by Peter Beresford, professor of social policy at Brunel University and chair of service user network Shaping Our Lives
A fearsome new story has hit the headlines. 'More than a third of the population of Europe suffer from some kind of mental health problem each year'. That's estimated to be 164 million people. It's been put down to changing social patterns and the inadequacy of treatment. It's led to calls for more research and more mental health funding.
But as a major international conference in Berlin highlighted last week, more of the same is likely to be as unhelpful as what we already have and equally unlikely to have any fundamental impact in improving people's lives and social wellbeing.
Groundbreaking event
'Searching For A Rose Guardian' attended over two days by more than 200 delegates was a groundbreaking event which offers invaluable pointers for the future. Sub-titled 'Fostering Real Alternatives To Psychiatry', it was organised by the Berlin Association for Protection Against Psychiatric Violence and undertaken in English and German. Here may be pointers for new and truly helpful directions for the future of European Mental Health.
Key to the nature and importance of this conference, which brought together people from the UK, USA and many European countries, was that mental health service users/survivors made up a majority of both participants and speakers. We heard of enforced and inappropriate drug treatment which had damaged people's lives. We heard about inappropriate restriction of people's human and civil rights in the name of control. These are pan-European problems.
Pioneering understanding
But what made the conference special, were the positives to be learned. In the midst of psychiatric approaches that seemed determinedly to ignore the evidence of people's lives and experience, we heard about pioneering and effective understandings from survivors which could and were making a difference and which could be the basis for effective new ways of making sense of and addressing madness and distress. Some of the most powerful insights for me came from Clare Shaw's (UK) discussion of self-harm and David Webb's (Australian) discussion of suicide. Both started with lived experience. Both offered insights which gave you hope that there were ways forward for people - which sadly too often mainstream mental health services either ignore or obstruct.
Survivor experience
No less important was the emphasis that the conference placed on a new expanded role for survivor experience and the knowledge that grew out of it and the survivor research that could add to and systematise such knowledge. It was great to see that the UK is at the forefront of such developments here with key figures represented at the conference and adding to the evidence of what works.
At one point a local Berlin policymaker said that he saw survivor controlled organisations as only having a 'niche' role for the future of mental health services. This was a tipping point for the conference. Instead of undermining participants' confidence, it encouraged them to challenge such outmoded assumptions and to think strategically about the role innovations, ideas and initiatives from psychiatric system survivors are already having and the greatly increased part they must play in the future. Within the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, there can only be hope for the future. As we are now hearing, the problems are huge. But the potential for survivor-led radical solutions are unprecedented.
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