We’re in it together to improve mental health
The idea that we may have become desensitised to mental health suffering – even if it’s because we’re overstretched and under intense pressure – is unpalatable (cover story, page 6). So what do we do with this knowledge that patients/clients are being stripped of dignity and hope of recovery, bounced from one crisis to the next – and being made homeless, criminalised, isolated, dehumanised? The lived experience tells a terrible story, but the lesson it offers is invaluable. Through conversation, connection, empathy and humour we rediscover our voices. What better illustration of peer power? And a key point is that it’s not either/or – either peer networks or trained professionals within organisations – it’s a combination of both that galvanises positive change.
With the help of our experts throughout this issue we look at trauma from different perspectives and hope it helps to piece together the complex puzzle of mental health treatment relating to substance use. Much of this lurks under the radar – those suffering from military sexual trauma, people with multiple disadvantage needing targeted support, women whose very specific needs are still treated as ‘gender neutral’. With your help we will open these topics for robust debate.
Read the March issue as an online magazine (you can also download it as a PDF from the online magazine)
Claire Brown, editor