Benefit Street, Brighton.

Now that I’ve had intimate, lived experience of how the NHS in England functions within the parameters of Mental Health policy, I feel it’s important to speak out. It is now more important than ever that people – whether involved with community projects or not – understand exactly how the current system is failing Britain. In yesterday’s blog I gave suggestions as to how one could supplement the NHS Mental Health programme. To-day I’m illustrating some of the stories of NHS patients, and public perceptions. 1.    Attitudes to Mental Health. I’m sure we are all in agreement that public the perception of Mental Health issues has changed due to more education and exposure to the role mental health plays in the overall health of Britain? My frequent ‘Victorian’ jibe in relation to mental health care could, possibly, be therefore dismissed as hyperbole. But the reality is that  most marginalized people – of all ages – who are currently experiencing the worst aspect...

Two years ago I had a nervous breakdown. Just before I did so I had been part of a new Council initiative. My brief concerned Mental Health in the U25 group. At the end of last year I came across what I had written and scrubbed the whole thing. I, too, have come to accept I shall never recover; so a couple of months ago I wrote this. I’ve divided it in two and am posting the conclusions & possible solutions first. Because it’s positive. It might even open a dialogue?                                                                                                                             When I began to look into Mental Health in the 18 - 25 age group it was a...

When the phrase 'resistance fatigue' sprang into life everyone who heard it for the first time knew instantly what it meant. It's only been a fortnight and having to adjust to dystopia, we are learning, appears to require a rather longer period of adjustment than that. But in other places people are having to go through exactly the same process AND dodge bombs. I'm aware that people on blogs and in columns are pointing out the advisedness of getting an overall perspective of how both Brexit and Drumph fit into a global context. But it isn't, really, a conversation that's going on in Macdonalds, is it?  Whereas Drumph is.  And this is where individual media face the same basic choice: - their business is to sell  product.  Either of the Big Two are what gets the most clicks and thus their product will sell well. It's part of any rational business policy to make the largest profit.  And pay the best wages. A funny caption on a Trump pic. will ge...

                                                          Have you ever wished there was a way of capturing the past (and The Past) in a hologram and replaying it as it really was? Not just so you could see who really took the garbage out last bin-day. But so we could see how things really were, as opposed to how generations of male scholars have moulded it? Have you ever yearned for a machine which could see into the earth as underwater cameras do? Have you ever speculated about a device which would transfer your thoughts to a manuscript page without your having to voice or write them? Well tough titty to anyone who ever has had any of these kinds of thoughts, because if you dream any of these dreams chances are most of you are engaged in the Humanities . And it's a wonderful time to be working in the Humanities, because with the...

Aside from the beach, The North Laine area  is probably one of the most recognised and photographed areas of Brighton. Calenders, travel books, Beautiful Britain pamphlets & posters, Lonely Planet guides - there's always pics. of the outdoor cafes, fabulous graffiti, unconventional people and crazy inventions. I love the North Laine - but I tend to look at it through different lenses each time I'm there. At The Regency Town House we have a huge data-base of knowledge about how North Laine grew, the people for whom the houses were built, those which doubled as schools, pubs, grocers, dressmakers, and information about all the people who lived in them.    But what about this? Did people move into these from Brighton slum areas? Was this the first time some people had proper kitchens instead of dank cellars? Did they luxuriate in heated rooms for the first time? And did they feel a sense of release and even Overlordship, gazing down into the crammed and thro...

                                             I’m going to invoke “the personal is the political” mantra here to excuse my departure  from my avowed stance of being a-political. Not only because I find that the elephant in the room is becoming uncomfortably intrusive; but because we are all, actually, shit-scared. But most people don't want to say it out loud. Because right there, last Wednesday morning, was when the  political  cast a huge dark cloud over my personal. On Wednesday EVERYONE , including the contestants, was at Stage One – total shock. On  Tuesday people everywhere had that euphoric moment on first awakening: - thinking it had all been a nightmare or that JR wasn’t dead. They all experienced the same cold chill when they realised it wasn’t a nightmare; or a game show.  The world had changed. Now, five days later,...

I utterly refuse to consider people other than Saul on the road to Damascus as having had epiphanies.   Neither Newton nor Archimedes claimed one  and both of them knew of the concept. Nor can Joan of Arc reliably be credited with one, because she was in all probability schizophrenic. An epiphany demands clouds parting, trumpets, and heralds at the very least. Plus a loud booming voice off-stage. So I seriously question people who say they got all this action on the top of the No.5 bus on the way to the Pizza parlour. It may be obvious by now that I did not have an epiphany this afternoon.  But, having been so vehement about repudiating the tendency people have lately of having epiphanies on a semi-regular basis and without visible effects and cloud parting; I find myself bereft of a way to say what happened to me this afternoon. Perhaps it was a revelation? But that still sounds faintly ecclesiastical – so...no.  Yet I honestly felt ...