Nika + Tommy + Kwajo + Kevin + George + stopping ECT +
We have published the latest data set showing human rights abuse within the Mental Health system – please see below + the website for further details
A community-powered NHS: making prevention a reality
LBRUT should follow Hartlepool’s lead?
Camden Health + care citizen’s assembly
LBRUT should follow Camden’s lead?
Achieving food security through land reform
Healthy foundations: integrating housing as part of the mental health pathway
community land trust – housing affordable
Learning from other countries – energy
NHS paying £2bn a year to private hospitals for mental health patients
We could do so much with that money – Wendy
Inquiry investigates deaths of 1,500 NHS mental health patients in Essex
Not just Essex? - Wendy
“Where we are born into privilege, we are charged with dismantling any myth of supremacy.
Where we are born into struggle, we are charged with reclaiming our dignity, joy and liberation.”
“Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future.
Solidarity requires commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground”
Can randomly selected citizens govern better than elected officials?
The law in 60 seconds – legal aid for inquests video
Hillsborough law – duty of candour - would this help with our Freedom of information requests?
Cannabis, ketamine and speed to be decriminalised in London by Sadiq Khan
A shorter working week for Europe
Children imprisoned on remand – the stark reality of racial bias
Combatting Structural Racism and Classism in Psychiatry: An Interview with Helena Hansen
Suman Fernando’s book Institutional racism in psychiatry + clinical psychology
Mental Health Act reform: race and ethnic inequalities
How Western Psychology Can Rip Indigenous Families Apart: An Interview with Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn
People deprived of liberty due to misapplication of Mental Health + Capacity Acts
As a result of the Bournewood case the Mental capacity act came into being?
The mental capacity act
Assume capacity
Best interest
Least restrictive
People can make what others would consider unwise decisions
Supported decision making
Capacity can easily be assessed
Can someone make a decision?
Can they communicate the decision (not necessarily verbally)?
Can they remember the decision?
-Wendy-
Restraint, segregation and seclusion review: progress report
Half of people with a learning disability and autistic people reluctant to provide feedback on care
The authority gap: why women still aren’t taken seriously
Women disproportionately affected by soaring Mental Health Act detentions
Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”
Report Finds Monitoring of Electroshock Treatment Unsafe
New Study Finds ECT Ineffective for Reducing Suicide Risk
We can STOP ECT with lasting power of attorney?
Provide Tapering Strips for People Who Want to Withdraw Safely from Psychotropic Drugs
NICE Guideline Update Acknowledges Severe Antidepressant Withdrawal
NHS statistics show continuing rise in antidepressant prescribing
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions
How universal basic income can tackle anxiety + depression
Long-term antipsychotic use linked to breast cancer
Government review finds 10% of drugs dispensed in England are pointless
Sedated, How Modern Capitalism Created our Mental Health Crisis - James Davies +
CRACKED – why psychiatry is doing more harm than good
Coronavirus and depression in adults, Great Britain: January to March 2021
“Almost 4 in 10 adults earning less than £10,000 a year experienced depressive symptom compared with around 1 in 10 earning £50,000 or more”
The data shows what we know to be true: struggling with your mental health doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Why not Diagnose Social Conditions Instead of Individual Symptoms?
The WHO Calls for Radical Change in Global Mental Health
Emotional CPR: Heart-Centered Peer Support
How do we pay for a basic income?
Welsh basic income pilot has been published
In a statement from Jane Hutt, Minister for Social Justice
The pilot will be targeted at care leavers
All young people leaving care that turn 18 over a 12-month period starting this summer will be invited to participate
That is expected to be about 500 people
Participants will receive the payments for 24 months starting from the month after their 18th birthday
A £1,600 a month basic income will be paid each month
Extending Welsh Universal basic income pilot to heavy industrial workers
VOTE FOR THIS EVEN IF NOT IN WALES
Twickenham repair cafe – 3rd Saturday of each month 10:30 to 13:30
£1 Concession Tickets for Kew Gardens
As part of their new 10-year strategy, Kew Gardens is committed to ensuring that cost is not a barrier to accessing their gardens in both Kew and Wakehurst.
They have introduced a new admission price of £1 for anyone on Universal Credit, Pension Credit or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
Visitors just need to present proof of their benefit on arrival to be eligible for the new concessionary ticket
Jim Flannery – What is torture?
All-in-one-hub
SPEAR – St.Mungo – CDARS – We are with you – MIND – CAB - DWP
every Thursday 11am-1pm
Richmond library annex
quadrant road
Richmond
TW9 1DH
Savour nature’s golden season: returning redwings and mega migrations
ID help: your guide to bird calls in autumn
Arts Richmond presents The Roger McGough Poetry Competition 2022: ‘Turning Point’
A climate-themed karaoke night, a play about electricity, River of Hope
Your Grow Your Own news for October
will you help stop the attack on nature?
Community based organisations + community recommended organisations
Letter from Ron Bassman, Executive Director of MindFreedom International – 23 July 2022
Dear Psychiatric Survivors, Advocates & Friends
I write this letter of resignation today knowing full well that there is a great deal more work that needs to be done.
I hope that my tenure as executive director of MindFreedom International has been meaningful and has laid the groundwork for future advances of the work and vision begun by the amazing David Oaks and my good friend and Board president, the extraordinary Celia Brown.
I wish also to acknowledge the selfless dedicated work and support of our office staff, Sarah Smith, and Kelli Williamson.
During my time as E.D.
I have had the honor and privilege of meeting and making new friends, initiating new programs and addressing the many rights violations coming into our Shield program.
I am most proud that we have made substantial progress in establishing cross-disability alliances.
56 years ago, I was involuntarily hospitalized and labelled with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
The horrendous treatments I was subjected to over the next 6 months – 40 insulin comas coupled with electroshock – resulted in the almost complete loss of my memory, along with being deprived of my personal agency.
The ensuing journey of transformation centered around a vow to myself to not only recover but to do whatever I could to prevent others from being forced to undergo similar harmful “for your own good” interventions that masquerade as treatments.
Although I will not be representing MFI, I will continue to actively engage in the programs in which I think I can make a positive contribution.
I strongly believe that those of us who have been doing this work for a long time need to inform and help mentor a diverse group of young and BIPOC people to take on leadership roles.
I have been most fortunate and grateful to collaborate with many talented, compassionate, dedicated people who bravely fight to protect our rights while ignoring the risk and personal cost of speaking truth to power.
My last day of work as Executive Director of MindFreedom International will be at our Board of Directors meeting on August 18, 2022.
I appreciate all of you and I hope that MFI continues to expand its important work in activating a Nonviolent Revolution of freedom, equality, truth and human rights that unites people affected by the mental health system with movements for justice everywhere
Podcast with Dr Ronald Bassman
Create, Debate and Imagine a different local democracy
CITIZENS: Why the key to fixing everything is all of us
F.E.E.L. - Friends of East End Loonies
A Caring Mind | A blog for carers of mental health
Poverty eradication organisations + self-expression
The Community Power Act in full!
Joseph Rowntree foundation (JRF)
Stark rise in people living in very deep poverty
From disability to destitution
Social justice in a digital age
The Invidious Hand: Social justice in the age of control
Making a house a home: Why policy must focus on the ownership and distribution of housing
Why the Chancellor shouldn't cut Universal Credit
Including Economic (in)justice explainer video – A redesigned economy
Why we need a new conversation about social security
A Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom in 2021
The biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the Second World War
People living in social housing claiming Universal Credit are struggling to afford the essentials
Why we must #KeepTheLifeline and what you can do to help
House prices see their biggest annual rise in decades, and rents are up too
New analysis exposes impact of planned Universal Credit cut
Rashford targets a win on Universal Credit
what's causing structural racism in housing?
it's going to be a “very difficult winter” for low-income families
less than a week for the Government to #KeepTheLifeline
Biggest ever overnight cut to social security makes a mockery of levelling up
Invest in social housing for almost 1 million families paying private rents they can't afford
Millions of low-income households pulled under by arrears while living costs rise
A tale of two Budgets for low-income families
A just transition to net zero is necessary, and key for maintaining public support
Paving the way for good jobs through participatory co-design
Including Navigating power dynamics within participatory projects + Where next for social security after recent Universal Credit announcements?
Winning hearts and minds for decent, affordable housing
Families furthest below the minimum income standard excluded from social security gains
Inflation is pushing people deeper into poverty
Including housing ideas
Elections Bill could disenfranchise millions of voters
600,000 people pulled into poverty by Spring Statement
JRF welcomes Chancellor's cost of living measures
addressing poverty with lived experience (APLE)
Allow all people to work flexibly if they want to – PETITION
Sign the petition: We need an emergency budget that boosts Universal Credit now
Why the design of Universal Credit is driving the need for food banks
What drove Steve to use a food bank?
“We are receiving an increasing number of referrals from people who are struggling after the unexpected happens, for example if someone’s car breaks down.
Living in a rural area such a Rutland means having a car is not a luxury, it's a necessity; so, you must pay out for the car to be fixed otherwise you can’t take the kids to school, or drive yourself to work, however this can mean there is just no money left for the food.
People are having to make very, very difficult decisions day in, day out – just to survive.
When people who are working full-time jobs still can't feed their families, it really highlights that income levels are not matching the rising cost of living.
It's not just price rises on fuel, or electricity and food but every which way you turn prices are going up, but if wages or benefits don’t increase accordingly how can people possibly be expected to cope?”
Dee Burton – volunteer Rutland Foodbank
everyone should be able to afford the essentials – EMAIL MP
Paying your energy bills: help is at hand
A Marshall Plan for People and Planet Starts with Africa’s Green Recovery
Communities in Africa trek for weeks to survive drought
National Survivors User Network (NSUN)
NSUN is a great organisation with a great newsletter …
You can sign up to it here ….
NSUN's strategic direction: redistributing power and resource in mental health
NSUN also has a directory page here
Extracts from the newsletters …
AGM online 15 November
contact amy.wells@nsun.org.uk
rights + migration officer by 10 October
The last two jobs are part of Synergi
Synergi is a programme of work which focuses on the intersection of racial justice and mental health
It had a previous iteration as a knowledge hub, bringing together research and network building
In its new iteration it is hosted by NSUN
with a focus on abolitionist responses to mental health and supporting grassroots groups to challenge state violence
In this, there is a lot of scope to experiment
innovate and to try new approaches
as this is a well-resourced programme of activity
Synergi has four main workstreams:
Community Responses to Mental Health
working with grassroots groups to experiment with community-based mental health care
Supporting Movement Spaces
working with grassroots groups to map local carceral systems that contribute to mental ill health in racialised communities
Grants Programme
small grants programme redistributing resources to grassroots and user-led groups working on mental health and racial justice
Festival
a creative culmination of the above three workstreams
Mental ill health, distress or trauma is often caused by and/or exacerbated by racial injustice and carceral forms of state violence
Our aim is for Synergi to support the work of groups at the frontline of challenging this
and to effectively contribute to building collective memory and power on mental health and abolition
NHS trusts are still using harmful mental health practices, secret reviews show
suicide cultures seminar with China Mills – 25 October
whiteness + race equality network conference – 26 October
not one more: justice for Gaia public press conference – 12 October
out of sight out of mind – 11 October
pain + identity destruction – borderline personality disorder + self – harm
Blog by A via Self Injury Support
Visions for a Liberated Anti-Carceral Crisis Response
Blog by Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu, Project LETS (USA) via Medium
benefit sanctions as a weapon of state violence
Podcast via the Deaths by Welfare Project
for physically disabled people – self harm is even more hidden
Blog by Katy Evans via Self Injury Support
Blog by Anita Slater on the MadZines project via The Feminist Library
Chemical imbalances or problems in living? You don’t decide!
Article by Helen Spandler via Asylum Magazine
Article by Mud via Asylum Magazine
Don't Forget The Preproduction When Carrying Out Coproduction
Blog by and via Iggy Patel
NHS TRUSTS AND POLICE REVIVE SCHEME THAT ‘DENIES CARE TO MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS’
Article by Liberty Investigates
Video series by Decolonising Economics on racial hierarchies, collective healing, disability justice, and economics of queerness
Blog by Akiko Hart via NSUN
Blog by Ruairi White via NSUN
state violence + distress – the false separation between migrant justice + mental health
Blog by Rose Ziaei via NSUN
beyond serotonin – I will see you there
Blog by Heather Cobb via NSUN
trauma leads to trauma that leads to trauma
Blog by Emma via Self Injury Support
episode 3 – Saartje Tack + the “where” from which suicide is read
Podcast by The Suicide Cultures Podcast
why health inequalities need to be addressed for the specific community
Blog by Sukhjeen Kaur via Shaping Our Lives
dear mental health professionals- even “good” formulations can harm
Blog by Wren Aves via Psychiatry is Driving Me Mad
trauma-informed care left me more traumatised than ever
Blog by Wren Aves via Psychiatry is Driving Me Mad
Paper by Hartley et al., 2022 via The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
the police failed my cousin – Gaia Pope – 5 years on, others like her are still at risk
Article by Marienna Pope-Weidemann via The Guardian
Secret reviews into DWP deaths more than double in three years
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
Barriers to Mental Health Support for People of Colour and Migrants
Article by Micha Frazer-Carroll via NSUN
Disabled activists will push for changes to draft mental health bill that - breaches right
DWP dismisses 300 pages of evidence linking its actions with countless deaths
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
help us document evidence of welfare – related death
Barriers to Mental Health Support for People of Colour and Migrants
Article by Micha Frazer-Carroll via NSUN
Article with illustrations by Louise Page via Disability Arts Online
Mental Health and the Politics of Exhaustion in the UK Asylum Process
Blog post by Tianne Haggar via University of Oxford's Border Criminologies
less Than 2% Episode 3: Beyond Trauma
Podcast by Chayn via Less Than 2% ft. NSUN's Ruairi White
Pink Gin in the Street - Derren Brown and the Corona Virus #10
Blog by Jennifer Reese via MadCovid
New podcast – lived experience work: anti-racism & mental health
E158 Rianna Walcott: The Colour of Madness
Podcast by Surviving Society
Community accountability peer support hub (CASH)
Are you in groups that are trying to move away from punishment as a way of dealing with problems in society?
Do you think that it’s important for your group to deal with harms that happen to people within the group?
It can feel easier to hope for a neat solution, in the form of a person or people, who can parachute into a situation and 'fix' it for us.
While this might be understandable — this stuff is hard! — this treats community accountability like a service that can be provided for us rather than community-led and community-created processes or a set of shared values and practices that we build together.
Join us to talk about the impetus to “outsource” community accountability work, why this should be resisted, and how we all can integrate community accountability into our everyday organising.
MIND should include side effects in their research surveys - PETITION
alternative support resource list – Asylum
Take part in research to improve care for women with mental health conditions
contact ccolegate1@sheffield.ac.uk
service user recruitment: PhD project on providing more holistic care
contact elizabeth.tuudah@kcl.ac.uk
rainbow of promise: Poetry book
Call to action – catalyst 4 change
Unpicking the complex dynamics of racism, anti-Blackness and class within mental health services
Article by Mental Health Today via LinkedIn ft. Mary Sadid from NSUN
Obituary by Mark Brown via The Guardian
The Communication and Restraint Reduction Study
Blog by Colin King via NSUN
Why don’t they ask us? The role of communities in levelling up – Institute for Community Studies
Provide Tapering Strips for People Who Want to Withdraw Safely from Psychotropic Drugs
NICE Guideline Update Acknowledges Severe Antidepressant Withdrawal
Petition to Scrap Care Charges Inclusion London
Coronavirus and depression in adults, Great Britain: January to March 2021
“Almost 4 in 10 adults earning less than £10,000 a year experienced depressive symptom compared with around 1 in 10 earning £50,000 or more”
The data shows what we know to be true: struggling with your mental health doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
The state of disability benefit assessments and the urgent need for reform - #peoplebefore process
Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches
World Health Organisation (WHO) – NSUN’s response
Lived Experience Practioners Revolution - New Website
UNIVERSAL CREDIT: WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE TO MAKE IT FIT FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES?
Mental Health Act: Call for "unequivocal commitment " to improve access to advocacy
Disability Benefits Research 2021 – Survey
Update on FOI Requests: Who's Ballin' & Who's Stallin?
To Solve Britain’s Mental Health Crisis, We Must Fundamentally Change Society
Article by Mark Brown via Novara Media – Listen to the piece here
Blog by Akiko hart via Charity so White
Blog by Ellie Thompson via NSUN
Refugee and Migrant Wellbeing with Benny Hunter from Da'aro Youth
Podcast with Benny Hunter via The Eriwellbeing Podcast
Article by Yas Necati via gal-dem
NHS trusts criticised over system that films mental health patients in their bedrooms
Article by David Batty via The Guardian
Abolition of State Power, Regardless of the Uniform
Article by Liv Wynter & Ros B via NSUN
How I learnt of Revolutionary Love
Article by Guppi Kaur Bola via Medium
Graceful resolve: Attitudes for navigating a psychological crisis
Article by Amy Pollard via Centre for Mental Health
Blog by MiserySquid via Mad Covid
Podcast with Rai Waddingham via Mad Tunes Podcast
Disability strategy is unlawful, court confirms… and denies DWP permission to appeal
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
Sometimes I want to be unreasonable
Blog via Mad Covid
My ADHD diagnosis isn’t ‘wrong’ and it isn’t an ‘identity’ for you to challenge
Blog by RoseAnnieFlo via Animated and Excitable
Free advice – for upholding adults' Health and Care Act rights
Loneliness – themed photo project on show in Wakefield
Article via Amateur Photographer
Secret DWP report reveals unmet needs of disability benefit claimants
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
A Philosophy of Madness’ Book Forum: Part One
Book review by Jeremy Spandler via The Polyphony
tokenistic “service user” involvement must be addressed
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
Caught in a Trap: Psychiatric Sabotage
Article by Liam Kirk via Asylum Magazine
Magical thinking and moral injury: exclusion culture in psychiatry
Follow-up blog by Dr Chloe Beale & Ellen Thomas via Cambridge Core Blog
Article by Jenni Ajderian via Recovery in the Bin
New concerns over equality watchdog as it scraps disability committee
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
Write to your MP to fix the cost of living
Willful Subjects*: Decolonizing the Psychiatric Institution
Panel discussion viaBarnard Center for Research on Women
Government bows to pressure over accessible versions of Human Rights Act consultation
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
Report: We're just numbers to them – The DWP failure to investigate death and serious harm
Write to your MP to fix the cost of living – turn2us
Understanding Why Using The 'Real Men..' Approach In Men's Mental Health Is Harmful
NHS trust to stop filming mental health patients in their bedrooms
What is trauma and how do we decide to disclose or not disclose?
DWP: deaths, cover ups, and a toxic 30 year legacy – an investigation
Article via Disability News Service – based on evidence compiled by John Pring and the Deaths by Welfare project
Do you know of any groups, networks or individuals who do hospital visits for people on mental health wards?
If you know of anyone, or have any thoughts on this as an idea, please contact Wendy at wmicklewright@yahoo.co.uk with details (including whether the people you know of are region-/hospital-specific).
Please also copy in info@nsun.org.uk if you wish.
Many thanks
Mental Health Act young people's survey
Help disabled people survive surging energy bills – WRITE TO MP
A basic interpretation of the models of Disability
Blog by Dave Lupton aka Crippen via Disability Arts Online
E166 Farzana Khan: Community-led healing
Podcast by Surviving Society and Farzana Khan via Surviving Society Podcast
truly shocking figures expose disabled people’s precarious financial situation
Article by John Pring via Disability News Service
Meet the Young Changemakers who are reimagining mental health support!
Video by UK Youth
Understanding the identity of lived experience researchers and providers
Blog by Veenu Gupta via NSUN
Critical Perspectives Seminars Spring 2022 Recordings Critical Voices Network Ireland and others
"Seminar 1: 'Yes, but where do you really come from?’ ‘Race’, racism and mental health – Messages from the racialised others
Seminar 2: ‘Can you help me get out?’: Ethical, political and methodological struggles in doing survivor research in mental health
Seminar 3:‘And the activists tell us that meds are evil’: Polarised mental health politics and the struggle for ambivalence
Seminar 4:First Do No Harm: Iatrogenic Harm in Mental Health"
The living legacy – the Henderson Heritage Group – 21 October
colours youth festival – 22 October
whiteness + race equality network conference – 26 October
+ Jobs + Funding + MUCH MUCH MORE
Build Back Fairer in Greater Manchester: Health Equity and Dignified Lives
Survivor Researcher Network (SRN)
Tell your MP to restore Disabled people’s rights
Protect Everyone Bill – EMAIL MP
Take Action and abolish the tax on disability – EMAIL MP
Government rule changes on social care cap hits poorest hardest – EMAIL MP
UNCRDP Westminster Government civil society shadow report sign up
URGENT – Email your MP to help avoid catastrophic care costs
Help Disabled people survive the cost of living crisis – write to your MP
thinking outside the (tick)box conference – 1 November
latest including why participatory budgeting works
Want to write for the BBC? Plus…
Z2K – fighting poverty – EMAIL MP
Z2K has caseworker to help people
We need your help
Nearly half of all people in poverty in the UK are either disabled themselves or live with someone who is disabled
EDM 19 disability benefits assessments – CONTACT MP
Homelessness + renter organisations
New guidance for housing management teams
Housing First England Newsletter – New Survey Alert
Housing First England Newsletter – Minister responds to funding request
Housing First England Newsletter – Join our call for a national Housing First programme
Housing First England Newsletter – Commissioning Housing First through RSI budgets
including setting out core milestones along someone’s Housing First journey
More than 95,000 households are living in temporary accommodation in England right now
2022
1 in 4 households were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless because of the loss of a private tenancy
3,405 households in the private rented sector were evicted by bailiffs between April and June – up 39% on the previous quarter
Here’s the statistics:
24% of private renters have had to borrow money to pay their rent
18% have cut back on food or skipped meals to pay their rent
12% have cut back on heating their home to pay their rent
Our research shows the true scale of the problem.
That 3.2 million people from across the country have been forced to live in dangerous or unhealthy privately rented homes because they fear complaining will trigger a retaliatory eviction.
That's 39% of all private renters.
Too scared to complain for fear of losing their home, the effects of insecure tenancies and 'no-fault' Section 21 evictions hang over every renter's head.
Contact your MP today asking for their support
Social Housing – CONTACT YOUR MP
Time to open up, OpenRent! – EMAIL
2,688 sleeping rough during the pandemic
Sign to protect renters’ rights – PETITION
Do you have a renting horror story?
Want to challenge DSS Discrimination?
Eviction ban lifted – INFORMATION
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Demand better from renting - PETITION
Meet Krystalrose – she's fighting for change
Shelter’s new campaigns and organising training programme – YOUR IDEAS NEEDED
Today, 1 in every 52 Londoners is living in temporary accommodation.
This is costing huge amounts of money and doesn’t provide the stability or security families need to thrive.
I'm done with renting because…
Let’s build a better future: Call on the government to build social housing - PETITION
What happened to ‘Everyone In’?
23% left without any move on accommodation and may be at risk of returning to the streets or forced to turn to insecure arrangements like sofa surfing 22% remain in emergency accommodation
23% of those still in emergency accommodation have No Recourse to Public Funds and are stuck without access to homelessness assistance or housing benefit, meaning it is hard for them to move on to a secure home
45% of England’s private renting adults – that's 3.7 million people – have been the victim of illegal behaviour from a landlord or letting agent.
Michael Gove: New Housing Secretary of State – SIGN OPEN LETTER
Fix renting
Build social housing
Help people at risk of sleeping rough
Are letting agents refusing you for being on benefits?
Next step contact the property ombudsman (TPO)
Will you help us get council leaders to support renters?
London Assembly Unanimously Passes Motion on Affordable Housing for Care and Support Workers
A good Home is a human right
Level Up Housing
On the 2nd Feb 2022, the government released its plans to ‘level up’ the country.
It included three very important announcements on housing:
Build more genuinely affordable social homes ✔
Give tenants of social homes more protection ✔
Bring forward a national landlord registry, improve standards in privately rented homes and strengthen the rights of renters ✔
Gove ‘ashamed’ of Social Housing conditions
I’m being evicted – EMAIL MINISTER
octopi have three hearts and produce their own ink yet humans call octopi violent for throwing seashells underwater!
humans also medicate confined creatures for 'zoochosis' - that antipsychotic medication first tested on animals gave us our 2 heart-attacks as 'side-effects'.
bleak humour is proven to aid survival. heartfelt is about reframing narratives & learning to grow. a game of competitive empathy will be played; psychiatry will be reduced to firewood; edible-love-poetry will be offered to all.
have a heart, & come watch this wildly inventive disability-led solo theatre show!
Don't leave young people out on the streets – PETITION
If a rent freeze had been in place...I would have been able to stay in my home
We beat my landlord. Now let’s take on the system.
Be a part of challenging 'Right to Rent' in court
Contact rowan@leighday.co.uk
We're campaigning to make sure councils #SideWithRenters
increasing regulation of landlords, expanding landlord licensing and hiring more enforcement officers
reducing attempts to move people out of the borough and reducing use of “intentional homelessness” decisions
campaigning for rent controls
setting stronger targets on social housing and standing up to developers
Is your landlord trying to put your rent up? You’re not alone
landlords and estate agents are using the cost of living crisis as an excuse to push up rents
members have been reporting rent rises of 30% or 40%
One member was even asked to pay 70% more rent
Some housing associations are talking about putting up service charges
It is a shameful attempt by people who already make huge profits from the housing crisis to squeeze renters and boost profits
Many of us now face eviction or being left without enough for basic essentials this winter
Evicted after 47 years – PETITION
Safe, secure and affordable homes for all: A renters’ blueprint for reform
The White Paper: Generation Rent's Verdict
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: National Register of Landlords
Ask your MP to back the Renters Reform Bill
Private renters in nine London boroughs face paying half of their income or more on rent, analysis by campaign group Generation Rent has found.
Rent on the typical two-bedroom home costs 45% of a full-time salary in London.
Campaigners say this pushes families into poverty and financial stress, and makes it harder to save or to start a family.
Paying more than a third of your income in rent is considered unaffordable.
Generation Rent is calling on the next Mayor of London to lead a campaign to demand powers from the government to reduce rents.
Measures would include freezing rents within tenancies, to give tenants more certainty, a rent control system that aims to reduce rents overall, and tough penalties for landlords who break the rules, overseen by a city-wide Rent Control Board.
In March 2020, the rent on the median 2-bedroom home in London was £1450 and the median full-time salary was £38,592.
That would mean that a single-earner family with a baby would be spending 45% of their earnings on rent.
The situation is worst in inner London, Newham and Haringey where this figure is above 50% and reaches 76% in Westminster.
The most affordable borough is Bexley, with median rent worth 33% of the median full-time salary.
However, affordability has improved over the last five years, with just five boroughs – Camden, Greenwich, Havering, Redbridge, and Westminster – becoming less affordable since 2015.
Alicia Kennedy, Director of Generation Rent, said: “High rents force people into poverty and make it almost impossible to save towards the future.
No one should have to spend more than 30% of their income on rent, yet this is a reality for most Londoners who are stuck in the private rented sector.
“Londoners urgently need bold action to make renting more affordable. Investment in housebuilding is needed to make renting more affordable long-term, but rent controls would offer immediate protection and relief.”
Join our Day of Action - #RentersAreWaiting - PETITION
Since March 2020, 8% of private renters who responded to a Survation survey had received a Section 21 notice from their landlord, which would represent 694,000 private renters across England.
Nearly a third of those surveyed (32%) said they were concerned about the possibility of their landlord asking them to move out this year, which would represent 2.78m private renters across England.
The survey was commissioned by Generation Rent, with results published this week.
We need a COVID Rent debt fund - PETITION
Join us in preventing a homelessness crisis – PETITION
A new report, 'A safe place to call home: Ending unfair evictions for good'.
The report sets out the changes the Government must make to ensure every renter has access to a stable home where they can put down roots and thrive.
You can read all about the report here.
We are calling for:
Open ended tenancies
More time to find a new home
Compensation for a blameless move
No excessive rent increases to force an eviction
No mandatory evictions for people in rent debt
Close the holiday let tax loophole – PETITION
Renters are being forced out of their homes to make way for more lucrative holidaymakers.
We have been able to get the research done to prove it!
In the last two years rental listings in Wales and South West England have halved and rents have gone up by around 25%.
That's one of our findings that have been reported in today's i newspaper
In North Devon there are 2,591 short-term holiday lets but just 21 private rental listings on Rightmove and 30 on Zoopla.
In Gwynnedd, Wales, there are 4,007 holiday lets but just 99 homes for private tenants.
The collapse in the supply of homes to rent are pricing renters out of their local communities – away from their family and friends.
Renter reform coalition – EMAIL MP
Campaign win! Government to require landlords to register
Tell the government your views on decent homes by 14 October
Helping rough sleepers – PETITION
Close the eviction loophole – PETITION
You can sign a petition without making a donation
Cardboard Citizens: Survey for Members
Cardboard Citizens' Inclusivity & Equality Agenda
In recent years movements such as Black Lives Matter and #metoo have prompted shifts in our society and highlighted the work that needs to be done to address social inequality.
As a result Cardboard Citizens Staff, Board of Trustees and Member Representatives have completed a course of training over the last six months with Fearless Futures
This focused on understanding and unpicking systems of inequity (the behaviours and processes which have a harmful or negative impacts on marginalised groups), reflecting on our own practices as individuals and an organisation.
Through these sessions we have explored:
Privilege
Intersectionality
where different categories overlap such as race and gender resulting in multiple forms of oppression
Gender-norms
Racism and Anti-Racism
Colonialism
Calling people in’
i.e., challenge prejudices or narratives that reproduce inequities
Social justice is at the heart to Cardboard Citizens’ work in the theatre and beyond.
We continue to learn, striving to create inclusive environments and challenge oppressions in society.
This is a key area of focus for the company and we would love to involve some more Members in these conversations.
If you’re interested being part of this and for more information, please email Bonny: Bonny@cardboardcitizens.org.uk
Access Free Energy Bill Support
including Citz Writers – 13 September – 6 December
Cardboard collective – 7 September – 6 December
theatre making – 29 September – 15 December
Groundswell partnership | Chris speaks to Streetwise Opera | Resistance Theatre audio plays
WATCH: Eight brand new short films about social housing
Creative + nature + advocacy
Dragon cafe have hosted laughing therapy + wire sculpture activities in the past
Groundwork is a federation of charities mobilising practical community action on poverty and the environment across the UK.
We’re passionate about creating a future where every neighbourhood is vibrant and green, every community is strong and able to shape its own destiny and no-one is held back by their background or circumstances.
START THE NEW YEAR WITH A WARMER HOME
Charities unite to urge for a green and resilient response to the gas crisis
Apply for a One Stop University Scholarship
From The Ground Up – Empowering communities through environmental action
Stop gambling suicides – publish the gambling act white paper – PETITION
No more Gambling Act whitepaper delays. Write to your MPs now!
Everton FC: Don’t use our shirt to advertise gambling products
Me and You and a Global Pandemic
Medicating Me: Personal Impressions of Psychiatric Medication
reflections on advocacy during Covid
National Development Team for Inclusion
Leeds Autism AIM: #PowerOfPartnership
NAC – Guidance regarding emotional enrichment
Staying mentally well this winter
Audit of MH services – PLEASE COMPLETE
This resource helps mental health services think about how to provide a good service to autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
There’s more information about it at Green Light Toolkit – NDTi
People organised + information
Connected Kingston – including providing information about Legal drop-in clinic + welfare benefits information
Calling the police on someone in distress IS a threat of violence
"How Big Pharma & Psychiatry Gaslight Us"
Man Arrested in Mistaken Identity Case Locked in Hawaii Mental Health Hospital for Two Years
Open Letter Re: Shooting Death of Orlando Taylor
What We’re Still Getting Wrong About What Happened to Orlando Taylor III
Justice for Miguel Estrella: Event & Statements + More
Mad in the Family Monthly Newsletter
Robin Murray is one of the most influential researchers on schizophrenia
Find out why he now believes the diagnosis should be retired
This week’s newsletter here
Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”
Catherine’s Story: A Child Lost to Psychiatry
Call for Teen Art in All Media!
Is Service-User Research Possible in Mental Health? An Interview with Diana Rose
In Andrew’s Honor: Attorney Elizabeth Rich’s Fight Against Unjust Commitments
Meaningless Distractibility, or Meaningful Mind-Wandering?
A Return to Dignity from Psychiatric and Childhood Abuse
Why We Urgently Need New Approaches to Mental Health
20 Concrete Steps to Achieving System Change
No Evidence for Long-Term Safety or Efficacy of Mental Health Treatment in Children
Lois Holzman: A Developmental Response to Trauma and Trauma Language
Influential Neuroscientist Reviews Decades of Failure
Allan Leventhal: Behavior Therapy Helped My Patients Through Antidepressant Withdrawal
Are Antidepressants Better Than Placebo for Some? Not So Fast, Researchers Caution
Exercise Just as Good as Antidepressants for Moderate Depression
Genetic Embryo Screening for Psychiatric Risk Not Supported by Evidence, Ethically Questionable
Major Depression: The “Chemical Imbalance” Pillar Is Crumbling—Is the Genetics Pillar Next?
An Illness, or Risky Experimentation?
I Had No Idea That Gabapentin Could Do This…
Top 10 Myths About the Critics of Psychiatry
Mad Parenting: On Becoming an Unlikely Family Man
The Mad in the World Network: A Global Voice for Change
A Therapist Tried to Explain CBT When I Was 11 Years Old, Ineffectively
Michael Scott: The Phobic Avoidance of Attending to Real World Mental Health Outcomes
No Better Outcomes After Testing for Antidepressant Drug-Gene Interactions
Reducing Involuntary Psychiatric Admissions in Norway
Study Contradicts Diathesis-Stress Model of Psychosis
Nobody Knows What “Serious Mental Illness” Means
Neoliberal Values Connected to Increased Stigma and Suicidal Ideation
How Diagnostic Interviews Translate Situational Behavior Into Pathology
State Sponsored Biomedical Psychiatry Impedes Movements of People with Psychosocial Disabilities
Trauma Survivors Speak Out Against Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Away From Psychiatrization: Towards Socio-Ecological Wellbeing in the Community
Loss, Grief, and Betrayal: Psychiatric Survivors Reflect on the Impact of New Serotonin Study
Psychiatry, Fraud, and the Case for a Class-Action Lawsuit
Inside A Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Where I’ve Come From and Where I’m Going
How Grief Became a Disorder and What This Means About Us: An Interview with Kaori Wada
Psychiatry Textbooks Are Filled with Errors and Propaganda
The Parts Within Us: An Interview with Richard Schwartz, Creator of Internal Family Systems
Andrew Scull—Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
Exercise Associated with 25% Lower Risk for Depression, Researchers Say
The Powerful Allure of Psychedelics in Today’s Disenchanted World
Books Under Review: Summer 2022
Psychiatry’s Failure Crisis: Are You Moderately or Radically Enlightened?
Response to Criticism of Our Serotonin Paper
No Evidence Low Serotonin Causes Depression
Are People with Psychosocial Disabilities Welcomed in Public Spaces?
Addressing Racism-Related Stress and Trauma in Psychotherapy
Treatment Pathways for Psychosis Vary by Race
How Does Spiritual Voice Hearing Compare to Psychosis?
The Transformative Potential of Psychosis
a diagnosis + it’s damage – Schizophrenia
Laura Van Tosh: The Life of a Psychiatric Survivor Activist
Pollution’s Mental Toll: A Talk with Journalist Kristina Marusic
Psychology’s “Winning Streak” Is a Failure of Science, Not Success
Industry Sponsorship of “Cost Effectiveness Analyses” Produces Biased Results
Pharma’s “Evergreening” Patent Tactics Mean High Costs and Low Benefits for Consumers
Nothing At All: How Antidepressants Failed Me
The UK’s IAPT Service Is an Abject Failure
Less Than a Quarter of Those with Depression Respond to Treatment in Real Life
Doctors Renew Campaign Against Overdiagnosis and Overmedication
Coercive Psychiatric Practice Goes Beyond Seclusion and Restraint
Researchers: Study of Schizophrenia Held Back by “Cult-Like” Belief System
Does Humanistic Psychology Support the Capitalist Status Quo?
Psychiatric Drugs Do Not Improve Disease or Reduce Mortality
Pharmaceutical Industry and FDA Use Mob Tactics to Silence Whistleblowers
Peer Values Versus Violence: A View from Lived Experience
Treating Grief with Addiction Drug Jeopardizes Social Connections
Antidepressant-Induced Serotonin Syndrome a Danger for the Elderly
Social Interventions for “Serious Mental Illness” Show Promise But Face Resistance
Can Secure Attachment Reduce Death Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsions?
Why Some Therapists Consistently See Better Results with LGBTQ Clients
Open Season on Mental Patients
Psychedelic Therapy Will Not Save Us
Jock McLaren – The Biopsychosocial Model is a Mirage, Time for a Biocognitive Model?
open season on mental patients
Industry Corruption in Systematic Review for Injectable Antipsychotics
Racism, Poverty, Inequality: Social Ingredients for Psychosis, Depression & More
Psychiatry’s Medical Model: How It Traumatizes, Retraumatizes & Perverts Healing
Behaviorists Must Confront Psychiatry’s Pseudoscience
Tara Thiagarajan: Mental Well-being Better in Venezuela than in United States: Why?
The Shady World of Shock Treatment
A Different Psychiatry Is Needed for Discontinuing Antidepressants
The Failings of “Mental Health”: How a Seemingly Benign Concept Might be Dangerous
A Blood Test for Suicide? Not When the Cases Overlap with Healthy Controls
A Hopelessly Flawed Seminar in “The Lancet” About Suicide
The New York Times Comments Section: A Literary Rorschach Test for the Masses
Depression Stigma May Be Decreasing; Psychosis Stigma Increasing
Mainstream Psychology Slow to View Police Brutality as Systemic Racism
Does Psychiatry’s Buzzword “Flourishing” Reflect the Real World?
The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Upcoming NICE Depression Guidelines
New Tools to Support New Moms: An Interview with Jennifer Barkin, PhD
Peer Support Research: Is It Time Yet?
Bringing Integrative Community Therapy to Pittsburgh: An Interview with Alice and Kenneth Thompson
Study Highlights Uptake of Voice Hearing Groups in Brazil
Social Media Influencers Now Marketing Drugs to Niche Audiences for Big Pharma
Conflict of Interest Policies in Europe May Hide Pharma Influence
How Concepts Like Trauma and Resilience Reinforce Neoliberalism in the Global South
Inner Fire Is the Only Place I Would Go for Emotional Distress
Thomas Insel makes a case for abolishing psychiatry
Antidepressants Do Not Improve Quality of Life
Did Psychiatry Ever Endorse the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression?
Capitalism and the Biomedical Model of Mental Health
Mad by design: an ancient paradigm of psychiatric thought
Trans lifeline: naming trans-specific harm in Mental Health
Council of Europe Releases Report to Promote Voluntary Mental Health Treatment
Psychology “Incompatible with Hypothesis-Driven Theoretical Science”
Including racism + informed consent
Patient Reports Reveal SSRI Antidepressants Often Lead to Emotional Blunting
Social Security and Asylum: How States Produce Negative Affect to Stigmatize and Deter
“From the Victorian workhouse to contemporary welfare reforms, the provision of ‘welfare’ has long coexisted alongside policies and practices that mobilize negative affect to deter specific groups from claiming state support, and to craft public affect (such as fear and disgust) about these target populations.”
My Letter to an Advocate for Involuntary Treatment
The WHO Calls for Radical Change in Global Mental Health
The Transformational Qualities of Hearing Voices Groups
BMJ: 20% of Health Research Is Fraudulent
Pharmaceutical companies are no longer attempting to hide their financial influence.
The face of commerce is visible at every stage of the process: the biased design of the trials, the spinning of the results, and the subsequent touting of the drugs to prescribers.
Antipsychotics Linked to Increased Breast Cancer Risk
Coercion and Dehumanization in Mental Healthcare
Combatting Structural Racism and Classism in Psychiatry: An Interview with Helena Hansen
Responsibility Without Blame in Therapeutic Communities: Interview with Philosopher Hanna Pickard
Reason and Madness: How Psychiatry Marginalizes Those Who Contradict Western Norms
Art, Music, Exercise, and More: What Are the Recommended Doses for Improving Mental Health?
How Western Psychology Can Rip Indigenous Families Apart: An Interview with Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn
Research Reveals Mental Health Professionals’ Participation in Rape Culture
Emotional CPR: Heart-Centered Peer Support
Inside A Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Here’s How to Survive
Lithium No Better Than Placebo for Preventing Suicide Attempts
Lithium, Antidepressants, Esketamine—All No Better Than Placebo?
Qualitative Evidence Supports the Ban on Conversion Therapy in Canada
Adverse Childhood Experiences Associated with Higher Anxiety in College Students
What Role can the United Nations Play in Rights-Based Global Mental Health?
When It Comes to Mental Health Problems, The Disability Framework Fails
Mental Health Care Must Support Consent and Basic Human Rights
The Psychiatric Hospital Is an Institution of Social Control
Common Statistical Method Conflates Withdrawal with Relapse
New Review: Antidepressants Come with Minimal Benefits, Several Risks
Family Physicians Must Change Antidepressant Prescribing Practices
Person-Centered Approach to Psychopathology Eschews Diagnosis
The Crisis in Psychiatry and The Slow Way Back: Interview with Vincenzo Di Nicola
When Tapering Antidepressants, is Going Slow Always the Best Strategy?
Ketamine Withdrawal Has Severe Consequences
Inside A Forensic Psychiatry Unit: The Ground Where Death Meets Life
For Life: Opera on Psychiatry and Its Drugs
Unscientific Diagnoses Medicalize Normal Human Experiences
Can Anything Good Come Out of Therapy?
Critical Psychology for a Better Society: An Interview with Sebastienne Grant
De-Psychiatrization and the Promise of Open Dialogue
Ekaterina Netchitailova: "Mental Health” Is a Euphemism for Policing Social Deviance
SSRI Antidepressants Do Not Improve Depression After a Stroke
Why We Need a Neurodiverse Philosophy of Autistic Happiness
Navigating the meaning of psychosis important for recovery
Guardianship Destroyed My Family
Fireside Project: Peer Support for Psychedelic Experiences
Understanding the Youth Mental Health Crisis: An Interview with Elia Abi-Jaoude
No Meaningful Brain Differences in Depression
New NICE Guidelines for ECT Are Dangerously Inadequate, Say 50 Patients and Professionals
August 20, 1985: The Day My Psychotic Episodes Ended
How Socioeconomic Class Affects Therapy
Clinicians and Patients Often Disagree on Mental Health Outcomes
Psychiatry and Psychology Fail in Response to Farmer Suicides in India
Online Debates on Psychiatric Diagnosis Often Rely on Rhetoric Instead of Facts
Home Alone: Finding Connection During the Pandemic
Why Is Child Sexual Abuse So Common in Institutions?
Why Is Psychiatry So Defensive About Criticism?
Did Pharma Companies Hide Failed ADHD Drug Studies From Regulators?
Study Discovers Extensive Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in Medical Research
Roll-out of 988 Threatens Anonymity of Crisis Hotlines
Johann Hari: Stolen Focus – Why You Can’t Pay Attention
Major Review Finds Limited Effectiveness for Medication and Therapy
Evidence Distortion in Medicine Explained in One Single Chart
Negative Antidepressant Trials Still Unlikely to Be Published
Shifting Away from ECT and Antidepressants for Depression
Put Psyche Back Into Psychiatry and Add Psychological Intimacy
The New DSM Is Coming and That Isn’t Good News
Michael Hengartner – Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription
Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Earning the Right to Sleep on the Floor
Jane Engleman: Consternation of the Bees
Christine Burnett: The Danger of Marginalizing People
Philip Hickey: Why Is Psychiatry So Defensive About Criticism? Part 2
Read Rebuts Biased ECT Defenders
The Medicalization of Women’s Suffering: An Interview with Dana Becker
Can the Psychodynamic Manual Move Therapy Beyond the DSM?
How Providers Can Support Psychiatric Drug Discontinuation
John Read: Fear and Loathing in the ECT Debate
James Knochel: Malignant Do-Gooderism: The Tragedies of Allopathic Psychiatry
Michael Hengartner: Regulators Are Approving Drugs Without Clear Evidence That They Work
Research News: Ketamine No Better Than Placebo for Reducing Suicidal Ideation in Depression
Medicating Preschoolers for ADHD: How “Evidence-Based” Psychiatry Has Led to a Tragic End
Ibrahim Ba: The Unveiling of the Truth: A Journey Into the Invisible World
Richard Vernall: Collateral Damage: The Negative Impact of Antidepressants on New Zealand Youth
Evidence Lacking for Mobile Mental Health Apps
Toxic Marketing: The Business of Selling TMS
How Psychiatry Perpetuates a Culture of Exclusion
Addressing Cultural Bias in the Treatment of Personality Disorders
The Censors Are Coming for Mental Health
MIA’s Suicide Hotline Transparency Project
Robert Spitzer on DSM-III: A Recently Recovered Interview
Official Guidelines on Antidepressant Discontinuation Fail Practitioners and Patients
Sexual Assault at Any Age is a Risk Factor for Psychosis
Dying to Stay Alive: A Ketamine Disaster
For the Love and Care of the People: An Interview with Vanessa Green on Call BlackLine Organizing
How Effective Are Therapy and Medication, and What Do They Treat?
Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Access to the Courts—A Right and Survival Tool
Esketamine: Dangers and Lingering Questions
Pharmaceutical Industry Corruption Goes Beyond Conflicts of Interest
Racism Evident in Patient Health Records
A “Mass Possession” Event in Nicaragua Exposes Inadequacy of Western Mental Health Approaches
The Looting of “Outsider Art” by Psychiatry Continues Today
Anti-Psychiatry, Szasz, Torrey, Biederman & the Death of Freethinking
The Social Unconscious and Character Formation in Neoliberal Culture: An Interview with Lynne Layton
Jane Engleman: Fifty-Eight Years Beyond the Community Mental Health Act, 1963
UK Finds Success with Peer Supported Open Dialogue Program
Democratizing Psychiatric Knowledge Production Through Lived Experience Leadership
Study Investigates Burdens Placed on Survivor Researchers
Why Do People Self-Harm, and How Can We Stop It?
Antipsychotics Worsen Cognitive Functioning in First-Episode Psychosis
Parenting Changed My Perspective on “ADHD”
Nature: Brain Imaging Studies Are Most Likely False
How Evidence Based Medicine Became an Illusion
Antipsychotics Often Prescribed Without Informed Consent
Police Killings and the Pseudoscience of “Excited Delirium”
Becoming Whole: How a Change in Me Became a Change in My Practice
Thomas Jobe: The Legacy of Research He Leaves Behind
The Functions of the Mental Health System Under Capitalism
Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Calling in AIR Strikes
Mental Wellbeing Poorest in English-Speaking Countries of the World
Trusting People as Experts of Themselves: Sera Davidow on the Wildflower Peer Support Line
The impact DSM has had on us all – podcast
False Positives in Brain Imaging, Unpublished and Missing Trials, and Conflicts of Interest
Many Service Users Interested in Decreasing Antipsychotic Use with Professional Help
Human rights should be central to Global Mental Health approaches
From Labeled to Healer: A Road Less Traveled
Council of Europe Releases Report to Promote Voluntary Mental Health Treatment
Results of the Inpatient Alternative Soteria Model in Israel
Apples and Oranges in Peer Support Research
Saving Lives or Cementing Stigma? A Review of “Just Like You…”
Psych Concepts Creep Into Our Everyday Experiences: An Interview with Nicholas Haslam
Personal Story by Brooke Siem: If We Knew What We Know Now
Miranda Spencer: Ken Burns’ “Hiding in Plain Sight…”: Candid Interviews, Canned Conclusions
Penni Kolpin: Condensing “Anatomy of an Epidemic” into a High-Level Summary Document
"holy shit!” psychiatry's cognitive dissonance on display
Beverley Thomson–Antidepressed: Antidepressant Harm and Dependence
Antidepressants No Better Than Placebo for About 85% of People
Marian Kornicki: #RestoreTheirRights: An Update on Guardianship Action
Researchers Find No Brain Differences in Depression
The Psychiatrist’s Dilemma: In Defense of Placebo Psychiatry
How ADHD experts silence criticism
London hearing voices network – update
Art Making, Nature and Spirituality Workshop
Spiritual crisis Network (SCN)
including beyond the pill
Self- development
happier – kinder – together
We can't change what happens, but we can choose our response
Happiness isn't about everything going well – it's about responding constructively, even in difficult times
10 keys to happier living groups
How to live mindfully, even in stressful times
How to feel part of something bigger every day
Making time to be mindful helps us reduce stress levels,
by turning our focus to the here and now, rather than dwelling on the past or future
Canopy + stars – a life more wild – podcast
“The qualities of kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity are the attitudinal foundations and qualitative tone of mindfulness.
Cultivating these qualities plays a central role in freeing the mind from patterns that create and recreate distress?”
The richest human isn’t the one who has the most, but the one who needs less.
Wealth is a mindset.
Want less and appreciate more today.
Coalition for Personalised Care
including events
5 Quotes for Coping with Things You Can't Control
Today, use frustration and disappointment to motivate you rather than annoy you.
Breathe and be mindful.
You are in control of the way you respond to life.
It’s not what you broadcast to everyone else that determines the trajectory of your life;
it’s what you whisper to yourself behind closed doors that has the greatest power and influence.
Some people will never understand, and it’s not your job to teach or change them.
Prioritize your peace.
Learning to let go of certain expectations and detach from certain people, are two of the great paths to inner peace.
Your worth is not dependent on someone else’s ability to be kind and loving.
Accept this, and start acknowledging your own worth.
Stop waiting for others to tell you how important you are.
Tell yourself today, and believe it.
The goal this year is to gradually change your response to what you can't control.
To grow stronger on the inside, so that almost nothing on the outside can affect your inner peace and wellness without your conscious permission.
Our perspective on just about everything comes from the psychological cage we’ve been conditioned to live in.
A cage created by...
A difficult or disappointing experience
A privileged or sheltered life
Social influence
Pop-culture and mass-media stereotyping
And the list goes on.
Gradually, unbeknownst to us, our cage—our conditioning—drains our mental energy, leaving us vulnerable to bad decision making?
When we were young, we saw the world through simple, hopeful eyes.
We knew what we wanted and we had no biases or concealed agendas.
We liked people who smiled.
We avoided people who frowned.
We ate when we were hungry, drank when we were thirsty, and slept when we were tired.
As we grew older our minds became gradually disillusioned by negative external influences?
At some point we began to hesitate and question our instincts?
Our minds are incredibly powerful
They can bring us down or lift us up at a moment’s notice
How we think about things literally changes everything we do on a daily basis!
Whenever I’m coaching someone who’s struggling in the trenches, I gracefully shift their focus from what they don’t want to what they DO want
I remind them that what you focus on grows stronger in your life, and that the best time to focus on the positive and take responsibility for your happiness is when you don’t feel like it
Because that’s when doing so can make the biggest difference
Sometimes you simply have to let go and accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you’re going next, and do your best to appreciate this freedom.
Because it is only when you are suspended in the air, with no destination in sight, that you force your wings to open fully so you can fly.
And as you soar around you still may not know exactly where you’re travelling to.
But that’s not what’s important.
What’s important is the opening of your wings.
You may not know where you’re headed, but you know that so long as your wings are spread, the winds will carry you forward.
4 More Relationship Truths for Tough Times
Resentment hurts you, not them
Sometimes walking away is the only path forward
Some relationships will be blessings, others will serve as lessons
Even the best relationships don’t last forever.
3 Hidden Behaviours that Harm Your Relationships
Using complaints and disagreements as an opportunity to condemn each other?
Using hateful gestures as a substitute for honest communication?
The silent treatment?
Healing in Your Relationships
If you don’t allow yourself to move past what happened, what was said, what was felt, you will look at your present and future through that same dirty lens, and nothing will be able to focus your foggy judgment.
Always be kinder than necessary.
Forgive yourself for the bad decisions you made, for the times you lacked clarity, for the choices that hurt others and yourself.
Some chapters in our lives have to close without closure.
Be careful not to dehumanize people you disagree with.
Being kind to someone you dislike doesn’t mean you’re fake.
People tend to be more thoughtful and kinder when they have found a little happiness and peace of mind.
"How can I respond from a place of clarity and strength, rather than continuing to react in anger and frustration to the painful experiences I've been forced to live through?"
Think about that question for a moment.
Read it again, and sit with it.
Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, pause for a few seconds, take a few deep breaths, and make space for a healthy change of state—for something new to enter...
It's time to consciously redirect your focus by taking it away from something unchangeable that drags you down, and instead zero it in on something small and actionable that moves you forward in the present moment.
4 Hard Choices that Make You Happier in the Long Run
You can choose to be present when it would be easier to pick up your phone.
You can choose to do a workout when it would be more comfortable to sit around.
You can choose to create something special when it would be quicker to consume something mediocre.
You can choose to invest in yourself when it would take less effort to procrastinate.
‘New normal’ anxiety: A therapist’s guide
A therapist’s guide to self-care
Self-care is the practice of taking action to improve your health.
We can do this regularly or just from time to time, but it’s important to turn this abstract concept into a concrete goal.
I've written a blog on the ‘6 domains of self-care’, including my top tips on how to give yourself a little love.
Physical self-care
This is about taking care of our physical body and getting back to basics.
Eat regularly and in a way that nourishes your body
Exercise regularly
Boost your sleep
Psychological self-care
We all know it is important to take care of our mind.
This might include seeing mental health professionals or simply doing things to help us recharge.
Turn off phone notifications
Keep scheduled therapy appointments
Take time for reflection
Emotional self-care
This involves your relationship with yourself.
Check in with your feelings and see how you’re doing.
Keep a journal
Vent your frustrations
Engage in opportunities to create happiness
Physiotherapist – Working from home: 4 health hacks
Plump it up
Make your chair more ergonomic.
Add cushions and a foot rest to take care of your lower back.
Go for a raise
Try shaking up your desk design.
Raising your laptop will help to protect your posture.
Break it down
Take micro-breaks.
Regular movement helps prevent muscular pains.
Stretch yourself
That's it.
Stretch.
Stretching at your desk will reduce the risk of muscle strain.
3 simple techniques to help improve your breathing
Breathing control
This means just breathing easily, using the least effort.
It helps you to relax.
Place your hand on your tummy, below your ribs.
Feel your tummy rise and fall as you breathe gently through your nose.
Let go of any tension, just breathe as you need to
Deep breathing
This helps to fill the lower areas of your lungs.
Take a long, slow deep breath in.
At the end of the breath in, hold the air for 2 to 3 seconds before letting the air out gently.
Try to keep your shoulders relaxed.
Repeat for 3 or 4 deep breaths.
Huffing
This is a way of clearing mucus from your lungs.
Take a breath in and then breathe it out quickly through your mouth, as if trying to mist up a mirror.
Once any mucus has moved upwards, you should find it easier to cough it out. But there is no need to try and force up mucus.
Always finish with more relaxed breathing control (exercise 1) after the huffing exercise.
A to Zzz... our top tips for a good night's sleep
Be consistent
Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day – and avoid napping throughout the day, if possible.
Create the right environment
When it is time for sleep, make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark and cool
(The NHS recommends 18-24C for adults and 16-20C for children).
Have a change of scene
If you find yourself unable to fall asleep, get out of bed and do something relaxing elsewhere.
Try reading or drinking some non-caffeinated herbal tea, and stay off social media and news sites, which can often be anxiety-inducing.
Let Your Inner Child Out
Sometimes the grown up in you needs a break.
So, every now and then, release your inner child and enjoy some carefree fun.
See the world with childlike wonder.
Ask lots of questions.
Revisit one of your favourite childhood books or movies.
How will you let your inner child come out to play?
All You Need Is Less
If you're wanting more love, more peace, more meaning, more focus, you'll probably find that all you need is, less.
Less expectations, less talk, less buying, less thinking, less stuff, less stress….
Are you ready for less?
As The River Flows
Just as the river flows through all terrains,
never stopping, and never expecting anything to help it flow,
in the same way, we too can be like a river, flowing through the twists and turns of life and keep creating a way forward
And just as the river makes the land fertile, we too can create abundance and help things flourish wherever we are
A Point of Stillness
Find a point of stillness from which you begin and to which you return, every day
Give yourself the space to just be and experience a sense of wellbeing
What or where is your point of stillness?
How will you make stillness an important event in your day?
Like an Alchemist
Like an alchemist, transform something worthless into something precious
The key to alchemy is perception
So, overlook the visible lead to seek the hidden gold
See the limitless possibilities in everything
focus on the pure gold within each one
and turn lead into gold
Above the Clouds
When life gives you clouds
remember that
a) you are not the clouds
and b) like clouds, situations will sooner or later pass
And you can always
a) look for the silver lining
and b) rise above the clouds and find your own sunshine
Your day
To put your day into perspective and sleep well, add this exercise to your bedtime routine
Summarise your day
Summarise your day in a word or two, or a sentence
Make a note of it mentally, digitally or on paper
Summarise your experience, challenges or accomplishments from the day
If you can’t think of anything positive, try and summarise it in a constructive way and get closure on the day
Involving Others in Decisions
How often do you involve others in the decision-making process?
It makes sense to include those who are impacted by the decisions,
or those who will implement those decisions.
It increases their engagement and responsibility,
and having various perspectives can only lead to better outcomes
But involving others in decision-making takes time and resources
How do you figure out when to Involve others in the decision making, and when not to?
Nourish with Happiness
Apparently, there is no nourishment like happiness!
So are you nourishing yourself with happiness?
Here are 3 ways to nourish yourself with happiness, everyday:
1) Feed yourself a dose of laughter (a good joke or a funny video clip)
2) Engage in one activity that makes you happy (gardening or cooking)
3) Create space to feel happy (a dose of gratitude or meditation)
Giving Advice
Is your default mode to give advice?
Before you rush to give advice
check if the other person wants advice or a listening ear
When giving advice to someone, give suggestions
And try not to be pushy about them following your suggestions
Give your advice and then give them space to do what is right for them
Be Present to Prevent Stress
Whenever you find yourself stressing about getting things done or what’s going to happen
try this: be present
Firstly, become present to your emotions
your stress
and then, become present to what you’re doing and where you are
Be present and you may find that it helps you to feel less stressed
more relaxed
and be more effective and productive
Be more present and in the long term, you'll increase your stress resilience, and may even prevent feeling stressed.
The Real Problem
Have you considered that the problem is not the real problem?
The problem is how you think about the problem
Think differently about the problem and you'll not only change how you feel and experience your reality, but ultimately change how you respond to the problem
Fill Your Bucket
If you feel irritable or low on energy, positivity and resilience,
maybe it’s because your bucket is empty
If your bucket is empty, make the time to recharge your batteries and treat yourself
Go for a walk, listen to music, connect with people or simply rest from your daily routine
How will you fill your bucket?
The Unpredictability of Everything
Life is anything but predictable
So
1) recognise the unpredictability of everything
and
2) learn to accept the inherent unpredictability
Accept the unpredictability and you'll embrace all that life offers,
hold onto hope,
adapt and thrive
Best on the Team
When you’re part of a team, do you aspire to be the best on the team?
Aspire to be the best on the team and you may find that the habit of comparing,
competing and all the different facets of ego get in the way of being a good team player
How about aspiring to be the best for the team?
Whether it's meeting deadlines, keeping a positive attitude or not working against each other
How will you be the best for the team?
The Wisdom in Anger
When anger happens, instead of getting swept away by the anger, try to find the wisdom in your anger
Identify what your anger is trying to communicate to you
It might be pointing out what you care deeply about and what your needs are
Find the wisdom in your anger and grow through your anger
Questions to Stop Overthinking
When you find yourself lost in overthinking, try this
Ask yourself questions
Ask yourself questions and it may help you stop the overthinking
put things in perspective and give the mind a positive, constructive direction
Ask yourself
What is it that’s concerning me?
Is this a real problem?
What can I do about this?
Is there another way to think about this?
How would I feel if I were to think differently?
Completing a Task
When completing a task, a project, sometimes it doesn't feel as satisfying
it feels exhausting!
And even though it’s successfully completed, we keep spotting what's missing.
Is being a perfectionist, being too self-critical, expecting too much from yourself draining your energy and happiness?
The next time you finish something, give yourself a moment to
1) accept that it really is good enough, and
2) appreciate and savour the results.
And who knows, you might just feel less exhausted, more satisfied
Role and Purpose
Roles feel hollow and unfulfilling without a clear purpose
a clear understanding of why you do what you do
Know and understand your role and purpose, and it'll create
a) a healthy self-concept
b) meaning in your life
c) a purposeful focus
Pandemic: Changes in Professional's Attitudes & Practice
Including investing in relationships
Research: Consuming fruit and veg and exercising can make you happier
Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little
including community pharmacists can refer patients for scan + checks
including
Tackling inequalities in healthcare access, experience, and outcomes
including resources for younger people's
Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Economics of happiness – local futures
Beyond Conspiracy: Framing Meaningful Activism
Gabor Maté supports the localization movement
Why are we running harder and faster just to keep a roof over our heads?
Why does our food get flown around the world and back again?
Why is the gap between rich and poor widening to obscene levels?
Because nation states are allowing global corporations to run the show.
There is nothing evolutionary or inevitable about our current system; it’s man-made.
And if enough of us come together, we can change it.
Values are shifting. Culture is turning
Increasingly, people are seeing through the false promises of the global consumer culture.
They are recognizing the limitations of the rat-race, and the emptiness of conventional ideas about “success” and “progress”.
Not surprisingly, there is a corresponding surge of interest in indigenous knowledge to guide the creation of healthier, more localized futures.
"But what can I do?!" Introducing the Localization Action Guide
The Radical Roots of Community Supported Agriculture
Interrelation -SCOOP the sustainable cooperative
The economics of happiness – film
Planet local – a quiet revolution – film
Dr. Gabor Maté on Mental Health and Localization
Intersectionality
♿ The benefits system in this country is a disgrace
get support with your living costs♿
will you sign the open letter?♿
If we were getting proper care and support, there wouldn’t be premature deaths happening
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn + Vanessa on learning disability mortality review – from personal experience – on women’s hour
"Upset and disgusted" at Travelodge – PETITION
Office for National Statistics – Outcomes for disabled people in the UK
Mencap – Tell councils: Count Disabled Children In
Share community – How to become a better communicator
National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi)
Small Supports – Thinking Differently About How We Support People
Join the NHS Sounding Board for Ageing & Older People
Review into advocacy for people with a learning disability and or autistic people who are inpatients in mental health settings
contact advocacy@ndti.org.uk
The Training Hub has launched…
National Advocacy Conference 2022 – 7-11th November 2022
Seni’s Law – Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018
New supported internships programme
New case law – highlight for Care Act advocates
SCIELine: New strengths-based approaches resources and learning
free mental capacity act e-learning +
Disability Right UK has helplines
Scottish Government announces rent freeze
Government launches social housing rent cap consultation
Citizens Advice survey shows millions will be in energy bills debt
DWP admits Access to Work is overwhelmed by workload but rejects meeting
Disabled people urged to check on eligibility for social tariffs on broadband
Mental Health Bill - Easy read survey
Benefit sanctions harming claimants, lawyers warn
Disabled UC claimants underpaid by over £350 per month due to DWP failure to start WCA process
Disabled woman wins legal challenge against DWP over automatic benefit deductions
7 in 10 PIP appeals won on the same evidence DWP already held
DWP makes few concessions on improving engagement with Disabled people
Secret reviews into DWP deaths have more than doubled in three years
Government plans to move Disabled people from institutions don’t go far enough
Report highlights issue of negativity towards Disabled people
Disabled people make up nearly half of the most deprived working-age adults in the country
PIP delays leave Disabled people hundreds of millions of pounds out of pocket
590 suicides between 2010 and 2013 linked to welfare reform – Deaths by Welfare
9 in 10 of all reports about disability benefit fraud to the DWP hotline turn out to be false
100 people held more than 20 years in ‘institutions’
Police officer fired for taking photos of people being sectioned
Press coverage for autistic man in isolation prompts Council action
Severely ill inpatient died after DWP forced him to leave hospital to make benefit claim
Disabled woman left begging a bus driver to let her travel home safely
The Mayor's Entrepreneur competition & training
Government White Paper fails to re-build the care system
Law Commission recommends adding disability to list of hate crimes
DWP refuses to publish report that found Disabled claimants had “unmet needs”
Councils waste £253 million fighting parents at SEND tribunals since 2014
Mental health impact of leaseholder cladding scandal
All PIP claimants to be offered apply online option
End Fuel Poverty Coalition – PETITION
People deprived of liberty due to misapplication of Mental Health + Capacity Acts
Sickle cell patients ‘face racism in NHS’
Share your experiences of seeing or posting online content about suicide or self-harm
Ground-breaking inquiry questions ‘Whose social care is it anyway?’
DWP failures mean dying people are being rejected for PIP
DWP ignoring concerns about Disabled benefit claimants’ deaths
"Sharp rise" in DWP benefit death reviews "deeply concerning"
DWP to stop ‘cold-calling’ Disabled people to make low benefit ‘offers’
Our work capability assessment factsheet
Health and Disability Green Paper – a cause for concern
New body to tackle health disparities set to launch
Lords: Government failing to implement Equality Act
I would have closed Cawston Hall – Norfolk Council care boss – Jeesal group
A fifth of housing not fit for good health – Good Home Inquiry
Elections Bill bad news for Disabled voters
Austerity cuts killed tens of thousands from 2010 onwards
Over two thirds of Universal Credit claimants currently in arrears while living costs rise
Disabled claimant died underweight, ‘unkempt and dirty’ after ESA and PIP wrongly stopped
Disability Benefits Without the Fight - PETITION
Excluded children put in ‘unsafe’ institutions
Disability Horizons launches new online wellbeing community
Social care plans expose rich vs poor divide in terms of home loss
DWP urged to reveal algorithm that ‘targets’ Disabled people for benefit fraud
Almost £3bn to be awarded to private sector to assess disability benefits
Inquiry sought into deaths of 369 mental distress patients in Sussex Trust’s care
DWP blocks publication of research on effectiveness of benefit sanctions
Disability strategy ruled unlawful, DWP denied permission to appeal
Disabled people five times more likely to experience food poverty, says Food Foundation
DWP admits wrongly refusing PIP to record number of Disabled people
Two-thirds of NHS Trusts failing to support equal access to care for Disabled patients
Nearly half of people referred to Trussell Trust food banks are in debt to the DWP
Tip of the Iceberg: Deaths and Serious Harm in the Benefit System
Pushed to the Edge: Poverty, food banks and mental health
DWP failing to make reasonable adjustments for UC claimants with mental health problems
Extension of terminal illness ‘Special Rules’ for ESA and Universal Credit from April 2022
DWP work coaches “bullied” into forcing distressed claimants to attend work-related meetings
How bare bones benefits don’t add up
Two in five Universal Credit claimants forced into debt, finds the Trussell Trust
Pushed to the Edge: Poverty, food banks and mental health
Ofcom: telecomms and broadband providers must do more to help vulnerable customers
DWP: deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy
Fast-tracked access to benefits extended to those likely to be in final year of life
Benefits rise does little to ease cost of living crisis
Disabled employees paid £3.5k less than non-Disabled employees – ONS
EHRC presses DWP to improve treatment of Disabled benefit claimants
EHRC failing Disabled people on DWP actions, claim families
Elections Bill will make it harder for Disabled people to vote
Government must halt ‘managed migration’ to universal credit – DR UK
Report shows that smart home technology can assist independent living
People with learning disabilities in ‘mental health crisis’ – Mencap
Disability Poverty Campaign Group update
If you are a representative of a local or national DPO group, or charity, and are interested in getting involved with the DPCG, email dan.white@disabilityrightsuk.org
11 October + 8 November + 22 November
+ lots more!
Holyrood Committee report into a ban on Conversion Practices
You can watch parliament in action here
You can become a member of any NHS foundation trust – just look on their website?
Court upholds Census guidance – trans men and women can self-identify their lived sex
The call for evidence on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill
New intersex resources created by our partners Reprofutures
A new way to support our campaigning work
Ukraine president backs civil partnerships for same-sex couples
Care and Support Alliance – An appeal for your story
Contact csa@nas.org.uk
Act now for safer homes for people with MND
Land + other views
Working to ensure a fairer, kinder, and better society
Compose your #HumanistVoices tweet today!
including Salman
Religion vs Women’s Rights – Write to your MP
Humanism in the classroom: we’re going back to school!
We must never blame the victims
Exposé: Sexist, homophobic, and violent religious resources
We are not a Christian country
Did you know that bishops are speaking and voting for us in the House of Lords?
The only other sovereign state in the world where clerics vote in Parliament is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Clearly, we’re in need of change.
Majority against bishops in the Lords
What should we think about death?
What makes something right or wrong?
Including writing to MP about protecting Human rights
and “conversion therapy”
Important: Our worst fears come true? – ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN UK
An amazing list of people + organisations
UK Govt removes abortion rights from international pact
Help us challenge compulsory worship in schools
Five facts about faith schools
What I believe – podcasts with people in the public eye
Iran: Women rise up against theocracy
Rationality with Steven Pinker
European court rules against blasphemy laws
Land justice UK – Land and Food
New land report out on land reform in Scotland
police, crime, sentencing and courts bill
You can find a Member of the House of Lords and write to them asking them to review this dangerous bill
A win in the fight for land rights – PETITION
Human rights
Change The Covid Guidance In Psychiatric Wards
The British Institute of Human Rights
Explaining laws passed end April 2022
What the Rights Removal Bill means for you
Stop The #AntiRefugeeBill petition
What do Priti Patel’s constituents want?
Heartbreaking deaths in the Channel: tell your MP enough is enough – EMAIL MP
What exactly is the hostile environment?
Thank you for seeing the human not the label
EMAIL MP: Ukrainian refugees need all the help we can give
TELL YOUR MP: vote to lift the ban
You know the facts.
People seeking asylum are banned from working, unable to support themselves and expected to live on just £5.84 a day.
It's always been an absurd policy, and soon MPs will have the chance to reassert common sense and lift the ban.
Polling from this week shows that an enormous 81% of members of the public surveyed agree that the ban should be lifted.
Fight the anti-refugee laws: ask your MP to sign the pledge
The Rwanda plan: a punishment for asking for help
One year on: 9,000 Afghan refugees still stuck in hotels
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Add your name to the open letter: safety for Afghan climate activists
Migrants Organise is taking the Home Office to Court!
New Plan for Immigration is same old Hostile Environment
This Refugee Week we want to share our New Dreams
Share our message of dignity and welcome
2 minute action: The COVID inquiry must not forget migrants
What is happening with the anti-refugee Borders Bill?
Dismantling the hostile environment – podcasts
Solidarity is what connects us – EMAIL MP
Patients not passports – A toddler charged £70k for life saving NHS care? - ACTION
will you call on the Government to welcome climate activists as refugees?
Freedom from Torture – close the barracks
UK government links to torture in Xinjiang – PETITION
Urgent: Stop the UK Decriminalising Torture
New Plan for Immigration – Consultation Guidance
URGENT: Act now to protect refugees from Priti Patel's New Plan.
Urgent: shocking news – EMAIL MP
write to your local newspaper against the anti refugee bill
Clause 11 of the anti-refugee bill, which would punish Ukranians and other refugees for the way that they travel to safety – was removed by the Lords
A Holocaust survivor just sent this message to Boris Johnson – on the cliffs of Dover
22nd March
MPs voted to punish refugees who make their own way to safety in the UK as part of the Nationality and Borders Bill.
The bill has now entered a stage called ‘ping pong’, where it bounces back and forth between the House of Lords & the House of Commons.
TELL AIRLINES: DON'T REMOVE REFUGEES TO RWANDA
Tell PM candidates: do not send refugees to Rwanda
end UK links to torture – PETITION
Safe passage – We need your help – write to a Peer today
EMAIL MP – fix our broken asylum system
Stop Priti Patel’s pre-Brexit race to deport trafficking & torture survivors
What do you most want to fight for in 2021?
This is a humanitarian disaster. Close the detention camps now
URGENT: Priti Patel is winding the clock back on women’s rights - PETITION
WE OPPOSE UNJUST DEPORTATIONS - PETITION
URGENT: NO OFFSHORE DETENTION – EMAIL MP
Survivors of Napier Barracks beat the Home Office in court
Six men who Priti Patel detained at Napier Barracks have proved in court that she violated their human rights.
Stop union busting in Morocco! – PETITION
Tell Denmark: Syria is not safe for refugees to return. Reverse your shameful decision.
A message from the White Helmets to Ukrainians under attack
As Ukrainians come under brutal attack by Putin, it is chilling to see Russia using the same strategy and playbook in Ukraine as they use in Syria – attacking fleeing civilians, controlling humanitarian corridors, bombing hospitals and spreading disinformation.
Our volunteer first responders have saved more than 125,000 civilian lives in Syria since 2014, many from direct Russian attacks, and it’s heartbreaking to witness the same tragedies being repeated over and over again.
We know the scale of horror that Russian bombings can inflict: no one and nothing is off limits.
In Syria, a concerted Russian disinformation campaign spreads fabricated claims attacking White Helmets volunteers to cover up war crimes.
Now Russia is using the same methods to legitimize its attack on the Ukrainian people – using social media to sow doubt about atrocities committed against civilians.
When I saw the aftermath of Russian airstrikes on the maternity hospital in Mariupol last week, including Russia’s immediate disinformation efforts online, it was as if history was repeating itself.
We have witnessed these same horrific scenes and lies during attacks on Syrian hospitals.
It angers me to see companies such as Twitter continue to allow accounts to spread falsehoods – and
A few days ago I spoke to the Washington Post and shared what we have learnt from our experience in case it can be of any help to our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.
I told them that the GoPro camera is the best way to fight Russian disinformation and report the reality on the ground.
I also warned against sharing GPS locations of medical facilities with the United Nations.
In Syria the Russians used that information to target hospitals.
Ukrainians should also establish small medical and civil defense outposts in secret locations around the city to take the pressure off larger hospitals and mitigate the risk of targeting first responders.
There is no doubt Putin has been emboldened by the impunity he enjoyed in Syria.
If Putin is not held accountable for his invasion of Ukraine the whole story will repeat itself again.
Today, we need actions not words from the international community.
They must pursue justice relentlessly so no dictator can feel able to shamelessly commit such atrocities.
For the last seven years, the Syrian people have stood up to Russia and have yet to be defeated – so we believe Ukrainians can do so as well.
At the end of the day, it is the will of the citizens that is the strongest weapon, even against the mightiest militaries in the world.
In solidarity,
Raed Al Saleh
Third sector + campaigning
10 October
Third Sector – Governance bulletin
Give communities more power over local assets and a £2bn support fund, report urges
Giving by the super-rich could be perpetuating social inequality, academics conclude
Charities lost almost £8.6m to fraud last year, latest figures show
Top earners at Wellcome Trust paid almost £8m each after investments boomed
Adeela Warley: In 2022 let’s make social media a place for hope, not hate
Care charity lost more than 150 staff last year because of vaccination rules
This is a charity! - Wendy
Fifth former Oxfam GB staffer sanctioned after DRC sexual misconduct investigation
Why aren’t more charities supporting community building initiatives?
Does the voluntary sector have a class problem?
Giving pains: the cost of grant-making
National Trust hits back at 'paid-for' campaign to influence its governance
Charity investigated over ‘teacher with sword’ and ‘child eating dead rat’
Reproductive healthcare charity boss paid £229,000 annual bonus
Academies trust run by major charity breached the law, review finds
Cash-for-honours: two men questioned over allegations linked to King Charles’ charity
Are charities too ‘respectable’ to achieve change?
including kindness in public services
Lots of interesting events
4 in 10 children in London live in poverty
Developing a 2040 Community Vision for Kingston
1 in 4 are living in poverty after housing costs
Source: London’s poverty profile 2021
Updated nomination link for free SIM-cards
Health and Inequalities - Bitesize Training- information sharing and learning
Age well October – lots of events
update including holistic health
We believe that anyone can be a force for change
Together we explore change, share knowledge and learn from change-makers
Transforming power for social change
Can get places for free email info@smk.org.uk
Worried about the Policing Bill? Wondering what you can do? Find out how to get involved
The Power Project: transform power, build solidarity, make change
Why a voice inside Whitehall matters for campaigners
what can art teach us about social change?
Support + more ideas!
Demand Egyptian authorities immediately release Ramy Shaath!
Mental illness is a lie which causes untold damage
hospital safety for diabetes patients, institutional misogyny, climate change, and more…
Whistleblowing, patient feedback, visiting restrictions + events...
Latest hub highlights: Misogyny, crosswords, Ockenden...
Mind the implementation gap, vaccination programmes, mesh removal
Patients died after catalogue of errors by Priory mental health chain
Published guidance for Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) teams
the plan for health + care services to work with people + communities
Start engagement early
Provide clear and accessible public information
Build relationships with excluded groups
Co-produce and redesign services and tackle system priorities in partnership with people and communities.
The NHS Constitution for England
Call for Welsh Government apology after failings at Ysbyty Gwynedd mental health unit
Vulnerable man Clive Treacey 'failed in life and death'
Why asylum seekers deserve better healthcare, and how we can give it to them
From Patient association helpline – change in staff results in long-awaited apology
Muriel* called our helpline recently to update our advisers on a complaint they had supported her with in the past, which finally had a good outcome.
Muriel had made a formal complaint about a hospital.
She wasn't t happy with the final response she'd received from the hospital and, so, contacted the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).
The PHSO failed to uphold Muriel's complaint.
The Ombudsman could find no fault in the hospital's response and said Muriel wouldn’t achieve anything by taking the complaint further.
At this point, the complaint had been going on about three years.
The PHSO refused to accept any evidence from Muriel.
But recently Muriel saw that the hospital had appointed a new complaint manager.
Muriel contacted the manager who offered to meet her to find more about the complaint.
After the meeting, the new manager apologised to Muriel and accepted that the hospital had been in the wrong.
Muriel told our advisers she was happy to see the positive approach from the new complaints manager at the hospital.
However, Muriel is very disappointed with the PHSO and plans to take her concerns further to help other patients.
*Name changed to protect privacy.
To contact our helpline team, call 0800 3457115 between 9.30am and 5pm on weekdays or email helpline@patients-association.org.uk.
See our website for more ways to get in touch.
And remember, we have a range of information on our website from our very popular nutrition checklist right through to understanding your medicines.
Collaboration must be at the heart of the future of health and care
Review highlights stark ethnic healthcare inequalities in the UK
Maternity Scandal: Fighting for the Truth
Mental health problems cost UK economy at least £118 billion a year – new research
The illusion of evidence-based medicine
'Words will not be enough' say grieving families of Shropshire's maternity scandal
Ockenden report: the refusal of our healthcare service to take patient experience seriously
call for evidence for people living with Down’s syndrome
Shared decision making – NHS England
end of life care for trans, intersex + gender diverse people – SURVEY
national framework for social prescribing – by 20 October
Getting in touch with the Patient Safety Commissioner for England
contact commissioner@patientsafetycommissioner.org.uk
Sharing experiences of life as a trans person
CQC recruiting patients and carers
contact expertsbyexperience@choicesupport.org.uk
Just Treatment – Rich countries protecting pharma monopolies
A £2 medicine charged at over £2900…
put lives before pharma profits – PETITION
We found that 51% of beds in inpatient mental health services are provided by private companies like Priory Group, Cygnet, and Huntercombe Group who make the majority of their revenue from NHS funding
As laid out in
this important article by clinical psychologist Sanah Ahsan
our current approach to mental health care is centred on purely medical responses to "individual" conditions
But we know that issues such as poverty, debt and housing play a huge role – in fact, 73% of Just Treatment supporters who filled out our recent survey on mental health cited material conditions as a key cause of poor mental health
if you would like to share your story click
Patient partnership - 28 November – 2 December
contact mailbox@patients-association.org.uk
Making the country work for all of us
ZERO SUICIDE ALLIANCE – FREE TRAINING
NEW suicide awareness training for university students
ZSA and Help for Heroes launch suicide awareness training to support veterans
Living Wage for care workers – EMAIL MP
Has the Women’s Health Strategy listened to what women really need?
Odds stacked against it: how social care struggles to compete with supermarkets on pay
There’s no such thing as a new public policy idea, just a new name
What does it take to ensure partnerships succeed?
Poverty, poor-quality housing and health inequalities
The Health and Care Act 2022 – what does it mean for trusts and foundation trusts?
A community-powered NHS: making prevention a reality
Working in partnership with people + communities: statutory guidance
What should partnering with disabled people look like?
Women in prison + mental health + poverty + strokes +
What is a population health approach?
NHS wants to stop ‘reinventing the wheel’ and involve public in digitisation
New podcast: Supporting refugee and migrant health care in England
Health Management and Policy Alert: 26 July 2022
including human rights concerns regarding people in care
population health: joining the dots + recognising the opportunities – 28 Nov - 1 December
Putting patients first: championing good practice in combatting digital health inequalities
The Health and Care Act 2022: the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead
What can be done to tackle LGBTQ+ health inequalities?
Acting on the evidence: ensuring the NHS meets the needs of trans people
Health Management and Policy Alert: 20 July 2021
Including reforming the MHA: government response to consultation
Not listening to us? – Wendy
Understanding integration: how to listen to and learn from people and communities
Including poor health + housing + obesity + bad roads
Health Management and Policy Alert: 10 September 2021
Including Home for all
What is needed to reduce ethnic minority health inequalities?
How much longer and further are health inequalities set to rise?
How will integrated care systems work under the Health and Care Bill?
Including details of a free course “an introduction to leading with kindness and compassion in health + social care
The power of those small acts of kindness
The WHO Prison Health Framework: a framework for assessment of prison health system performance
How does the UK's health care performance compare internationally?
The cost of poor housing in England
Left behind: a decade of intergenerational unfairness
Invisible women: understanding women’s experiences of long-term imprisonment
Listen: Tackling health inequalities head on through integrated care
Your health and care explained update
New podcast: What is the Health and Care Bill and why does it matter?
Restraint, segregation and seclusion review: progress report
From harm to hope: a 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives
Integrated care systems and social care: the opportunities and challenges
If integrated care cannot tackle inclusion health, we should all be worried
New explainer: How does the system hear from communities?
Robot performs first laparoscopic surgery without human help
Local government public health funding: putting the jigsaw together without the picture on the box
digital health + care congress – 11 October
What could provider collaboratives look like?
Not really outcome-based commissioning? Certainly not people commissioning? – Wendy
Local health systems: relationships not structures
How does the NHS in England work and how is it changing?
Mental Health Act reform: race and ethnic inequalities
NICE recommends offering app-based treatment for people with insomnia instead of sleeping pills
Cancer screening: the urgent shouldn’t crowd out the important
ADPH highlights link between gambling and suicide
Nature-based physical activity as an early intervention for teenagers
Annual conference – 1- 2 November
Integrated care in practice – 7 – 10 November
population health: joining the dots + recognising the opportunities – 28 November – 1 December
Interoperability is more than technology
Accelerating progress on cardiovascular disease – 2 February 2023
Westminster Health Forum (WHF) policy conference – PROVIDE FREE SPACES – JUST APPLY?
18 October – priorities for tackling overprescribing in the NHS
10 January – tackling drug use in higher education
A relaxation technique to help you
People’s theatre
Amplify — Stranger in the Village: Afro European Matters | New artist and writing commissions
Sasha Huber: YOU NAME IT | New exhibition this autumn at Autograph
Discover Somerset House’s Channel
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Upgrade Yourself Live, The Horrow Show, opportunities and more
AGM returns, plus new residents and commissions this autumn
Exploring interactive fiction in gaming, plus new exhibitions
Strategies for Making Music + Artist Opportunities
New residency exploring artificial intelligence
Artist talks and workshops imagining new worlds
£6 Mondays are back
Justice
Haldane society of socialist lawyers
conference for the European network for the fair sharing of working time – 20 + 21 October
UBI gives people the chance to make their own choices, to make decisions for themselves, their communities, their households, their lives and their futures
UBI does everything from sharing out problems, to delivering a feminist vision to tackling the climate emergency, to stopping benefit traps
It does all those things, but ultimately UBI is democracy
Baroness Natalie Bennett
Every step we take towards a Basic Income will liberate power in the hands of the citizen
Paddy Ashdown
Andy Burnham joins call for basic income trial
Report from Manchester University
How universal basic income can tackle anxiety + depression
Extending Welsh Universal basic income pilot to heavy industrial workers
VOTE FOR THIS EVEN IF NOT IN WALES
Welsh basic income pilot have been published
In a statement from Jane Hutt, Minister for Social Justice
The pilot will be targeted at care leavers
All young people leaving care that turn 18 over a 12 month period starting this summer will be invited to participate
That is expected to be about 500 people
Participants will receive the payments for 24 months starting from the month after their 18th birthday
A £1,600 a month basic income will be paid each month
Universal basic income motion passed by Richmond Council
69% of people in Wales support basic income pilots
Stockton, California who released incredible results from the experiment there!
Start your own Basic Income Conversation today – TOOLKIT
We've urged ministers to back basic income for mental health – Peace of mind project
Let's make Basic Income a reality – PETITION
The Basic Income Conversation is growing... here's how
Universal Credit cut: now is the time for basic income
Last week the £20 Universal Credit uplift was cut.
5.8 million people claim Universal Credit in England, Scotland and Wales. Overnight, their incomes fell by £1,000 a year.
If they’d had a basic income, they wouldn’t have been plunged into precarity.
Now is the time for a basic income.
There are thousands of people across the UK working to make that clear.
How do we pay for a basic income?
Email mp asking them to join CPPLG
NEW REPORT: Results of our Basic Income Month
Understanding the impacts of a basic income
Can you help get candidates across the UK to support UBI trials?
Tackling Poverty: The power of a universal basic income
Record low poverty at no net cost
The most common question that we get asked in the Basic Income Conversation is “How would we pay for this?”
As of today we can say, “You don’t. It doesn’t have to cost the public purse anything.”
Our new paper lays out a fiscally neutral scheme that involves no additional calls on the public finances and no net increase in taxation: the cost of the extra payments would be exactly offset by the extra revenue from internal changes in tax rates and National Insurance Contributions
The gains of this modest scheme are concentrated among the poorest income groups, and the gains are incredible:
Child poverty falls by more than a half taking
it to below the historic level achieved in 1977
Working-age poverty falls by just over a quarter
Pensioner poverty falls by 54%
This takes the level of pensioner poverty to well below the lowest post-1961 rate of 14% in the early 1980s.
The Gini coefficient – a measure of inequality – falls by 12.5%, taking it back towards the peak equality achieved in the 1970s.
Despite the scale of the current crises, we keep being told that our problems are too big, too complex, there are too many obstacles, and it’s just too expensive to take care of people
The human cost of our problems is unfathomably and heartbreakingly big.
The cost of transforming people’s lives is not.
Thanks to this paper, we’re laying out exactly why and how implementing a basic income is eminently doable.
How can a modest basic income cut poverty by half?
Is basic income a vote winner?
Listen Now: A Basic Income Special
Newsletter of the European Network for the Fair Sharing of Working Time
Invite your MP to the #FlexforAll briefing
Parents against child exploitation
Watch our new film about spotting the signs of child exploitation
Safeguarding training – perhaps ask for a free space?
Believe in yourself and your children: one parents story
Prosecuting mental health – accountability or criminalisation?
A different understanding? How the CJS discriminates against those with autism
When should a family dispute end up in court?
Barely legal? The experience of remote tribunal hearings
The forgotten people? Prisoners on remand in the pandemic
Does L&D stop the revolving door of police custody?
Does diversion from court have an image problem?
Computer says yes – you will pay a fine and get a criminal record
Covid justice – how not to do it?
Altruistic up-tariffing? The pitfalls of more rehabilitative police cautions
Children imprisoned on remand – the stark reality of racial bias
Only by radically shrinking the magistrates’ court can the Crown Court backlog be reduced
Is justice for victims always criminal justice?
Does the defendant in the magistrates’ court get a fair hearing?
Want to build trust in the police? Detain less
Making child remand a last resort
Do people who get in trouble with the law deserve double punishment?
Independent domestic violence advocates in specialist courts – a backfire effect?
Is imprisonment before trial the result of poor risk assessment?
Keeping the wheels of justice turning – magistrates’ views on justice in the pandemic
This single justice procedure affects women more than men?
Will harsher sanctions reduce assaults on police and NHS workers
out of sight, out of mind – defendant’s experience of video court hearings
Can assaults on police and NHS workers be avoided in the first place?
A recipe for confused policing? New drug strategy laced with problems
The Transform Justice Podcast – Episode Recap
Should lawyers pay more attention to client feedback?
The myth that tough sanctions deter crime – revealed by the Sentencing Council
Sign the petition and tell President Biden to fulfill his promise to clear the federal death row.
How This Minneapolis Man Is Healing Collective Trauma Through Creative Counseling and Mentoring
Trauma informed training attempts to bridge gap between Newark residents + cops
A model for police + community relations
An up-close portrait of the people doing violence intervention work
New nonprofit uses yoga to address Black men’s mental health
Community-based violence prevention works, but it needs sustained support
The Future of Public Safety is Now
Alternatives to Police and Prisons: Activists Share How to Better Address Violence
Truth, justice + accountability
Progress on the legal aid for inquests campaign
Leon – Nadia – Sam – Matthew -Zoe – Marshall – Jane – Sammy – Coco – Trevor – Shane – Abdul – Lamont – Andrew – Steven – Gavin – Jason – Micheal – Jack – Alex
including connection cafes
INQUEST News challenging state violence & justice campaigns
Less crime, safer communities, fewer people in prison
The hidden crisis that isn't making the headlines
Punished when they should have been helped
Stop building women's prisons – EMAIL MP
focussed on reducing the unnecessary arrests of women reducing child arrests and ending the criminalisation of children in care
Changing outcomes for Black people in the criminal justice system
"Nobody really cares about prisons"
Arrests of children have been reduced by 74% over the last decade, in another major step forward for our successful campaign.
Since 2010, the Howard League for Penal Reform has been working with police forces across England and Wales to reduce child arrests, helping to ensure that hundreds of thousands of boys and girls do not have their lives blighted by a criminal record.
We campaign on a wide range of issues including children in the criminal justice system, change inside prisons, community sentencing + policing
We have an in-house expert legal team who represent children in custody.
We strive to minimise the human suffering and social harms that are both causes of crime and consequences of punishment.
We stand for constructive forms of justice that contribute to building a safer, fairer society.
We stand against abuse and mistreatment and all forms of discrimination in the criminal justice system.
Prisons create conflict, put a strain on the police and hospitals and thwart human potential – they simply do not work.
Sadly, the government are planning on expanding our already over-crowded prison population.
The recently published Prisons strategy white paper has dedicated £4 billion to new prions places, with the Ministry of Justice’s own projections predicting the population to reach almost 99,000 over the next five years.
International Women’s Day
A day in the community where we celebrate and empower women.
Unfortunately, for women in prison, today won’t be a day for celebrations.
There were almost 5,000 receptions of women into prison last year, and more than half of them were for women on remand.
Too many women are being swept up into the justice system when it is not necessary or appropriate.
Most women in prison have a history of childhood abuse or trauma, they need a safe space and support.
Prison life during the pandemic
In the last year, prisoners self-harmed at a rate of once every 10 minutes
-17 August 2022-
“Being creative has helped me survive my prison sentence”
it is going to be a good one – including Ai Weiwei
2022 Koestler Awards Results Announced!
You can email + sign petitions without donating to anything
MoD document approves British troops for illegal bombing, charity claims
US drone strikes – SEND A MESSAGE
I’m still in Guantánamo - TWEET
Ministers are deciding whether to save a life
81 men executed in Saudi Arabia – ACTION
Salina and Joey – EMAIL LIZ TRUSS
Demand justice for bereaved families of lethal drone strikes in Libya
Petition – abolish death penalty in Malawi
Priti Patel and the National Security Bill – PETITION
Abandoned British nationals in North East Syria
distracting the world with its money + sportswashing – PETITION
Share this video to help Ban Conversion Therapy!
My queer brothers and sisters need your help – PETITION
EuroPride 2022 March banned! - PETITION
how well do you know your rights? - FREE BOOKLET
why the ECHR matters – video + campaign
Demand real alternatives to policing – ACTION
speak up for human rights – PETITION
protest rights at risk – again – PETITION
You do not have to donate when signing a petition – petitions are free to sign
On Thursday 22 February 1934,
Liberty was founded to defend “the whole spirit of British freedom”
Now, on our 88th anniversary, our fight is more important than ever as the Government attempts to shut down the ways people can hold it to account.
We won’t let the Government become untouchable.
Democratic crisis
In a democratic society, people must be able to hold the powerful to account – but the Government is trying to rewrite the rules.
It wants to ‘overhaul’ the Human Rights Act. The HRA forces public authorities to respect rights and enables people to enforce their rights in court if they fall short.
But the Government wants to remove this obligation on public authorities and make it near-impossible for anyone to get to court and see justice.
Similarly, its Judicial Review Bill will change judges’ powers so challenging the Government’s action in court won’t be worthwhile.
Plans for mandatory voter ID which could prevent millions of people having their say in elections.
And the Government is sidelining MPs when making laws, giving them little time to scrutinise proposals.
Alongside these attacks, the anti-protest Policing Bill is back in Parliament next week.
Last month the House of Lords dealt a major blow to the Government’s plans by ripping out some of the worst proposals.
But ministers are now trying to get some back in – including criminalising noisy protests.
Noise is at the very heart of protest.
It is literally how we make our voices heard.
Liberty was founded following the oppressive treatment of protesters on the National Hunger March, and we will always work to protect this key pillar of democracy.
Together we can stop this democratic crisis in its tracks.
Email MP to protect our rights
URGENT PETITION: save the Human Rights Act
TELL THE GOVERNMENT TO STOP THE ATTACKS ON OUR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
In many respects the Government’s plans laid out in the Queen’s Speech are even worse than anticipated
They include:
A so-called ‘Bill of Rights’
which would scrap the Human Rights Act and remove obligations on public bodies like local councils and government departments to treat people fairly
A Public Order Bill
which would force through the anti-protest measures that our mass public resistance defeated just a few months ago, such as criminalising ‘lock-on’ protests
A National Security Bill
handing state security services even more power and potentially threatening the work of journalists who uncover dark truths
Even after it suffered stinging defeats in the last Parliament, the Government is returning to force through unwanted and unpopular policies
Revealed: Alarming rise in deaths of asylum seekers
new met boss must be spark for real change – PETITION
3 things new Met Chief must do right now
I have the right to protest – PETITION
Fighting NHS Charging – What can you do now?
Why is PayPal trying to silence activists?
NETPOL – the network for police monitoring
Black Lives Matter protest – VIDEO
new report condemns "revenge policing" and calls for scrapping new police powers
They want to silence criticism
Boris Johnson misled Parliament
They want to block public interest
This is not the Britain we should be
Other information sources
Mozilla – internet health 2022 – reclaiming power over AI
the tech we won’t build – podcast
including weaponisation of social media + GOOGLE involvement with military
when an algorithm is your boss – podcast
gig economy – if you are a minute late with a delivery you are banned from working for 2 days with some deliver apps
alternatives
using
for workers collectives
AI from above – podcast
The truth is out there – podcast
about misinformation industry – which affects elections + dark social media
The AI medicine cabinet
Does This Button Work? Investigating YouTube's ineffective user controls
Sanders and McDonnell on community wealth
Land banks and community land trusts
Community wealth building comes to Scotland
How to Make a Democracy Economy
South Korea explores community wealth building
How NY can enter ‘a new era of public power’
Technology
“Innovation is not designed to create happiness
It's designed a lot of the time to facilitate one's needs and desires, to stimulate desire and all of those kinds of things
It's certainly about doing all of that, but it's not about making the world better for people
And it's not about improving their lives in any way
It's about trying to actually create a world in which more profit is to be had”
Military
"The one sector of government that doesn’t experience austerity is the military budget.”
“To what degree is competition between states somehow rather related, tightly related, to the competition between capitalists?”
Ask Prof Wolff: Is Nordic Socialism a Progressive Step?
How Capitalism Shapes our Food
Ask Prof Wolff: Taxing Billionaires
Wolff Responds: Capitalism's False Defenses
All Things Co-op: Cuba's New Cooperative Legislation
Global Capitalism: The Problems with China's Economy
we learn about the psychology of control and domination
understand our personal connections to capitalism’s structure
All Things Co-op: Lessons from Venezuela’s Social Economy
Ask Prof Wolff: From Capitalism to Co-op
All Things Co-op: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Economic Update: Unaffordable Housing
The popular movement for peace needs to be rekindled
All Things Co-op: There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
Global Capitalism: The Socialism That Focuses Too Much on Government
Ask Prof Wolff: Capitalism Doesn’t Care About You
Coping with (and Resisting!) Capitalism
A tide-turning moment in the global struggle for tax justice
Including an item about UK care homes
The Whiteness of Wealth: podcast with Prof Dorothy Brown
Podcast: From an uncaring to a caring economy + global minimum corporate tax plan
Podcast: The capture of Malta and the fight for justice
"You need to be very strong.
To do the job that she did you really have to be your own person.
You couldn’t be the kind of person who worries what people might think of you, and you really have to say, no, I’m not going to adapt, I’m not going to fall into that mould.
I’m going to break it and keep breaking.”
Paul Caruana Galizia
Pandora Papers shows transparency failure is an accountability failure
Jersey’s Pandora’s Boxes: The Tax Justice Network podcast
The Swiss banking clean-up is a mirage
10 measures to expose sanctioned Russian oligarchs’ hidden assets
Podcast: Financial Secrecy Index 2022
Podcast: Amazon's tax challenge
Podcast: Tax and racial justice
UN Secretary General signals support for UN tax convention
including events
Our tax system is broken – EMAIL MP
Support President Biden’s proposal to stop global tax dodging - PETITION
Pandora Papers shows transparency failure is an accountability failure
Women disproportionately affected by soaring Mental Health Act detentions
Whenever capitalism gets into crisis, it's women's bodies on the line
How the UK government is undermining the Freedom of Information Act
90% of Met officers disciplined for racism still work for force
Racism in UK maternal care: ‘Why aren’t we being listened to?’
Revealed: Taxpayers fork out £8m to subsidise Lords’ food and drink
The post-Roe v Wade crisis can only end if Democrats restore our rights
NHS privatisation linked to 557 ‘treatable’ deaths in five years
Revealed: UK private tenants hit by record annual rent hikes
How Boris Johnson rigged British politics for the Tories
Landlords urged to ‘take advantage’ of soaring rents in ‘grotesque’ email
Fears for new UK financial Bill as banks accused of profiting off hunger
Senior Liz Truss adviser worked at lobbying firm for energy supplier
I’m scared that the rights we have today are under attack – Italy
We can do so much better (and fairer) than Truss’s bailout for the rich
‘Destitution’ warning as DWP rejects calls to pause benefit deductions
Religious liberty’ is being weaponised by the American Right
Even police doubted my arrest was legal, claims anti-royal protester
Britain treats republicanism as a bit of a joke. Time to take it seriously
Record number of Universal Credit claimants relying on hardship payments
Weapons firms install 50 staff inside the Ministry of Defence
The anti-women agenda of the woman set to be the next Italian prime minister
How Kwarteng’s ex-boss is cashing in on cost-of-living crisis
Colston statue ruling is attack on right to protest, warn leading barristers
I won’t go and kill my brothers!’: Russians set fire to draft centres
New homes built with gas boilers after developers lobby against green rules
Facebook whistleblowers in the UK
Hey, YouTube – leave our kids alone
A lot more to do on government algorithms
Support Facebook content moderators in calling for fair treatment!
Taking on the tech giants: the lawyer fighting the power of algorithmic systems
Join us – tell Sadiq Khan to take action against Uber!
Matt Hancock: Drop your plan to put NHS patients' health data into one massive database - PETITION
fresh evidence: disappearing messages and "government by WhatsApp"
"this algorithm decides who eats and who goes hungry"
Government by WhatsApp – email your MP
Facebook on notice of legal action – SIGN LETTER
They exploit Facebook moderators and call it “ethical”. Help us stop them
facebook is violating Kenya’s hate prevention guideline – PETITION
Campaign for freedom of information
ICO should end its near invisibility on FOI
Call for tougher FOI enforcement and other news
ICO action against government departments for FOI delays
Article 19 – defending freedom of expression + information
What does misinformation smell like?
Speaking out on social media takedowns – YOUR HELP NEEDED
'Anger is not sufficient to maintain motivation over time;
you also need to have hope,
and to believe that you can make a difference.'
Kathryn Sikkink, author and human rights academic
Younger people
How to keep children safe online
mental health – SUPPORT INFORMATION
Together we're helping children to report abuse
email the new Minister in charge
A Life More Wild – Dr Alex George & Brook House Woods
Society needs to change. Have your say on how
Supporting your child with anxiety
Tips for coping with peer pressure
Toxic masculinity and mental health
tips on the start of your eating disorder recovery journey
Malala – Assembly – How you can stand up to anti-Asian racism
One year of the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education
A week in the life of a Ukrainian teenager
The reality of Brazil's public schools
Girls like me are taking action – EMAIL MP
Girls forced to marry – PETITION
The Stranger Series with Coram’s Young Citizens
Do you want to unlock your potential?
We see you; we hear you and we care about you – SUPPORT LINES INFORMATION
One in five young women have lost work or future work
57% say they have been affected financially
One in four have taken on extra caring responsibilities
83% said that their mental health had suffered
1 in 10 they have been unable to afford food or other essentials
Ask your MP to do more to prevent online hate speech
New report reveals one size fits no one
Including peer researchers
can you help make equality a reality for young women?
Peer Research: The Power of Shared Experience
Lucy’s story: coaching helped me believe in myself
Free online events for young women this autumn
Maternal Mental Health Alliance
A step in the right direction for pregnant women's safety at work - EMAIL MP
Are you on maternity leave? Take our survey!
We're calling for maternity pay to be increased – will you help us?
Tips for coping in these anxious times
Read our tips and advice for supporting a friend
If you are in crisis and need immediate support, you can access help from these organisations:
available 24/7 for listening support on 116 123.
text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258 to speak to a crisis counsellor.
open 9am-midnight, call 0800 068 41 41 for support around suicidal thoughts and feelings.
CAMHS Crisis Line
a free confidential NHS helpline offering support for young people aged 17 and under in crisis on 0300 303 1320
a free confidential NHS helpline offering support for adults aged 18+ on 0800 012 6549
real-time, online support
0800 1111. 7:30am – 3.30am
0800 58 58 58
0808 808 4994 3pm – 12am everyday
Fantastic for families – update
Free benefits training
contact uc-london@cpag.org.uk
Government bodies
Mental Health Act Statistics, Annual Figures – 2020-21
Still, we suffer – Wendy
draft mental health bill – EASY READ
Mental Health Strategy Delivery Plan for 2022/23
Proposed NHS mental health access standards for patients
Energy Bills Support Scheme explainer
Health quality improvement partnership (HQIP)
National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health: Annual report
Our equality objectives 2021-2025
Now available: State of Care – CQC's annual assessment of health care and social care in England
From Paternalism to human rights
Restraint, segregation and seclusion review: progress report
Monitoring the Mental Health Act
Putting people at the centre of system regulation: learning to lead in changing times
our new single assessment framework
HSE Stress eBulletin: Working Minds campaign launches
Office for National Statistics
A report from the Office of National Statistics revealed an estimated 778 people died in England and Wales while homeless in 2019 – an annual increase of 7%
This is the fifth year in a row that the number of people who have died has increased.
It is the highest number since records began.
ONS blog - good data from any source can help us report on the global goals to the UN
ONS blog - Unlocking the power of data to better understand private rents
ONS blog - Far from average: How COVID-19 has impacted the Average Weekly Earnings data
How many people fund their own care?
The lasting impact of violence against women and girls
Beneath our feet: improving estimates of UK land value
DHSC Voluntary Sector Newsletter – INCLUDING HELPLINE FOR SUPPORTING + BEHAVIOUR
Launch of new autism strategy to help autistic people live more independent and fulfilled lives
Revisiting safeguarding practice
Vaccination as a condition of deployment to be revoked
Health and Care Bill: launch of new white paper
Ombudsman news special – annual review launched
local government + social care ombudsman – update
local government association (LGA)
Inclusive economies and healthy futures: Supporting place-based action to reduce health inequalities
Debate Not Hate: the impact of abuse on local democracy
Including monthly Mayor’s Question time
27% of schools are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution.
It took decades to protect our children from cigarette smoke.
We can’t make that mistake again; we must tackle toxic air pollution right now.
That’s why we introduced the Ultra-Low Emission Zone, cleaned up our buses and taxis and tackled emissions from construction sites.
But we must go further to protect the health of Londoners across our city.
My number one priority is to protect the health of Londoners, and the life chances of future generations.
I will do all I can to ensure that every Londoner can breathe clean air.
Clearing the air: pollution in London
Reforming private renting in London
My society – including support with FOI requests
PETITION – Vital information hidden
NIHR – Lockdown raised anxiety in people with anorexia and their carers, but online resources helped
Transforming out-of-hospital care for people who are homeless
Together in research – Spring 2021
Caring for older people at home can be just as good, or even better, than hospital care
Vegan diet could control blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes
Together in research – Summer 2021
seeking views on ways to substantially reduce research bureaucracy
Together in research – Autumn 2021
Together in research – Winter 2021/22
Including paid involvement
Free bus travel keeps young Londoners socially connected
Together in research – Spring 2022
Together in research – Summer 2022
Health and Social Care Committee
Local Government Authority – Update
Would you like to shape the future of Patient Safety within the local NHS?
Complete our NHS and ICS websites survey for a chance to win £100 vouchers
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
New end of life and palliative care report
Wandsworth
Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network (WCEN)
In the UK, people with brown skin are being denied equal and compassionate mental health care.
They are more likely to be brought to and kept in hospital without their consent.
They are more likely to access mental health services through the police and criminal justice systems, and to find themselves unwell and back again once released.
People with brown skin, particularly men, are more likely to be forcibly restrained and given more than the recommended amount of medication.
WCEN 2021
14th Annual Black Mental Health Conference 'Healing Our Broken Village' 27 October 2:45pm-7:30pm
If you are unhappy with the care or treatment you have received from the NHS, and would like help to make a complaint, POhWER can help.
They provide guidance, information and advocacy to help people get matters put right.
Telephone: 0203 553 5960
Email: LondonIHCAS@pohwer.net
Letter: London IHCAS Advocacy Hub, POhWER, Hertlands House, Primett Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 3EE
If you live in Wandsworth and need support to tell people what you want, and to understand your rights, you can contact VoiceAbility.
They provide advocacy for people who may be vulnerable and need support to speak up about their care needs.
Telephone: 020 7924 7772
Email: wandsworth@voiceability.org
Letter: VoiceAbility, Unit B102, Trident Business Centre, 89 Bickersteth Road, Tooting, London, SW17 9SH
If you are unhappy with the care or treatment you have received from an NHS or social care service, and would like help to make a complaint, Rethink could help. They provide guidance, information and advocacy to help people get matters put right.
Telephone: 300 7900 559
Email: wandradvocacy@rethink.org
Web address: Rethink Advocacy Independent Service in Wandsworth and Richmond leaflet 2.pdf
For guidance and help to find organisations and services to support your health and wellbeing needs, you can contact the Wandsworth Wellbeing Hub.
Telephone: 020 3880 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)
Email: waccg.wandsworthhub@nhs.net
Letter: Wandsworth Wellbeing Hub, 120 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London, SW19 1RH
If you, or someone you know, have / has care and support needs, and you need information and help, you can speak to Wandsworth Adult Social Services. Adult social services provide information and help to adults who have difficulty with everyday things.
Telephone: 020 8871 7707 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)
Email: accessteam@wandsworth.gov.uk
Letter: Adult Social Care and Public Health, The Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 2PU
Emergency out of hours
Please contact the switchboard on 020 8871 6000 and ask for the emergency social worker.
If you need information on the activities and support services that may be available to you and your family, you can contact THRIVE Online (previously known as the Family Information Service).
THRIVE Online provides information and assistance to parents, children, young people and professionals on support services and activities for the 0-19 years’ age group (25 if the young person has a special need).
Telephone: 020 8871 7899 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)
Email:thriveonline@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk
Letter: THRIVE Online, THE 4, Wandsworth Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 2PU
Richmond
Richmond community drug + alcohol service (RCDAS)
Mon – Weds – Thursday – Friday – 9am to 4.30pm
Tuesday 9am to 1pm women only
Tuesday 1pm to 4.30pm
Ilex House
Unit 2
94 Holly Road
TW14HF
0203 228 3020
Richmond town centre has a new ‘Safe Space’ on Friday and Saturday nights
sometimes we do not realise we are lonely
We’re expanding our Psychotherapy and Counselling service and looking for new members of the team
Bridge the gap – support booklet
Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College
Guide to Richmond’s NHS, Care & Support
useful advice about dealing with sleep problems?
why knowing about blood pressure is important
Watch out for scam energy emails - New adult learning opportunities
Stoptober - help is here; Spotting cancer early saves lives +
Including Directory of services
Talking Bubble – Telephone Befriending with Language Options
Free home sensors for unpaid carers in Richmond
NHS South West London Integrated Care System: News & First Meeting
Richmond CVS Children and Young Peoples Digest October 2022
training – November + December
Centre for Governance + Scrutiny
Including Anticipating, managing + adapting framework
Special newsletter on council finances
governance & scrutiny newsletter
Richmond council – LBRUT – events + news
Community hub – a dedicated helpline to deal with local enquiries and help signpost people to the right support at this difficult time.
The helpline number is 020 8871 6555
Please visit the council’s website for the most up to date information: www.richmond.gov.uk or phone 0208 891 1411
Find out more here: www.richmond.gov.uk/community_hub
Advertise your event / activity on LBRUT website
Got a good idea – get community funding?
Do you know of someone who might benefit from a video Carephone?
I need help finding food or essential home items
Careplace are promoting – Free Community Counselling Service – Available online or over the phone
Struggling to pay your fuel bills? The Council can help
Additional grants are also available from the Household Support Fund for food, bills and other essential items, via Citizens Advice Richmond and Richmond AID.
Claim £150 towards your energy bills
Free home sensors for unpaid carers in Richmond
Know Your Place Heritage Festival with Richmond Libraries
October with Richmond Libraries
Centre for Governance + Scrutiny (CfGS)
Bolstering scrutiny / scrutiny frontiers / guest blogs / Health & Care Bill update
Including anticipate – manage – adapt idea
Health & Care – special newsletter
Governance and scrutiny news from CfGS
council constitutions owned + understood by all
consultation on freezing social rent – by 12 October
Afghanistan & Central Asian Association
Stop Levelling Down London’s Transport
Update on proposed SWR service reduction
Pressing Government for Zero Carbon Homes
Munira – stop levelling down London’s transport
Twickenham repair cafe -3rd Saturday of each month 10:30 to 13:30
It’s clear that this winter is going to be tough for so many, and should you need my help as your local MP, please do get in touch with me
I’m continuing to hold regular advice surgeries, and my team at the Twickenham office are doing all they can to help too
Help with bills + …
Hounslow
You can find details of health services in your area from NHS Choices
Call 999 for emergency services
Emergency and urgent care health services – 111
Hounslow Council: Out of hours social care support – 020 8583 2222 For more information please click here
Hounslow Council: For more information on Adult social care, please click here
Hounslow Council: For more information on Children and families, please click here
CarePlace: Provides a Directory of Services, Information and Guidance enabling direct access to local care and community services. For more information, please click here
West London NHS Trust – Mental health crisis: 24-hour helpline 0800 328 4444. For more information, please click here
safe space Hounslow crisis helpline – 0203 475 5185 – 11am to 11pm – 365 days per year
Mental health + wellbeing resources for Londoners
downloading the free NHS weight loss plan
Hampton Kempton waterworks railway +
Get laughing – it’s free therapy +
including ideas around coping + thriving despite anxiety
Including support regarding cost of living rises
Activities in Hounslow + Cllr Salman Shaheen’s desire to expand allotment provision in the borough
Should other boroughs follow suit?
- Wendy -
Anyone can struggle to maintain good mental health from, no matter who they are.
Whilst there's no permanent fix, these 5 free things can help to lighten the load.
1 – Talk to someone.
If you’re not in the place for extra support like therapy this is one of the best things you can do to take care of yourself and others. Or use the power of talking for even more good and become a Community Champion.
2 – Get out in nature.
There are lots of gorgeous green spaces in Hounslow, and across London.
Check out what's going on outdoors this season at in Hounslow
3 – Set aside time for yourself.
Self-care doesn’t need to mean spending on bath bombs.
Dedicate time to something you love – cooking, reading, gaming, drawing, journaling, watching movies, playing an instrument and more can all help you destress.
4 – Gentle exercise.
You don’t need to do HIIT workouts at the gym to benefit from exercise.
As little as 15-30 minutes of walking can give you a serotonin boost. Looking for something more serious?
Try the free NHS Couch to 5K app or find free classes
5 – Visit
Our Take Care, Take 5 hub offers accessible solutions for mental health concerns.
Find support on physical health, COVID-19 concerns, financial worries, and employment skills here too.
Fly Tipping is a problem, not only in Hounslow, but across London and the country.
In 2021, Hounslow Council received over 24,000 reports of fly tips across the borough which cost us over £1.3m.
We are determined to reduce the incidents of fly tipping which will make our borough cleaner and greener.
Support for loneliness – don’t blame yourself for feeling lonely it happens to us all
11 October – Hounslow health + care fair
The Art of Coproduction - A Guerrilla Guide
Or ask for one for free?
care in the community – really – Steph de la Haye
Invitation to Camp Hope!
Contact kim@wecoproduce.com
Sutton +
Sutton Healthwatch – Mental Well Being
The economic case for investing in the prevention of mental health conditions in the UK
what drives health inequalities ?
Sutton Mental Health Foundation – Sutton Wellbeing Line
We all get more forgetful as we get older, but there are things you can do about it.
The way you live your life, and in particular the way in which you eat,
can make a huge difference to your memory, slowing down cognitive decline or even reversing it.
Westminster Drug project (WDP)
We would like to tell you about a community event we are hosting with Merton Uplift
10 October from 11am-1pm at Wimbledon Library to mark World Mental Health Day 2022
How less pay has affected people's mental health and wellbeing
New podcast: Do we care enough?
New analysis: Care home residents hard hit by reduced hospital care
Action as an antidote to despair
Do patients prefer online consultations in general practice?
Taking action to build good health
including importance of social determinants
Let’s talk differently about health: why framing matters
Quantifying health inequalities in England
Building an organisational culture of continuous improvement
What are the public’s priorities for the NHS? And is the government listening?
A framework for NHS action on social determinants of health
Everyday Racism: How racist is Britain?
CRÈME project – stands for Communicating the Race Equality Message Effectively
By 2025, we aim to:
Engage 1 million people
Support 5,000 Digital Inclusion Hubs across the nation
We want:
Everyone to have the internet access they need
Everyone to have somewhere local to go for help to use the internet
Everyone to feel able and safe in the online world
Let’s solve data poverty with people – not for them
Digital inclusion as a basic human right
9 million people struggle to use the internet independently and 7 million people
(11% of the UK's adult population)
are still offline
(Digital Nation UK, 2020)
1 October - aims
Scrap VAT on broadband social tariffs
All technology to be reused for good
Invest to fix the digital divide - to boost productivity and leave no-one behind
Black Identities – Student Discount – Hearing Voices – Wild Therapy
Camden +
Hestia's online groups and activity programme, volunteering and training
contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
food support in Islington
contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Safeguarding training at C&I
contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Are you in debt? Need a breathing space?
Do you take an antipsychotic medication?
Contact GEMS@ucl.ac.uk
Housing issues – what is your view?
contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
[PODCAST] Deaths by Welfare – Resisting DWP violence – Dolly Sen
National Voices held a conference exploring the topic of Integrated Care Systems
As the ICS Bill works its way through the final stages of the Parliamentary process, and the last constitutional questions are being resolved, now is the right moment to identify the changes that we actually want to see as a result of this fundamental shift in the way the health and care system is organised.
We want to see better, more equal outcomes for people, especially those not currently well supported by existing models.
We also want to see more coordinated and effective care that enables people to live well, with fewer barriers between communities and formal services.
[RESEARCH] Participants over 50 required
contact harry.costello@ucl.ac.uk
[FUNDING] Green grants for Islington
Camden + Islington recovery college
Oxevision cameras and the Trust now in the Independent
Conversations Around Loneliness & Mental Health booklet
[OPPORTUNITY] PPI in Commissioning
There is a researcher looking to interview service users and carers who have experience on being involved with commissioning or working with commissioners.
The interview takes about 40 minutes and will be recorded but your name will not appear in the final paper against any quotes they use.
Let me know if you are interested and I will pass on your email address.
This is external to the trust.
There is a small payment for the interview depending how long it takes – probably £20 or so. paid by BACS.
contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Are you on a waiting list for your mental health?
Contact Ray.Dunne@rcpsych.ac.uk
Does anyone have experience of calling 111 for help with their mental health?
Any thoughts please contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Wanted – Coproduction anecdotes
contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Hand in Hand peer buddy – feedback requested
Any thoughts please contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Learn something new in 22 for free!
New Peer Buddy Scheme – Hand in Hand Islington
Any thoughts please contact TheSidebySideNetwork@gmail.com
Free Community Research online course launches | Co-Production Collective
Second independent audit of ECT published finds patient safety is being put at risk
A second audit of NHS mental health Trusts, using Freedom of Information Act requests has confirmed that both the administration and monitoring of Electroconvulsive Treatment (ECT) in England are failing to guarantee the safety of patients.
ECT involves the passing of sufficient electricity through the brain, under general anaesthesia, to cause a seizure.
Some claim it is a safe and effective treatment for severe depression.
But a recent review found little evidence that it is any better than placebo and concluded that it causes persistent or permanent memory loss in 12% to 55% of patients.1
The largest study to date has just confirmed that it does not, as claimed, prevent suicide.2
The audit confirmed that about 2,500 people are given ECT annually in England.
The majority continue to be women (67%), and over 60 (58%).
More than one in three (37%) are being forcibly given ECT against their will, and 18% of Trusts are not complying with the law regarding second opinions relating to compulsory treatment.
There were slight declines, compared to a previous audit,3 in the use of appropriate measures to assess efficacy, down to 30%, and standardised measures of memory loss, down to 24%.
There was a 47-fold difference between the two Trusts with the highest (Avon & Wiltshire, and North Staffordshire) and the lowest (Mersey Care) rates per capita.
Thus, the probability of getting ECT seems to be a postcode lottery based on the opinions of local psychiatrists.
The majority of Trusts were unable to provide any data for positive outcomes or for adverse effects during treatment (usually a 3-week period involving about 10 electroshocks).
None provided data on efficacy or adverse effects beyond end of treatment.
ECT in England is supposed to be monitored by the Royal College of Psychiatrists via their ‘ECT Accreditation Service’ (ECTAS).
But ECTAS does not monitor some of the issues addressed by this independent audit, such as how many Trusts are using proper assessment measures, how many are complying with the Mental Health Act regarding second opinions for forced treatment, and how many ECT patients had first been offered psychological treatment – in compliance with N.I.C.E. guidelines.
ECTAS has no powers to sanction ECT clinics that fail to meet even their limited set of standards, and has never disaccredited an ECT clinic.
About 10% of ECT clinics do not bother to sign up to the ECTAS process at all.
The audit concluded:
'Given the apparent failure of current monitoring and accrediting ECT clinics in England, by the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ ECT Accreditation Service (ECTAS), an independent government sponsored review is urgently needed.'
[RESOURCE] Recovery After Rape
We have obtained a copy of the workbook "Recovery After Rape".
As it can be triggering, I won't send it out indiscriminately but if you want a pdf of it for yourself or someone else, just say.
Contact thesidebysidenetwork@gmail.com
[EVENTS] Wednesday workshops for young black men aged 18-25
[RESOURCE] Mental Health and Debt booklet
Click here for the write to your MP template
Mutual Aid, volunteering and helping in the community. - Time to Spare
National Voices' submission to the Health and Social Care Select Committee
DIALOG+ and the Recovery Star
Dear Friends,
I was wondering if you have experience of either DIALOG+ or the Recovery Star?
(or other stars – more about those here: History of the star + Recovery star 4)
There was an element of co-production in the Recovery Star for Mental Health, and there has since been an Un-Recovery Star, also from the user-survivor movement which outlines the things that work against our recovery.
These are the questions that the DIALOG tool asks
and these are the areas of the 4th Edition Recovery star.
Note that it used to contain “work” but this has been dropped now.
The Recovery Star covers ten outcome areas:
Managing mental health
Physical health
Living skills
Friends and community
Use of time
Relationships
Addictive behaviour
Home
Identity and self-esteem
Trust and hope
The Recovery Star (4th Edition) is underpinned by a five-stage, ten step Journey of Change model:
Stuck (1-2)
Accepting help (3-4)
Believing and trying (5-6)
Learning (7-8)
Self-reliance (9-10)
I would be interested to hear your opinions and in particular how you think they compare.
Thanks
Bev
Impact assessment of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019
Do you have experience of the Camden Early Intervention Service?
WE are looking for people who have has some experience of the early intervention service – the one based at Greenland Road at the moment.
If this might be you, we would love to hear from you.
Kind regards
Bev
thesidebysidenetwork@gmail.com
for all aspects of family live
[INFO] Boloh – the Black and Asian family Covid-19 Helpline
Are you a black, Asian or minority ethnic child, young person, parent or carer affected by COVID-19?
Free help available
0800 1512605
[RESOURCE] Support After Suicide
DANCE for JOY
The Well, St Pancras Hospital, St Pancras Way, NW1 0PE
2pm every Monday thereafter, except for public holidays
Contact davidvital@talktalk.net
[OPPORTUNITY] Research participation – seeking voice hearers
[OPPORTUNITY] Someone with experience of paranoia or psychosis and who has smartphone
Alex Kenny alexkenny@mcpin.org
McPin Involvement Bulletin – Issue 38
The cost-of-living crisis & a new campaign – McPin Newsletter Summer 2022
Improving employment support for Black people with long-term conditions
why does mental health research matter to you? - McPin Newsletter
including events 10 October + 10 November + 16 November + 22 November + 1 December
Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry which uses the format of three lines.
Here are our haikus.
We hope you enjoy reading them.
The Benefits System:
I have no money.
Brown envelope arrives, phew.
Do I deserve it?
Isolation:
On my own, alone.
I am in isolation
Yes and it’s just fine.
Longing:
You slip between my
Fingers; all I can do is
Watch you drift away
Racism:
You pray to their gods
Then, under your burning cross,
You murdered them all
Propaganda:
Feeding me with lies
Why not report some good news?
Keeping me in fear.
DWP Secret Report, Secret Algorithm And Keeping Secrets From WCA Reviewer
Truth About Disability Benefits: Dispatches
Nine Secrets DWP Is Desperate To Keep, PIP Mandatory Recon Success Plummets
12 Month PIP Extensions Begin, ESA Claimants Owed Compensation, Cost Of Living Payments Due
Cost Of Living Payment Delay, Forced ESA to UC Timetable, Pro Training Offer
It’s OK to not feel OK during challenging times
Codependency- The Unexpected Addicts
Train The Trainer – Applications OPEN
Contact Mike Lawrence – mike@talkforhealth.co.uk
Kingston Hospital’s Health Talks podcast
Developing our objectives for the year ahead
Quality Priorities for 2022/23 – We would like to hear from you
Contact khft.improvement@nhs.net
NEON project looking for your help?
South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
Sutton Crisis Café – Sutton Mental Health Foundation (smhf.org.uk) – for info regarding the café in Sutton
Constructive & non-clinical alternative to A&E | Sunshine Recovery Cafe | Mental Health Crisis – based in Merton
Mental Health Recovery Cafe | Hestia – based in Wandsworth
Recovery Hub – Richmond Borough Mind (rbmind.org) – based in Twickenham
Survey regarding mental health + physical health
contact sherry.fuller@swlondon.nhs.uk
External Opportunity – Creating information sheets for women on Sodium Valporate & 1 to 1 interview to test a new communication tool ‘Is valproate the right treatment for me to manage my mental health?’
contact LeilaF@maths.cam.ac.uk or as3226@cam.ac.uk
Can you help with some Carer Recovery Research
South West London Mental Health Strategy
Dear Lived Experience Network Members
We would like to advise that expression of interests in Involvement Opportunities do not just have to be done via email and can be done verbally by speaking with a member of the Involvement Team over the phone.
Some people may not feel they can express their interest effectively over an email and may prefer to speak to someone about their interest in an opportunity.
Verbal expressions of interest will be taken by our Administrative Coordinator – Christine Otieno and in Christine’s absence by the Involvement Project Lead – Vanessa Robinson.
If you would like to verbally express an interest in an opportunity
then please kindly call 0203 513 5775 where you can directly speak with either Christine or Vanessa or arrange a call back to do so
You can also email involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk to advise you would like to arrange a call to verbally express an interest and state the times you are available for a call back
Check-in with the Involvement Team – 2 paid, 1 hour check-ins per year – please tell us what day(s) of the week, and time(s) are best for you
We will get in touch to arrange our check in
contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Mindful Movement to Boost Mental Wellbeing
contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Research Study :- Survey on supporting Young people’s mental health aged 16-25 years
Hope in Depression!
courses on Zoom – Tuesdays 27 September – 8 November
contact Denise Morris
hopeindepression@ccsurbiton.org
or call 07423 144803
Help us develop a new mental health strategy – South West London Integrated Care System
contact keji.johnson@swlondon.nhs.uk
Summer 2022 – Stakeholder Bulletin
Help us to create resources to support people to lead their mental health appointments
contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
St George's Tooting, St Helier and Epsom University Hospitals 5 Year Strategy
contact esth.sgul.strategy@nhs.net
Survey from National Institute of Health Research – Understanding the experiences of people who have been living at home with a family member with dementia
contact Tasnim.fakira@swlstg.nhs.uk
or jayne.astbury@manchester.ac.uk
Summer Newsletter
contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Participants needed for Social Cognition in Anorexia Study
contact Jenni.leppanen@kcl.ac.uk
Spring 2022 – SWLSTG Stakeholder Bulletin
Autumn Edition Carers Newsletter
Contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Opportunity: New Model for Involvement & Coproduction
Contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Are you interested in sharing your lived experience within staff training and other events?
Contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Advert for: IAPT Internship Program Talk Wandsworth
For further details / informal visits contact:
Noel Brown (Wellbeing Lead) on 07779 451 172 or noel.brown@swlstg.nhs.uk
Opportunity with Healthy London Partnership – Delays in S135 Assessments Task & Finish Group – opportunity for service users to become expert advisors for London wide project
e-mail kirsty.jarvie1@nhs.net
Opportunity – sharing your lived experience – Occupational Therapy Course Programme @ St Georges University of London
email J.Cronin-Davis@sgul.kingston.ac.uk
Gathering your views of SWLStGs services
email on zoe.hannam@swlstg.nhs.uk
Would you like to test a new questionnaire looking at carer recovery?
On behalf of Claire Hilton at Carer Recovery in partnership with South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG’s) Clinical research team
Contact c.a.hilton@lancaster.ac.uk
Digital Inclusion Information
Involvement have gathered information regarding digital inclusion
Contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Mental Wellbeing weekly football-based programme – Queen's Park Rangers Community Trust
ContactConnor Bagenal
Inclusive Projects Officer
QPR In the Community Trust
07483 006 992
www.qprcommunitytrust.co.uk
Twitter: @QPRTrust
Have your say on our five-year digital strategy – SWLStG's
Contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
THE CREATIVE WELLBEING PROJECT
EMAIL: INFO@COLLECTIVE-ARTS.ORG
OR TEXT OR CALL 07711 938 921
Social prescribing in Richmond – connecting people with activities in the local community – Ruils in partnership with the Richmond GP Alliance
Please contact Narinder Dosanjh, our project manager, for more information narinderdosanjh@ruils.co.uk
To read more about our link workers click here
To download our new Healthy Lifestyle Resource, click here
Link to you tube video re: what is social prescribing
Link to the Ruil’s website – Social Prescribing | RUILS Charity
Britney Spears: What is lithium, the drug she claims she was put on?
‘Co-production in mental health is about progression towards ‘the transformation of power and control’ (Slay & Stephens, 2013).
It requires thinking about people, power, partnerships, resources and risk in ways that are very different to what has gone before in mental health services.
It implies relocating power to mental health service users, survivors, their organisations and communities and this has implications for services and practitioners.
To ensure full collaboration, the co-production process should achieve equality and parity between all those involved.
Change happens during the process of co-production as well as being a consequence of it.
There is no single, universal model of co-production and the way co-production is done is specific to the task, context and the people involved, so this is not a ‘how to’ guide.
Instead, the aim is to set out some practice-based advice on what needs to be considered for progressing towards ‘transformative co-production’, specifically in mental health.
The advice within this toolkit is presented as ‘steps’, illustrated by practice lessons from what a number of different people and organisations in the field have tried and tested.
The guide also includes three case studies from different mental health settings drawn from the practice examples.’
NDTi - Coproduction in Mental Health Toolkit
The resources within the toolkit are aimed at everyone with a practical interest in making coproduction work in mental health services.
It is particularly designed for those at the frontline such as mental health service users, carers and their organisations as well as practitioners and managers who want to engage with and understand transformative coproduction.
The materials have been written in collaboration with service users and their organisations, NHS mental health practitioners and those working in community-based mental health organisations and initiatives.
This toolkit includes a:
Coproduction in Mental Health Toolkit - NDTi
Coproduction Week – Nice Guidance – Shared Decision Making (Jun 21)
This guideline covers how to make shared decision-making part of everyday care in all healthcare settings.
It promotes ways for healthcare professionals and people using services to work together to make decisions about treatment and care.
It includes recommendations on training, communicating risks, benefits and consequences, using decision aids, and how to embed shared decision making in organisational culture and practices.
Definition – Shared decision making is a collaborative process that involves a person and their healthcare professional working together to reach a joint decision about care.
It could be care the person needs straightaway or care in the future, for example, through advance care planning.
It involves choosing tests and treatments based both on evidence and on the person's individual preferences, beliefs and values.
It means making sure the person understands the risks, benefits and possible consequences of different options through discussion and information sharing. This joint process empowers people to make decisions about the care that is right for them at that time (with the options of choosing to have no treatment or not changing what they are currently doing always included).
Three-talk model
The three-talk model is a practical model of how to do shared decision making that is based on following choice, option and decision talk stages during the consultation.
The model has 3 steps:
introducing choice
describing options, often by integrating the use of patient decision support
helping people explore their preferences and make decisions.
Your views on the use of digital technology to enhance the care and support offered by South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
Contact involvement@swlstg.nhs.uk
Free Live Online Exercises Classes with Clinical Exercise Therapy Team – Mon + Weds + Thurs
Contact exercisetherapy@swlstg.nhs.uk
Coral Mental Health Crisis Hub
Thousands to benefit from soups and shakes diet on the NHS from today
Talk Wandsworth – Well-being resources
Talk Wandsworth – Well-being workshops (under wellbeing subtitle)
Your local IAPT websites can be found at:
Merton Uplift: https://www.mertonuplift.nhs.uk
Sutton Uplift: https://www.suttonuplift.co.uk
Talk Wandsworth: https://www.talkwandsworth.nhs.uk
Kingston: https://www.icope.nhs.uk/kingston
Richmond: https://www.richmondwellbeingservice.nhs.uk
A Caring Mind | A blog for carers of mental health
Safely Held Spaces | Wellbeing & Compassion | UK
Merton uplift workshops October
contact mertonwellbeing@swlstg.nhs.uk
SWLSTG Online Live Exercise Sessions
For further details or to sign up please email exercisetherapy@swlstg.nhs.uk
Involvement in Kingston and/or Richmond Community MH Transformation
contact amy.richardson@swlstg.nhs.uk
Springfield Village development
Have your say about Kingston Hospital’s communications
HOUNSLOW AND RICHMOND COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST
Sussex Partnership Membership E-Bulletin – May 2022
Ideas to help boost your mental wellbeing
Education
Level 2 Qualifications – Without paying a penny
Covid-19: how tech could transform education
we find any learner – free training
Power to the people
freeze social rents – EMAIL MP
What the defeat of the Super League teaches us about standing up to power
We need to commit to building the power of ordinary people to fight against wealthy elites
Community food systems should be part of the new normal – here’s why
poverty is a policy choice
Poverty is the result of a welfare system which denies people the means to live a dignified life
The UK's Living Standards Crisis
The UK is in the midst of a crisis in living standards.
Too many people do not have reliable access to the resources they need to meet the day-to-day costs for a decent quality of life.
This was true before Covid-19, but the pandemic and the associated economic downturn have seen things exacerbate over the past 12 months.
New forecast modelling produced for this report shows that by the end of the year, and without a change in government policy, 32% of the UK population – 21.4 million people – will be living below a socially acceptable living standard, as measured by the Minimum Income Standard (MIS).
The MIS, the UK’s only needs-based approach to measuring living standards, identifies what needs must be met for an individual to thrive in the society in which they live
Levelling up begins with quality public services
Weekly Economics Podcast: Fast fashion
Weekly Economics Podcast: Fighting the climate crisis in the courts
Living standards face a perfect storm
Making workers foot the bill for social care and pensions is deeply unfair
Quibbling about cost while the world burns
Levelling up from the ground up
Reshape finance for a green recovery
From Universal Credit to a Living Income
Tell the Prime Minister to give us a Great Homes Upgrade – PETITION
The incomes of half of families have fallen by an average of £110 a year
The richest 5% are £3,300 a year richer
There are 300,000 more people in poverty
The income gap between UK regions has widened
Single parents and pensioners have been hit the hardest
A shorter working week for Europe
Fuel cost crisis, how to really level up – closing the divide
universal credit auto-enrolment
unequal impacts of the energy price cap
£62bn climate cost of planned UK airport expansions
A Living Income and Great Homes Upgrade would solve the cost of living crisis
Video: A Green New Deal for people and places
How private developers get out of building affordable housing
the councils that are pushing back
Unless Whitehall devolves its powers, ‘levelling up’ is doomed to fail
Why don’t we just… understand why it costs more to be poor
How can local people take action on things that matter to them?
New Economics Briefing: Why the cost of living crisis is a climate issue
Universal Credit: Millions missing out on benefit payments of £7,300 a year
Dear Rishi Sunak – we demand a Great Homes Upgrade
Be part of a brand new NEF housing campaign
Welcome to the Great Homes Upgrade
Fuel price cuts in the UK will largely benefit the SUV-driving elite
New Economics Podcast: Are fossil fuels funding the war in Ukraine?
New Economics Podcast: What did Covid-19 reveal about how our economy is really run?
What does the Sunak scandal tell us about our tax system?
Are fossil fuels funding the war in Ukraine?
New Economics Podcast: How did the British Empire write the rules of today’s economy?
New Economics Podcast: Who owns the internet?
We all need a place to call home – somewhere we feel safe and secure
But more and more of us cannot afford this most basic of needs.
Private rents are rising even faster than inflation.
Children up and down the country are forced to grow up in damp, cold and unhealthy rooms, breathing in toxic mould.
Homelessness is rising in every region of the UK.
Right to Buy is a big cause of this scandal.
In 1980, council tenants were given the right to buy their homes at a huge discount.
Instead of investing the proceeds in new affordable homes, the government spends billions each year in housing benefit payments, much of which lines the pockets of private landlords.
Fewer than 5% of homes sold off have been replaced, decimating the availability of cheap, secure, long-term tenancies, while pushing up rents for everyone.
Today’s promises that homes sold will be replaced like-for-like are unworkable.
Two in five of all homes sold off through Right to Buy are now in the hands of private landlords.
Living in these properties, you pay more than your neighbours renting from the council, and your landlord can evict you at any time.
With more than one million families stuck on council waiting lists, we urgently need more social housing, not less
While property tycoons have donated more than £60m to the governing party in ten years, renters and housing activists have – by necessity – been mainly focussed on fighting their poor living conditions, exorbitant rents and dodgy landlords.
They do not have the time, energy or resources to target the underlying system.
Despite housing experts long agreeing that social housing is key to solving the crisis, there has not yet been a strong movement for a national social home-building programme
we demand to be warm this winter – PETITION
how we can enshrine every person’s right to life’s essentials:
education, health and social care, a decent home, childcare, nutritious food, clean air and water, energy, transport
Change won't come from politicians at conferences
Locality – the power of community
Keep it Local – read and share new research from Bradford and Bristol
use collective intelligence to solve public problems
How a High Street Buyout Fund could save our town centres
Advancing equity, diversity and inclusion at Nesta
Nesta's new strategy, £40m Water Challenge, Free Rapid Recovery event, Tips for ARIA, and more
Data poverty: Struggling with the cost of getting online
Nearly one million people in Scotland and Wales suffer from data poverty and are unable to access private and secure internet.
However, knowledge around this is scarce.
Our report, Data Poverty in Scotland and Wales, seeks to address that. Alongside it, we hear from four people whose lives have been directly affected by data poverty
Five stories of change for a sustainable future
Including South Korea’s Green new Deal
Our diet is harming the planet
How do we eliminate the school readiness gap?
How junk food advertising impacts young people
What the government needs to do to reduce the cost of heat pumps
The Future of Live Performance
Three quarters of UK adults underestimate the amount of calories in snacks
The low-carbon workforce of the future
18 October – how to make your own renewable energy
Directory of Social Change people to work a four-day week
Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) radical
realisable strategies for local economies
Our aim is to achieve social justice, good local economies and
effective public services for everyone, everywhere.
the final report of the Liverpool City Region Land Commission: Our Land
Community Wealth Building Centre of Excellence (CfX)
community wealth building: a history
Raising council tax won’t fix local government
Levelling up paper falls way short of what is needed
Building community wealth in Lewes
Community-led development: a roadmap for asset ownership
intro to community wealth building – 20 October
economies for everyone:beyond hard hats – 12 October
Think tank including Prof Donna Hall + Chris Ham
“It’s not about us asking for trust, it’s about us radically trusting citizens”
Audrey Tang
community calling: people want more influence
We found that the feeling of disconnect runs deep between decision makers and the public, with 79% of people agreeing that Westminster and Whitehall are making decisions about people and places they know little about
We also found significant support for community power
71% of people think that there should be a legal right for communities to have a say over how local services are run
"The local people know what's best for them and the decisions that need to be made."
Focus group participant
A community-powered NHS: making prevention a reality
Creating better health starts with admitting what we just don’t know
New polling: Public back community-powered solutions to national crises
It's time for a Community Power Act
5 challenges of evaluating place-based change
how we did it : poverty truth commission
local approaches to tackling deep poverty + destitution : call for learning + ideas - RESPOND
What ever happened to 'taking back control'?
Six years after the Brexit campaign promised British voters the opportunity to 'take back control', nearly eight in ten people say they have not much or no control over important decisions that affect their neighbourhood and local community
What does a new prime minister mean for levelling up?
Nurturing wellbeing in our neighbourhoods
Big change as Power to Change launch new website
Community Power Act – get involved
Take Back the High Street – community right to buy
ask for a free ticket
Plunkett Foundation – events +
including community managing public funding
People's History Museum blog: 10 famous protests the Policing Bill would've threatened
Funding racial justice, climate change and human rights, and lots of vacancies
New Levelling Up report, Civil society response to the human rights act review and more
Equally Ours newsletter: consultations reports, and more
Including a spotlight on democratic well-being
Take action to improve immigration practices and end conversion therapy!
the state of human rights in the UK
developments in human rights in the UK
Attitudes towards disabled people, racism and environmental emergencies and more
Plans for detained patients, public sexual harassment consultation, family migration and more
including
Health Department’s plan for detained patients falls well short of what’s needed
published by Equality + human rights commission (EHRC)
Every day a person is detained in hospital unnecessarily is a day too many
It is therefore unacceptable, more than a decade after action was first promised, that hundreds of people with autism and learning disabilities are still being kept as in-patients when they could be receiving community care.
In too many cases, patients are also subject to restraint and segregation, which can worsen their conditions and make it increasingly hard for them to go home.
In extreme cases, there could be significant violations of human rights.
The DHSC’s plan to address these concerns has been delayed two years by Covid, and we are pleased it has finally been published.
However, it does not go far enough and appears to suggest that some patients will still be placed in hospitals rated as inadequate.
We welcome the draft Mental Health Bill, which aims to reduce the number of inappropriately detained patients in the long term.
But action must be taken immediately to move people out of unnecessary detention and into the community.
The EHRC is exploring how best to use its legal powers to help patients and their families.
This may include action in the courts
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION REMOVED HOMOSEXUALITY FROM THE INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASES IN 1990
32 YEARS LATER, ATTEMPTS TO ‘CURE’ US ARE STILL HAPPENING (and LEGAL!).
Conversion therapy includes medical, psychiatric, psychological, religious, cultural or any other interventions that seek to change, “cure”, or suppress the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of a person.
Figures from the UK Government’s National LGBT Survey found that:
7% of LGBT people have been offered or undergone conversion therapy.
10 % of asexual people have been offered or undergone conversion therapy.
13% of trans people have been offered or undergone conversion therapy.
Rise in cost of living, reducing women’s imprisonment and more
Coronavirus Act report 2022, National Refugee policy, new immigration check and more
Food + nature + out + about
Baker Street Irregular Astronomers
Capital Growth – Training + events
Are councils doing enough to support Londoners to grow food?
The role of councils in community food growing
Can urban food growing tackle the climate and nature emergency?
What does a Climate-friendly Food Garden mean to you?
including events October + November
Delivering food growing training?
Food growing training sessions +
The Harmony Project’s new report calls for greener prisons
The Story of Umgibe: A farm in a plastic bag
What if we viewed food in terms of nutrients and ecological health instead of dollars or calories?
Why local food can restore our failing food system
How can we empower local action on food poverty?
Sustainable Food Trust newsletter
Are you ready to bridge the gap?
Achieving food security through land reform
Marcus Rashford's #WRITENOW Campaign calls on MPs to #EndChildFoodPoverty
How your small decisions can make a difference
Top five herbs you can grow at home to help save the bees!
Tips to up your recycling game
National allotment week – a proud history
Celebrating 21 years at Nevis!
Wild and Well: How wild places support our wellbeing
12 ways to connect with nature | Eco-anxiety and how to cope
Heritage Open Days – Online Event Directory Live
including energy advice + funding + gardening
late September + October events
Wildfowl + Wetlands Trust – Put a spring in your step
Immerse yourself in the wonders of Waterlands
The women who changed history, and other news from The National Archives
The untold refugee stories, Census 100 years on and other news from The National Archives
Refugee Week 2022 and other news from The National Archives
Celebrating Women's History Month, and other news from The National Archives
Supporting Deaf Awareness Week and other news from The National Archives
including events
Presenting the 2022 recipients of our Activate Levelling Up Fund for Activists
Act now to get London walking more
London walking routes map goes from strength to strength
Get creative and #WalkForTheWorld this October!
Chancellor confirms £2bn investment for walking and cycling
Children nationwide taking steps to reduce air pollution
Latest government data confirms quieter streets are safer streets
Please send a tweet to your MP and let's #ReclaimOurPavements
We all deserve safer streets – agree? - ACTION
Have your say: Respond to clean air consultation
Share your #WalkToSchoolStories
Art
A conversation about Starseeds
Arts activism + cultural exchange
Co-op Community Fund and All Change
Known in Your Bones Podcast – Episode 1
Known in Your Bones Podcast – Episode 2
Known in Your Bones Podcast – Episode 3
Known in Your Bones Podcast – Episode 4
Known in Your Bones Podcast – Episode 5
Celebrating LGBTQ+ voices in art
fun way to project manage a dream
There is an alternative (TIALT)
Wander and wonder
Sitting still is overrated
If you are in a bad mood go for a walk
If you are still in a bad mood go for another walk
Hippocrates
Ignite Imaginations – latest news
Murmurations at Waterfront Festival (North Gare, Hartlepool)
Well being workshop – September – December 2022
New Drumming Workshops and Interactive Poetry at OKMT
How does volunteering affect the wellbeing of volunteers?
Community hubs and green space: real-world evidence for enhancing wellbeing
"Singing hurries along friendship": A Carers’ Music Fund insights podcast
How can you measure – and build – community spirit?
What psychological interventions work to improve mental wellbeing?
Why our relationship with nature matters?
How can music-making with others improve wellbeing?
Measuring the wellbeing of secondary school children
How can wellbeing measures improve public policy?
How has Covid-19 exposed housing inequalities?
Dying well: prioritising wellbeing at the end of life
How are our children doing? How do we know?
What helps individuals and communities to thrive?
Developing a theory of thriving
How can we measure community wellbeing?
Tackling loneliness in older adults
Link between loneliness + dementia?
Learning from an £87m programme: social contacts, loneliness and wellbeing
How are we feeling? Subjective wellbeing insights
Dying well – a legacy to build on
Can community well-being reflect how individuals are doing?
Is a “well being state” the answer to long term resilience?
How do we cope with events beyond our control?
What do we know about loneliness in London?
Measuring mental wellbeing through difficult life transitions
Loneliness is strongly related to poor wellbeing
Wherever you live, engaging in the arts is good for your wellbeing
Life satisfaction impacts voter turnout and behaviour
Since 2011/12, the UK has been one of a small but growing number of countries to systematically measure the subjective wellbeing, or ‘happiness’, of its citizens, along with GDP
The role of official statistics in measuring wellbeing
Supporting local authorities in wellbeing policy making
How evidence-based research can help local authorities to reduce obesity
Measuring progress: Quality of Life in the UK 2022
Self-report measures offer new insights into adolescent wellbeing
Beyond the averages: the relationship between higher education and wellbeing
Local area action plans: learning from wellbeing research and practice
I want respect, loyalty, trust, understanding, listening, ability to compromise and love in my relationship
Participant - aged 17
The Continuation on Prevention Through Creative Arts
#BeTender - 14 Acts of Kindness Challenge
The Impact of Kindness - #BeTender Campaign
Visa and Mastercard stop ads on Pornhub following child porn lawsuit
Introducing: Expose the harm – PORN
kids at risk the longer online safety bill is delayed – EMAIL MP
Our Online Safety Bill response and how you can get involved – EMAIL MP
A word to the porn industry: your day in the sun is over
Open Letter to the PM: Keep Kids Off Porn
Watch Now! Mansions of the Future: A Lasting Legacy
Peer Support
Free workshops and small grants for activists
Peer support is about social change
"I don't go down there to talk to someone or to give them advice.
I go down there to listen, to have a conversation."
Chris Masters
Academy of Peer-supported Open Dialogue
Government planning harsh new laws for Gypsies and Travellers. Write to your MP today!
Stop the criminalisation of trespass — Meet your MP now!
Charity Awards win, Policing Bill, GRTHM and more...
FFT launch new training on delivering inclusive services to Gypsies and Travellers
FFT Annual Report, PCSC Bill, Jeremy Clarkson and more...
November newsletter: Crystal's Vardo, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and more...
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
Include teaching of Roma and Sinti genocide in schools — Write to your MP now!
response to Jimmy Carr and more…
Pontins investigation, Policing Act workshop and more…
Suicide Inequalities Report, Fuel Crisis, Local Authority Misleads Planning Enquiry....
Community catalysts CIC – update
Women's Aid launch Expect Respect Prevention Toolkit
“We are here for survivors”
The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac)
0808 801 0331
Mad COVID – free yoga – Sundays
Centre for Mental Health – Latest mental health news and research
The truth about mental health inequality
Working in partnership: creating an effective rough sleeper strategy
New approaches to supporting young men's mental health
good grief festival – 28 + 29 October
The Grief Channel is Now Free to Watch on YouTube!
Seniors
Good homes for all: a proposal to fix England's housing
Information on ways to boost your income
You can get support and advice from:
Domestic Abuse helpline: 0808 2000 247 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). You can also visit their website where there’s a live chat and online messaging service, if you don’t feel able to call or email.
Adult Social Services at your local council.
Your GP or other NHS health providers.
Hourglass helpline: 0808 808 8141 (9am-5pm, Monday-Friday) Hourglass are an organisation dedicated to ending harm and abuse to older people.
The Police: you can call the local Police on the 101 non-emergency number, or call 999 immediately in an emergency. If you are unable to speak when the operator answers, cough or tap your phone, and if prompted, press 55. This lets the operator know if you’re in an abusive household and need the Police but fear being heard.
Age UK Advice Line: 0800 169 65 65 (8am-7pm, 7 days a week) Or you can contact us online here.
The Silver Line: 0800 4 70 80 90 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) The Silver Line is a confidential helpline for older people.
It’s not 100% on you to make sure you’re safe online
Age UK – RICHMOND runs FREE IT courses +
Democracy
Endless opposition or a Progressive Alliance?
All great political movements are born in exile.
As ever, we are the people we have been waiting for.
All You Need to Know about a Progressive Alliance
Politics needs to change so we can change our society – to make it much more equal, sustainable and democratic.
We are convinced that can only happen if parties of the left and centre start to work together, or at the very least stop fighting one another.
After the Market? Capitalism and Social Democracy in the 2020s
From a post-pandemic reorientation around care to an embrace of citizens’ assemblies, the future is surely a shift from top-down directives to a plural politics that harnesses the bottom-up power of community.
Labour must embrace new power and a new democracy
The Green Route to Alliance-based Power
minority report: preparing for multi-party government
Poll shows majority of Labour voters want to Only Stand to Win
Tell our leaders: to deepen democracy, we need to get it together
A plan beats no plan – Win As One
Clive Lewis – the real reason the Tories binned Boris
While Boris parties, he's turning our country into an authoritarian state
Rishi Sunak's shocking failure
Majority oppose resignation honours
Concentrated power 25% of Tory party's individual donations come from just 10 people
Voter ID bill back in parliament
Elections Bill – a Government priority
Government sneak First Past the Post amendment into Elections Bill
Scottish Government refuses to recommend consent for Elections Bill
ERS News: Safe seats and second jobs
Dominic Grieve calls for a halt to the Elections Bill
Cross-party MPs call for pause on Elections Bill
Can we help end England’s one- party state
While English voters are ignored, Scotland shows the way
How we can revive local democracy in Scotland
Proportional representation would end the scourge of tactical voting
54% oppose appointing political cronies to the lords – PETITION
Johnson’s resignation honours list will last a lifetime
Survey finds only 44% support First Past the Post
PETITION – for fairer voting system
What is an All Party Parliamentary Group or APPG?
electoral reform in Westminster – PETITION
take back control of house of lords – PETITION
extend the right to vote to 16 + 17 year olds UK wide – PETITION
fairer votes in English local government – PETITION
22 October
Street Stall – Clapham Junction
1 November MVM
Mass Lobby of Parliament
8 November 7pm
SWL MVM November Supporters' Evening
Open space principles:
Whoever comes are the right people
Whenever it starts is the right time
When it’s over, it’s over
Whatever happens it is the only thing that could happen
Trust for London – Tackling poverty + inequality
Moving on Up: UK youth unemployment continues to rise; young black men are particularly affected
London's Poverty Profile – private renting
London's Poverty Profile 2021 out now
Pesos and Power – why we must ensure that power is shared in philanthropy
Life expectancy by London borough
Childhood obesity by London borough
Procurement for community public good: a guide
Homelessness and welfare benefits in London
Tonic Housing – Shared ownership community launched
People on out-of-work benefits, by London borough
London rent as a percentage of gross pay
London households in temporary accommodation
What happened to CEO pay in 2020?
Shared Wealth programme – housing grants approved
Nobody’s Home – How wealth investment locks Londoners out of housing
Benefits to society: Homeless young people's experiences of the social security system
Manifesto for a child poverty free London published today
No racial justice without economic justice
Training dates July to November
London’s poverty profiles July 2022
CEO pay survey 2022: CEO pay surges 39%
Sign the petition: Stand with Zambia
Sign the petition to Reset the Debt!
Tell big banks: Cancel the debt!
Stop debt ruining lives – Reset the Debt!
Update: IMF, World Bank Spring Meetings
There are now 8.5 million people heavily in debt
That’s 1 in 6 of us
So far little has been done and the pressure, including on people's mental health, can be unbearable
One person told us that ‘Debt has social, emotional and mental side effects, the like of which are a silent venom.’
People of the global South have been rendered vulnerable to climate change because of poverty.
Discrimination and precarious living conditions are intensified under this ever-rising debt problem.
The global financial system is extractivist in essence – [characterised by] the extraction of human and natural resources for the relentless pursuit of profit and the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels..."
Mae Buenaventura, Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development
Let's stop the long-Covid debt crisis
Write to your local paper in just two mins...
Urgent action: Justice for Mozambique
Join our new Debt Justice Activist Network
Take action on the cost of living crisis
Here in the UK, almost half of adults in Britain, 25 million people,
are now in debt or concerned about falling into debt
Liz Truss: Act on energy bills now
Debt and colonialism - the links
Cancel debt for climate justice
Drop Debt Save Lives – PETITION
Medical Cannabis access on the NHS – Alfie and I need your help! - PETITION
Call off the attack on UK democracy – LETTER
A message of support for Ukraine – ADD YOUR NAME
Reforming the House of Lords – HAVE YOUR SAY
Limit MPs' 2nd jobs – PETITION
government power over electoral commission – PETITION
Dealing with HMRC is a famously laborious experience but they’re very aware that while members of the public might not like paying taxes, most of them tend to play by the rules.
Sadly, we can’t say the same about our universal credit system.
The Public Interest Law Centre recently pointed to an example of a client who had been asked for a “photo of you next to your street sign with your right hand holding it” and a “photo of you holding your local newspaper for the area you live (not a national tabloid paper).
This should be dated the same day as you upload the photo.”
Council energy firms lose £114 million
Public sector pensions bigger than national debt
civil servants using PM’s jet – cost taxpayers £50000
Petition: Stop Public Sector Golden Goodbyes
Young people see affordable housing as a key issue that could improve their lives.
But currently, less than a quarter of 18- to 34-year-olds are projected to be able to buy a home by 2026
Croydon council former CEO – Jo Negrini got £613,000 taxpayer funded remuneration 2020 – 21
Gary Lineker gets £1.35 million from BBC
Zoe Ball gets £980,000 from BBC
38 civil servants have pension pots worth over £1 million
Lord McDonald’s pension pot is £2.2 million – Sir Philip Barton pension pot grew from £321,000 to £1.7 million
Defence chief behind failing quango given £100K bonus
Union bosses take home £280,000 in perks + pay
millions of “ghost” patients registered to GP surgeries
MPs' could get pay rise to £84,000
Click here to see the highest (and lowest) spending MPs
nearly 600 civil servants taking home over £150,000 last year
households in the bottom 20% by income will pay £449,860 in direct + indirect taxes over a lifetime
NHS trusts spend £3.3 million on overseas recruitment
High public sector pay – 100s of civil servants earn over £200K
Amanda Pritchard – NHS boss salary is between £255K - £260 K
675 NHS managers on more than £150 K