Artwork for Social Power and Mental Health, by Life Craft art group.
Today is the first day of ‘Social Power and Mental Health’ – a conference that explores the diverse links between power, inequalities and mental health. Designed and produced in partnership with practitioners, researchers, academics, as well as experts by experience, at all stages, the conference hopes to foster a dialogue between a wide range of groups. Events will be running all this week, 19-23 April.
You can see the full programme of events here – and sign-up for individual panels and talks here. BSL interpreters and live captioning will be available at all of these events. They are also being lived-streamed on CRASSH’s YouTube channel.
An abbreviated programme is below. Be sure to check out our art gallery and film festival too!
PROGRAMME OF LIVE EVENTS
Monday 19 April
16.00-17.30 (BST) – Panel Discussion: Covid and Mental Health
Speakers:
Nadia Mbonde (New York University)
Visions of Black Futurity: The Politics of Self and Community Care at the Intersection of the Double Pandemic of Covid-19 and Police Brutality
Lois Liao (London School of Economics)
Do you see what I see?: Applying Pierre Bourdieu’s Theories to the Intersectional Research of Social Class, Race and Mental Health
Cassie Lovelock (London School of Economics)
Covid-19, Mental Health Carers and Increased Dependency; How are Carers Coping?
Peter Unwin & Joy Rooney (Worcester University)
Effects of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of a University-Based Group of Service Users and Carers
Tuesday 20 April
17.00-18.00 (BST) – Panel Discussion: Black Mental Health
Speakers:
Aude Konan (they/them) (Writer and Playwright)
Furaha Asani (she/her) (Researcher, Teacher and Mental Health Advocate)
Maya McFarlane (she/her) (Women’s and Non-Binary Officer of the CUSU BME Campaign)
18.30-20.00 (BST) – Session 1: Psychiatry and Other Systems
Speakers:
Paper 1: Wendy Burn & Adrian James
The Stigma of Mental Illness, A View From the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Paper 2: Ruth Smith and Anna Smith
Chemical Imbalance or Social Power Imbalance?
Paper 3: Neil Armstrong and Lamis Bayar
Power and Its Surprises: Locating and Dis-locating Asymmetries in Mental Healthcare
Paper 4: Simon Duffy
Peer Supporter as Leaders in Community Development
Local Journey 1: Wendy Joyce Clarke
Wednesday 21 April
14.30-16.00 (BST) – Session 2: Activism and Hope
Paper 5: Samuel Hosking
Lessons to be Learned from the Experience of Funding Cuts to Mental Health Services at Lifecraft
Paper 6: Keira Pratt-Boyden
Stigma and Social Power: Mental Health Activism in London
Paper 7: Liz Rotherham
Building Resilience
Paper 8: Annie Whilby
BP(h)D
18.30-20.00 (BST) – Keynote Session 1
Keynote: Imogen Tyler
Thursday 22 April
13.00-14.30 (BST) – Session 3: Social Inequalities and Justice
Paper 9: Rianna Walcott
On Mental Health Support Access and Treatment Outcomes for Black Patients
Paper 10: Peter Beresford
Challenging the Psychiatrisation of Politics and the Politics of Psychiatry
Paper 11: Helen Spandler
Restorative Justice: A Radical Aproach to Mental Health Reform?
Paper 12: Dorothy Gould
We Want Power Too: Perspectives from Service Users and Survivors from LGBTQ+ Communities
16.00-17.30 (BST) – Stigma and Survival
Paper 13: Sonji Shah and Nicole McIntosh
Peer Support and Abolition
Local Journey 2: Jo Fox
Paper 14: Helen Spandler
Hidden from History? Lesbian’s Experience of Psychiatry
Local Journey 3: Michael Brown
Friday 23 April
17.30-19.00 (BST) – Keynote Session 2
Keynote: Rai Waddingham
Listening to ‘Mad’ Voices in a Crazy World