Mental Health Culture
“Mental health culture has gone too far, says Mel Stride”. This was the title of an article published in The Telegraph towards the end of March, that certainly generated a fair amount of attention on my Twitter feed, at least....
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Public Fears Of Getting Old: Is society making us scared of ageing?
We live in times of heightened societal fears of ageing. Ageing is seen as both a process and a state that we must vigilantly monitor and slow down, however, we cannot avoid it. Youthfulness, and its perceived vigour, are to...
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Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution
Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution – with harmful consequences for their development. Millions of people in the UK are unable to meet their most basic physical needs: to stay warm, dry, clean and fed....
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The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – one year on, what has changed?
Just over a year ago, at lunchtime on the 20th October 2022, UK news was dominated by the breaking story that Prime Minister Liz Truss had resigned with immediate effect. At the same time and only 2 miles away from...
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Criminalising nitrous oxide users is no laughing matter if it distracts from more serious drug problems
In England and Wales, it is not illegal to possess nitrous oxide – but that could soon change. The UK’s home secretary, Priti Patel, has asked her scientific advisers to review the evidence on the harm associated with its use....
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Pile the bodies high
The UK government always claimed their response to COVID-19 was “led by science”. As both government and the science community descend into a quagmire of public spats, what can we learn about the dangers of coupling politics with science? The...
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How to manage structural racism and inequality
Lessons in Political Manoeuvring and How to Avoid Taking Action The highly anticipated report of the Commission on race and ethnic disparities (CRED) has concluded, to much furore, that modern Britain does not have a problem with structural racism. Indeed...
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Beyond the academy: democratising user involvement in health & social care
This is a post about user involvement in the context of UK university research. All UK universities are currently finalising and submitting their impact case studies for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The REF is “the UK’s system for...
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Ending the hostile environment in health: The responsibility of intellectuals
As usual I was running late. Walking away from patients or relatives at the end of the day working as a doctor in the NHS is never an easy task. But it is something that has become increasingly difficult since...
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Doctors as border police: what happened to ‘first, do no harm’?
Building trust and acting in the patient’s best interests are guiding principles of medical practice. This is especially true when caring for vulnerable and marginalised people, such as undocumented migrants. They often delay going to the doctor and find it...
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"Let them eat resilience"
The genealogy of the vocabulary of resilience and why it matters for public health Nothing about the title of this post is original. The main title imitates that of an essay by historical sociologist Margaret Somers called ‘Let them eat social capital’,...
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“Mental health culture” has not gone far enough – long term failures in mental health policy