Critical Perspectives Seminars Spring 2022  

‘Yes, but where do you really come from?’ ‘Race’, racism and mental health – Messages from the racialised others. Sonia Thompson; Co-Director of the Survivor Researcher Network, UK. Tuesday 15 February 18:00-20:00 (UK /Irish Time)

This seminar is a conversation about racism in mental health. While part of the seminar is informed by UK figures and policies, the broader discussion is of universal relevance. With Ireland leading the EU with some of the worst rates of hate-motivated harassment (INAR’s 2019 Reports of Racism in Ireland), it is an important opportunity to consider how processes of othering and racial discrimination affect experiences of distress.

‘Yes, but where do we really come from?’ ‘Race’, racism and mental health – Messages from racialised others. 

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‘Can you help me get out?’: Ethical, political and methodological struggles in doing survivor research in mental health. Konstantina (Dina) Poursanidou, independent Service User Researcher in mental health; Co-Director of the Survivor Researcher Network, UK; member editorial group of Asylum Magazine, UK. 15 March 2022 from 13.00 – 15.00 (UK/Irish Time)

In this seminar, co-hosted by the Survivor Researcher Network (SRN), UK and Asylum Magazine, UK, I will seek to throw light on the unremitting identity and other (ethical, political and methodological) struggles implicated in the task of constructing and negotiating my double identity as an academic researcher and a mental health service user.

‘And the activists tell us that meds are evil’: Polarised mental health politics and the struggle for ambivalence. Konstantina (Dina) Poursanidou, independent Service User Researcher in mental health; Co-Director of the Survivor Researcher Network, UK; member editorial group of Asylum Magazine, UK.22 March 2022 from 13.00 – 15.00 (UK/Irish Time)

This seminar, co-hosted by the Survivor Researcher Network (SRN), UK and Asylum Magazine, UK, will seek to critically discuss why is it essential to listen to and value ambivalent (contradictory) views, emotions and attitudes when it comes to acutely contested issues in mental health and what an ambivalent stance towards contested issues in mental health involve in the current political/economic and policy context of mental health care in the UK.

‘And the activists tell us that meds are evil’: Polarised mental health politics and the struggle for ambivalence.

First Do No Harm: Iatrogenic Harm in Mental Health. Jacqui Dillon, activist, author, speaker, who lectures and publishes worldwide on trauma, abuse, hearing voices, psychosis, dissociation, and healing. 26 April 2022 from 13.00 – 15.00 (UK/Irish Time)

Iatrogenic harm refers to the injury, either physical or psychological, caused inadvertently by the process of treatment. This seminar will explore the phenomena of iatrogenic harm: what is it, how is it caused what can be done about it. This seminar is of particular significance in light of the recent reports on harm caused by practices in CAMHS in Ireland.

‘First Do No Harm: Iatrogenic Harm in Mental Health’

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Critical Voices Network Ireland https://cvni.ie/

The CVNI is a coalition of people with self-experience, survivors, supporters, practitioners, academics, and campaigning and advocacy groups, all interested in a mental health system based on choice, respect, dignity, non-coercion and principles of social justice. The CVNI advocates for a shift away from the current narrow focus on individual pathology in mental health practices, towards approaches which acknowledge and validate the complexity of human distress.

Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21) https://www.ucc.ie/en/iss21/

ISS21 is an interdisciplinary research institute for the social sciences in UCC, that seeks to build, sustain and enhance research on social, economic and cultural issues. ISS21’s Disability and Mental Health Cluster brings together UCC researchers, academics and practitioners, who set out to explore and challenge understandings and meanings of disability and mental health; to explore the potential of different methodologies/ethical issues in research with people with disabilities and emotional distress; to forge links with advocacy, community activist groups in our research/activities; and to create a space for sharing research with colleagues across different disciplines.

Asylum, The Radical Mental Health Magazine https://asylummagazine.org/

Asylum, formerly the magazine for democratic psychiatry, was established in 1986 as a forum for free debate, open to anyone interested in psychiatry and mental health politics, practice and policy. We were inspired by the democratic psychiatry movement in Italy and continue to be influenced by radical mental health movements around the world, including the psychiatric survivor and Mad liberation movements. We welcome contributions from service users, ex-users or survivors; activists, family members and frontline psychiatric or mental health workers (anonymously, if you wish). The magazine is not-for-profit and run by a collective of unpaid volunteers.

Survivor Researcher Network (SRN), a Community Interest Company (CIC) https://survivorresearcher.net/

The Survivor Researcher Network (SRN) is a UK-based user-controlled network for all mental health service users and survivors with an interest in research. The SRN was originally formed after the ‘Strategies for Living’ Mental Health Foundation project (1997-2003). It was hosted by the Mental Health Foundation until 2011, and then by the National Survivor User Network (NSUN). SRN is now an independent community interest company, Survivor Researcher Network C.I.C.

Survivor/service user-led research is carried out from the perspectives of people with experience of mental/emotional distress and mental health service use. It is different from traditional Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research as service users and survivors have control over the entire research process. This type of ‘user-led’ or ‘user-controlled’ research has grown and developed from the political roots of psychiatric survivor activism that has sought to challenge the psychiatric system, bio-medical ‘illness’ models and collectively develop different forms of knowledge based on lived experience of mental distress.

Seminar inquiries to Lydia Sapouna at l.sapouna@ucc.ie or Harry Gijbels at h.gijbels@ucc.ie