'Reflective practice' - living in, working with mental illness... or something like that

What is recovery? John Martin Luby 1963-2017 As some of you know, John, my uncle was one of the inspirations for my nursing career. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit with him as part of writing an assignment during my training. The day before MH Nurses day, I thought I would share it.  “Recovery is about being a free agent, being independent. Being in control; of your medication, of what you eat, when you go to bed. It’s about finding a purpose in the everyday. My mum loved me for who I was and didn’t see a label. Living a normal life free from that label. That is recovery to me.” Martin (2014.)     Recovery is not an intervention, and it can and does occur without professional involvement. Mental health services have the ability to facilitate or impede, help or hinder this process and this assignment will establish that. I will demonstrate my own understanding of recovery, and some of the challenges to it that are faced by both the s...

I guess it isn't Time To Change's fault. I mean the logo says 'let's end mental health discrimination." It doesn't say 'lets improve mental health services'. Or 'Time to change mental health services" or "Time to hold mental health services/government/god to account". And I am also conscious that to take this campaign for my own ends, my own argument is to fail to recognise that stigma does still exist that it does still cause harm, that people are still afraid to talk, to get help and that this still kills. But I am not denying that 13 years after the campaign began and days like today, weeks like mental health awareness week, and months like mental health awareness month we still have a lot to do. And in the absence of any particular day to make my case I will choose today. And in keeping with it being 13 years since the launch of Time To Change (according to google), here are 13 things that I think we need to talk about. We ne...