Run and designed by Alex Vulliamy, this website contains a fantastic selection of creative writing, poetry and opinion pieces around mental health.
Date Added: Tue 4th Aug 2009

APP is a network of women across the UK who have experienced postpartum psychosis and who want to increase public awareness and research into the condition. Postpartum Psychosis (also called 'Puerperal Psychosis' or Postnatal Psychosis') is a severe mental illness which has a sudden onset in the first few weeks following childbirth. Over 1300 women experience PP each year in the UK. For women, their partners, friends and family it can be hard to find high quality information.APP is run by a team made up of academics, health professionals and women who have recovered from PP. Our aims are: - To provide up to date research information to women who have experienced PP and their families. - To facilitate research into all aspects of PP - To increase awareness of PP – its symptoms, management and impact – among health professionals and the general public
Date Added: Thu 11th Mar 2010

Link to the Association for Medical Humanities website, containing a wealth of information about all aspects of the Medical Humanities in the UK.
Date Added: Sat 23rd May 2009

Blog of John Lawless - contains some interesting thoughs on public health and healthcare in the USA, and also has a range of useful links
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

Critical text by Liam Clarke, Reader in Mental Health at the University of Brighton and Madness and Literature Network Member. This book examines madness in fiction through a variety of chapters, and will be of interest and use to clinicians, literary academics, service users and carers. Array of fiction covered from Shakespeare to William Trevor.
Date Added: Mon 26th Apr 2010

FROM THE WEBSITE: This comprehensive book explores how visual art, cinema, music, poetry, literature and drama can inform the teaching and practice of psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Edited and written by a team of expert practitioners, teachers and researchers, including both clinicians and users of mental health services, this comprehensive book will provide valuable insights for undergraduate and postgraduate educators with teaching reponsibilities in psychiatry and mental health. Students of the medical humanities, art, music and drama therapists, and educators in occupational therapy and psychology will also find this a valuable and insightful handbook.
Date Added: Thu 20th May 2010

Link to 'Mindreadings: Literature and Psychiatry' edited by Femi Oyebode. An excellent collection of papers looking at the use of literature in psychiatry, including sections on poetry, autobiography, medical education and specific conditions.
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

'Psychiatry PRN' is a psychiatry textbook with a difference. Edited by Sarah Stringer, Laurence Church, Susan Davidson and Maurice Lipsedge, and with contributions from Charley Baker, it contains a balanced and realistic approach to all aspects of clinical psychiatry along with sections on the reality of assessment, diagnosis and treatment, hints and tips for medical exams and sections of cultural references to psychiatry which include literature and film.
Date Added: Mon 11th May 2009

Centre for Medical Humanities in Durham, UK. One of the UK's few Medical Humanities hubs, an excellent resource which links with the Association for Medical Humanities Conference. Also links to some of the key academics in the UK working in this field.
Date Added: Mon 18th May 2009

Staff page of Charley Baker
Date Added: Fri 12th Feb 2010

UK based charity, running vital phone/email and text helplines for children and adolescents affected by a range of issues from abuse to homelessness, drugs to bullying. Also has pages of information on the website for children looking for information and support around mental health issues written in understandable, neutral and teen/child-friendly language.
Date Added: Wed 10th Feb 2010

From website: 'Chipmunkapublishing is the Mental Health Publisher. Our mental health books give a voice to writers with mental illness around the world. Most of our mental health books are written by people with mental health issues. We also give a voice to family members of people with mental health issues and other disabilities. Titles include autobiographies/memoirs, fiction, poetry, anthologies, stories written by carers, self help books, academic works and much more.'
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

City Arts is a creative enterprise and charity based in Nottingham and founded in 1977. We work with people from local communities, using creative arts to build confidence, well being, skills and enjoyment. Our activities bring people together, stimulate change and create stronger, healthier communities. Our projects include working in arts and wellbeing, with refugee and asylum seeker artists, young people and the wider community.
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

Creative Writing as Theraputic Practice Book Series
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

Cultural Disability Studies Research Network: inter-disciplinary forum aimed at promoting disability perspectives across the UK university curriculum
Date Added: Tue 26th May 2009

Depression as a Spiritual Journey by Stephanie Sorrell, published by O Books September 2009. From the author: This work is embedded in my own search for meaning and answers through depressive illness. The search began at 17 and is ongoing. Although I use a spiritual model for this work, it is not necessarily a religious one as spirituality embraces all levels of being and relationship. Within this context I include the medical and psychological model as, from my experience, there has been shame in having depression if following a spiritual path, and ambivalence towards medical and psychological ways of meeting depression. I also explore mythology in the form of Persephone and the Underworld, Odysseus and the Hero’s journey and bring these into the present day. The book is extensive in breadth and depth in looking at suicide and spirituality in both the young and the old and creative. On fact, often the process of depression overlays the creative process. I also look at Psychiatrist, Stanislav Grof’s, work on Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Emergence. Additionally, I explore the whole process of suffering through the major religions and come back to ‘soul’ where our word ‘psyche’ emerges from. I also look at St John of the Cross’ ‘Dark Night of the soul’ through the twin lenses of ‘dark night of the senses and the Spirit’ And my question is are we, on a world level, undergoing a dark night of the senses which seems to be an integral part of the spiritual journey ? And how de we find our way back to meaning, purpose and value, which ‘depression’ can rob of us ? I include a preliminary section on ‘Asking the Right Questions’ which was published in the Last ‘Pendulum’ magazine. In these questions I explore the value of depression rather than what it takes away and undermines within us. I look at our mindsets around this and find more creative ways of mirroring this dis-ease of the soul and illness of being in our frenetic world of doing. I don’t have any easy answers, but I do have tools and lenses through which we can understand depression more fully. And questions themselves open up awareness…. Basically, I have written the book I would have wanted to read in my depths of depression.
Date Added: Fri 16th Apr 2010

Part of the Depression Alliance, Derby Depression Club is an excellent resource for those with depression, including regular meetings, outings and a wealth of information.
Date Added: Sat 19th Sep 2009

Staff page of Brian Brown
Date Added: Fri 12th Feb 2010

From the Website: The aim of this website and the September 2010 workshop is to bring together experts from a variety of fields, including literature, history of medicine, psychology and gender studies to provoke interdisciplinary discussion of the ways in which the creation of more diverse histories of bodily damage in the nineteenth century might open up wider concerns.
Date Added: Thu 29th Jul 2010

Website that contains thousands of useful links relating to healthcare, psychology and sociology among other topics.
Date Added: Fri 12th Feb 2010

An excellent website promoting Inter- and multi-disciplinary collaboration and projects. See in particular the Probing the Boundaries section, which includes crucial questions regarding madness and humanity. FROM HOME PAGE: "Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a forum for the exchange and interaction of ideas, research and points of view that bear on a wide range of issues of concern and interest in the contemporary world. We promote and sponsor inter- and multi-disciplinary encounters by bringing people together from differing contexts, disciplines, professions, and vocations, with the aim to engender and nurture engagements that cross the boundaries of intellectual work. Our projects, conferences and publishing activities are creative and novel, and they evolve constantly as we seek out and foster emergent developments. Inter-Disciplinary dialogue enables people to go beyond the boundaries of what they usually encounter and share in perspectives that are new, challenging, and richly rewarding. This kind of dialogue often illuminates one’s own area of work, is suggestive of new possibilities for development, and creates exciting horizons for future conversations with persons from a wide variety of national and international settings. We are committed to the view that inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary work is the only credible way forward in a rapidly changing world. We cordially invite you to be partners in the dialogue."
Date Added: Thu 14th May 2009

Link to Medical Humanities journal
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

Journal - 'Journal of Medical Humanities'
Date Added: Tue 4th Aug 2009

Journal - "Literature and Medicine"
Date Added: Tue 4th Aug 2009

JOURNAL - The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

JOURNAL- Journal of Applied Arts and Health
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

Blog where people can submit their stories of personal distress, with a strong slant towards creative non-fiction.
Date Added: Tue 27th Apr 2010

Website for Lapidus, an organisation dedicated to the creative and practical use of language, literature and writing to improve health and wellbeing. From website: 'Members of Lapidus come from all walks of life but we have one thing in common - an interest in healing and personal development through writing and reading. That means anyone can join and our members include non-professionals, writers and poets, medical and healthcare professionals, therapists, social workers, librarians, academics, teachers, service users, survivors and service providers who may work in a variety of therapeutic environments. We are dedicated to developing the potential and actual benefits of creative words all in our own ways through creative writing workshops, storytelling, poetry sessions or in hospitals, health centres, mental health organisations or community settings. Wherever it happens we all wish to grow and develop personally and creatively.'
Date Added: Mon 8th Feb 2010

Direct link to the NYU database with keyword 'mental illness'
Date Added: Tue 4th Aug 2009

Established in 1983, MDF The BiPolar Organisation is a national user-led organisation and registered charity for people whose lives are affected by bipolar disorder. We are the only national charity in England & Wales specifically providing support to people living with bipolar and receive over 150,000 visits to our website each year. We aim to enable people affected by bipolar to take control of their lives through the services we offer. These include: - self help groups - information and publications - employment advice - self management training programme - an advice line for employment, legal, benefits and debt issues We seek to combat the stigma and prejudice experienced by those affected by bipolar disorder; we campaign for improved services; we work to develop partnerships with other organisations concerned with mental health, and we work to educate employers, health care professionals and local communities about bipolar disorder.
Date Added: Thu 11th Mar 2010