The UK mental healthcare system is deemed by many to be failing its users, and lauded by many more as one of the best in the world.
As a community of people who have journeyed through mental ill-health and well-being, we at Mental Fight Club have contemplated standards of care both abysmal and outstanding. Now, we want to instigate new thinking stemming from our collective experiences. Thinking about how mental health services can be made to be more healing, more human, and more creative for everyone – for those who use the services and for those who work in them. We call this new endeavour RE:CREATE Psychiatry.
As a first step, we are carving out safe, creative spaces for both service users and professionals to share their reflections – and listen to others – about the current system’s virtues and frailties. Through podcasts, discussion groups, creative dialogue workshops and public events, through genuine, open-hearted and constructive dialogue, we are piecing together a collective, multi-perspectival understanding of how services can become more human for everyone involved.