Grains of Truth

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes this week! It's as full-on as I knew it would be but... so far, so good!

We've put a lot of time over the past year into organising an international conference - Power to Communities: Healing Through Social Justice - which brings together mental health service users, survivors, critical psychiatrists, critical psychologists, academics, community activists and all manner of fellow travellers from around the globe to look at alternatives to the medical model of responding to mental distress.

We've had a fantastic programme of keynote speakers today including Prof Kate Pickett (co-author of the influential book 'The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone'); Austrian/Australian Human Rights lawyer, Marianne Schultze; a barnstorming critique of psychiatry and neo-liberalism from Prof Peter Beresford and a hugely entertaining and energising opening address from today's blip subject, Prof Isaac Prilleltensky - fresh off the plane from the University of Miami where he's Dean in the School of Education and Human Development.

Apart from the 'big' speakers, we've also had a full programme of workshops, performances and films - one of our conference strands is 'Arts and Madness' - and I chaired a great performance this morning by poet, artist and survivor of the psychiatric system, Sean Burn.

I could go on and on but there's a lot more to come over the next couple of days and I'm tired!

(Oh! My blood pressure was as high as I'd predicted but I'm going back to have another test once the conference is done and dusted. You never know, it might make a difference...)