mental healthcare. But it won't be spent on the psych beds and specialists we so desperately need, writes psychologist Jay Watts - it’s for 700 employment advisors to ‘help’ depressed people into work.
Opinion: I’m a Therapist, Not a Cop
by Erene Hadjiioannou
New government guidance is supposed to make it easier for victims to talk about their perpetrators' crimes in therapy. The catch? Prosecutors may be able to access their therapy notes.
Opinion: Neurodiversity Doesn’t Make Me Miserable – Society Does
by Charlie Hertzog Young
I’ve often blamed myself for my poor mental health, writes Charlie Hertzog Young. The concept of neurodiversity showed me it’s society that’s at fault.
Opinion: Self-Help Culture Is a Lie – But Its Opposite Is Just As Bogus
by Daisy Schofield
Kim Kardashian says get off your ass and work. Fail, says Elizabeth Day – but only if failure fuels further success. Daisy Schofield looks at our maddening inability to think beyond self-improvement.
Opinion: Free Speech Means Nothing Anymore
by Lorna Finlayson
It’s tempting to rebut cancel culture panics by insisting that nobody has literally been silenced. This buys into a rightwing notion of free speech, argues philosopher Lorna Finlayson.
Opinion: The Government’s New Depression Treatments Are a Scam
by Paul Atkinson
The government’s 'progressive' new depression treatment plan, which involves fewer antidepressants and more talking therapy, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, writes Paul Atkinson.
Opinion: To Solve Britain’s Mental Health Crisis, We Must Fundamentally Change Society
by Mark Brown
Progressives still wishfully think that upping budgets will solve the problem. We need to think much, much bigger, writes mental health journalist Mark Brown.
Opinion: Disabled People Don’t Want the Right to Die – We Want the Right to Live
by Penny Pepper
Assisted suicide bills like the one currently in parliament hinge on the idea of choice. But in our age of perma-austerity, we should question who gets to make what choices, writes disability rights activist Penny Pepper.
Opinion: Britain’s Inhumane Benefits System Is Giving People PTSD
by Jay Watts
The psychological violence of welfare applications is destroying our mental health - and an increasingly two-tier benefits system won’t help, writes clinical psychologist Jay Watts.
Opinion: Yes, Mental Health Counts As Disability
by Micha Frazer-Carroll
Even people who live with mental distress are often reluctant to recognise it as disability, writes Micha Frazer-Carroll. But doing so could help us understand that many of our problems are caused by the way in which society is constructed - and to organise together to change it.
Opinion: Blaming David Amess’ Murder on Social Media Is a Way of Avoiding the Knottier Problems
by Ash Sarkar
We don’t yet know what role, if any, social media played in the murder of MP Sir David Amess. But blaming it on that is at best premature, and, at worst, a complete derailment from addressing the trickier root causes.
Report: How We Won: The Mother Who Stopped Her Son’s Deportation
by Mark Montegriffo
A mother, with the help of the public, activists, journalists, celebrities and MPs, fought the Home Office to successfully stop the deportation of her autistic son Osime Brown. Mark Montegriffo reports.
Opinion: It Isn’t Mental Health ‘Wokeness’ That’s Getting to Piers Morgan – It’s Fear of His Own Irrelevance
by Ash Sarkar
Naomi Osaka dropping out of the French Open has infuriated establishment journalists. But what they’re really raging against is the fact that people don’t care what they think anymore, writes Ash Sarkar.
Opinion: Rising Unemployment Is Making Us Depressed. But We Are More Than Our Work
by Harriet Williamson
Pandemic-driven unemployment has shown that basing our self-worth on our productivity is unsustainable. As we emerge from a year of lockdowns, we must rethink our relationship to work, writes Harriet Williamson.
Opinion: Being in Prison During Covid-19 Was Hell – but Pandemic or Not, the System Ruins Lives
by Sam, as told to Sophie K Rosa
Inmates have endured unthinkable conditions during this pandemic, but even before coronavirus, being in prison was like lockdown on steroids. Sam, who has just finished a 30-month sentence, recounts his experience to Sophie K Rosa.