The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra - The Eightsome Reel

reshaping the Matrix for Psychosis: Dear Professor Gumley ...

Here is an Email just sent to Andy Gumley, Professor of Psychological Therapy, University of Glasgow, and Contributor to the NHS Education for Scotland Matrix:

"Dear Professor Gumley

I want to be involved in reshaping the Matrix document in the area of Psychosis because in my experience of over 50 years, family and personal, what is contained within the "evidence tables" does not chime with our experiences, 8 of us over 7 decades in 3 generations.

http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/media/3403916/matrix_-_adultmentalhealthtables.pdf

I am writing to you because it's your name displayed as the Contributer for Psychosis, although as far as I'm aware you have no personal experience of psychosis or of psychiatric treatment so your "evidence" is secondhand, not real.

I am concerned about the narrowness of the "interventions" on offer for Psychosis in the Matrix document.  I experienced another psychosis in 2015, avoiding psychiatric or psychological intervention.  Rather I journeyed through with the aid of companions, practising transference and counter-transference, virtually, and working through the altered mind states by reason.  I didn't share most of the thoughts with my clinical companions, although we did share other information and imaginings.  I've learnt over the years of engaging with psychiatry, more recently clinpsy, to reveal very little because of how it might be interpreted, as symptoms of illness rather than sensitivity due to life trauma and it's accompanying emotional and physical breakdown.  It's a matter of trust I suppose.

Therefore I believe that psychoanalytic psychotherapy should be included in the Matrix, a wide range of voices of lived experience central to the reshaping, allowing more freedom of expression and opportunities for recovery and transformation, avoiding interference and coercive treatment.

I'm quite determined about my involvement in new ways of working with psychosis in Scotland.  I've got grandchildren now and they matter very much to me.  I don't want them abused by the system too.

Copying in Judy Thomson and relevant others.

Warm regards, Chrys"

FOI request: DClinPsy Glasgow teaching programme #HamishMcLeod

This is an FOI request sent by Email to Dr Hamish McLeod, Programme Director, DClinPsy Glasgow:

"Strapline: FOI request: DClinPsy Glasgow teaching programme

Dear Dr McLeod

This is an FOI request.

I want to know detailed information about the teaching programme materials used and promoted within the DClinPsy programme at the University of Glasgow, to try and discover what the culture is, how open it is, how secure staff and trainees feel, if it's like a family or more of a hierarchical organisation, exclusive and elite.

Here are my requests (when I use the word "you" I mean as Programme Director, it's not personal):

• I would like a list of topics taught within the programme, together with materials used, their focus, philosophy, references, approaches, processes and any other information which would help me understand what Glasgow DClinPsy academics and ClinPsy practitioners are delivering to trainees
• who are the staff teaching on this course, what are their backgrounds, philosophy, qualifications, experience etc?  How are lecturing staff chosen for teaching on your programme, what processes are used to select? [I know that Attachment Theory, Risk of Relapse, Anhedonia and Metacognition are main subject areas but I have no knowledge of any other subject areas, whether there is psychoanalytic psychotherapy taught and its focus].
• how is your programme monitored and evaluated effectively, from staff and trainee perspectives?  How do you collect trainee feedback and ensure that it's independent, that there is space for a student to be critical, honest, without it affecting how they are treated and their future job prospects?  [I know from personal experience how I've been treated, excluded for speaking out and denied the opportunity to defend myself and my reputation].
• how do you meaningfully involve the voices of lived experience in your programme?  how do you ensure a wide range of user/survivor/carer opinions and viewpoints so that trainees will be well equipped to work effectively with the wide range of patients and people they are likely to come in contact with?  how do you meaningfully involve critical and questioning mental health user/survivor voices in your programme without silencing them?  how do you and your staff avoid directive interactions with people who have survived mental illness and coercive psychiatric treatment without retraumatising them?  [I'm thinking of invasive behaviours that may come over as bullying or intimidation by dint of the fact that many people with "lived experience" have been subject to abusive treatment in MH settings for just saying No].
• what are your processes and procedures for meaningfully involving a wide range of ClinPsy lecturers and lived experience voices?  I want to know how senior academics avoid influencing the DClinPsy programme at Glasgow with their own agenda, limiting the potential of the trainees and narrowing their outlook.
• when you are choosing trainees for the programme how do you ensure that the selection process is completely independent and fair, without bias?  How do you avoid selecting trainees who favour the topics which the senior academics teach?  I'm trying to discover how you are opening doors to a broad range of trainee opinions and backgrounds so that conversations and discussion in classes will be enriched by varying viewpoints.  Which will ultimately benefit people in Scotland asking for psychological therapies which are person-centred, to them.

I will put this FOI request into a blog post and am copying in Judy Thomson, NES, Scottish Government civil servants and ministers, plus relevant others, for their information. 

Once I receive the response I am likely to be asking more questions.

Regards, Chrys"

FOI request: Step on Stress; Psychology in Psychosis; NHS Fife

This is an FOI request sent by Email to Dr Katherine Cheshire, Head of Psychology, NHS Fife:

"Strapline: FOI request: Step on Stress; Psychology in Psychosis

Dear Dr Cheshire

This is an FOI request.

I would like a digital copy of Step on Stress course, which I attended in St Andrews, the 3rd one yesterday evening.  I have concerns about the materials being promoted and need a digital copy so as to write a critique about it, detailing my concerns and suggesting a more balanced approach to supporting people who are stressed.

Secondly I heard about PIP, Psychology in Psychosis, which is based at Stratheden Hospital, from a woman who attended the Step on Stress course yesterday, and would like detailed information about this course:

• materials used, their focus, philosophy, references, approaches, processes and any other information which would help me understand what NHS Fife is promoting, regarding psychology in psychosis.
• who the target group are for PIP?  Is it people in the community, patients in hospital, outpatients, patients referred by GPs, self referrals or whoever?
• when did PIP start up, how was it formed?  Who are the staff running this course, what are their backgrounds, philosophy, qualifications, experience etc?  I am keen to get a picture of who is leading this initiative.  [I remember Clinical Psychologists in Fife who had their own pet projects which influenced the way that my family were treated, negatively]
• how is PIP monitored and evaluated?  How do you collect patient feedback and ensure that it's independent, that there is space for a person to be critical, honest, without it affecting their future access to psychological therapies in Fife?  [it was our family's experience in Fife since 2003 that if we didn't like the psychological therapy on offer and made any critical remarks then we got nothing else, we were in fact banished for speaking out]

I will put this FOI request into a blog post and am copying in Judy Thomson, NES, Scottish Government civil servants and ministers, plus relevant others, for their information.

Regards, Chrys"

Step on Stress Session Three 'Manage your Mind' p8

FOI Response : DClinPsy funding Glasgow/Edinburgh Universities: what stood out for me

Here is the response, received today, to the FOI Request to NES about DClinPsy programme funding Glasgow & Edinburgh Universities I sent to Judy Thomson, Director of Psychology, NHS Education for Scotland, on 22 December 2017:

Here are the points which stood out for me:

• Nearly £2million per year 2017-8 awarded to Glas/Edin Universities for DClinPsy training; 179 trainees in total; it's not a lot of money when compared to the cost of psychiatric inpatient treatment, at least £3000/person/week in Stratheden Hospital, Fife, more if low or medium secure ward.
• mention of NES developing a "confidential trainee survey" which is interesting, has it been difficult for trainees to give honest feedback?
• "number of trainees we can afford" regarding decisions about funding; I wonder what impacts on this?  is it just a matter of budgets or do they fund other psychological or psychotherapeutic training?
• "There is no requirement for trainees to continue to work in Scotland post qualification."  I'm surprised by this, considering the cost of training, the fact that trainees are paid to do the doctorate; it doesn't make good business sense, in my opinion.
• I have found that the teaching materials at both universities are not openly available for perusal and I suspect if I made an FOI request that I wouldn't get to see them.  The secrecy is a concern.  What have they got to hide?  I've been told it's to do with "intellectual property" but it seems a lame excuse.

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23 December 2017: FOI Request NES: DClinPsy programme funding Glasgow & Edinburgh Universities

Balansnummer #omphalos

Balansnummer from omphalos on Vimeo.

Hole Ousia: Omphalos films

there are two sides to the story of mental illness & psychiatric diagnoses #PTMFramework

Some tweets this morning about mental illness and the patriarchy:

Janus

actually, in a sense, it's not nonsense; psychiatric diagnoses lead to coercive toxic drug treatment & mental illness; I speak from personal experience, they tried it on with me but I resisted; eventually I escaped the Dx & "lifelong mental illness" despite Doctors targeting me https://t.co/LWsL3Lvx75

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 20, 2018

there are two sides to the story of mental illness & psychiatric diagnoses @nuwandiss it depends how you look at it; some folk remain in the system, accept the Dx while others of us escape & ignore psychiatric Dx; we usually only hear from the conscripts not the overcomers

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 20, 2018

I only exposed myself in 2008 because of Scottish Recovery Network "peer support" work; thought it was a civil rights movement @nuwandiss however I was mistaken, it was a Govt ploy to get folk off welfare benefits therefore it wasn't properly resourced; no heart for real change pic.twitter.com/CoAGAxZ5GF

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 20, 2018

it's about Power right enough #PTMFramework also Fear/Threat; of losing benefits if recovering from mental illness; what if you have a relapse? what if the doctor was right & it's genetic? what if I pass it on to my children? it's too risky for some/many to resist the patriarchy https://t.co/CsdrmWC8KD

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 20, 2018

PE01651: Prescribed drug dependence and withdrawal; Dr David Healy submission

PE01651: Prescribed drug dependence and withdrawal; Scottish Parliament Public Petition

David Healy submission of 4 January 2018:

 

What are your burning issues for 2018? Safe Houses for Psychosis in Scotland #BMJ

'Re: What are your burning issues for 2018? Safe Houses for Psychosis in Scotland': my Response published in BMJ online, 16 January 2018

"My vision for 2018 and beyond is to influence the development of Safe Houses in Scotland for people who experience psychosis, alternatives to psychiatric inpatient treatment, offering a range of therapies and activities for mental wellbeing and recovery, including minimum prescribing of neuroleptics and help with tapering meds. Therefore I am researching safe haven crisis houses in other countries to evidence good practice, leadership and management, and to hear the stories from the people involved. 

Now aged 65, I’ve experienced puerperal psychosis twice, in 1978 and 1984, a menopausal psychosis in 2002, voluntarily entering psychiatric wards on all 3 occasions to be coercively drugged, eventually tapering meds myself, making a full recovery. More of my story can be found in a Psychosis Journal Opinion Piece, October 2017: 'Risk of relapse in psychosis: facing the fear, resisting mental illness' (1) and other stories in my main blog (2).

I’ve supported my 3 sons, 41, 39 and 33, when they experienced psychosis/psychiatry, helped them taper meds as I did. Then in 2015 I transitioned a 4th psychosis after years of campaigning for justice after my son's negative treatment as a psychiatric patient in February 2012, this time avoiding psychiatric treatment (3). This was a much more positive and life affirming experience from which I emerged a stronger, more confident, person. 

I believe that psychosis is transitional, can be a journey, an escape, a positive and uplifting experience if reasoned out, worked through and helped by companions, friends who are equals, without agendas. People who are willing to share in an Other's pain and imaginings, and in so doing may become part of the psychosis journey themselves. 

(1) Risk of relapse in psychosis: facing the fear, resisting mental illness: https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2017.1381757
(2) Chrys Muirhead Writes blog: http://chrysmuirheadwrites.blogspot.co.uk/
(3) Hospital Horrors: Patient locked in cell with no toilet, food or water; Scottish Sunday Express, 5 October 2014: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/518869/Patient-locked-in-cell-with-no-...

my drawing MH Strategy meeting Edinburgh 14Sep16

Risk of relapse in psychosis: facing the fear, resisting mental illness

DClinPsy Lesson #1 Hands Off 16Jan18

going into DClinPsy CUSP meeting 4Jul17

15 January 2018: This is the first in a series of short talks to Clinical Psychology Trainees at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, in the first instance.  I've been banned from teaching DClinPsy trainees at the University of Glasgow by programme director Hamish McLeod, backed up by Andy Gumley, which has spurred me on to do this, to have an influence and to resist their dogma and discrimination.

I will likely add to these talks in future, putting in links to information and other blog posts.

Gartnavel Hospital

Hands Off

When working with patients, clients, people, please do your best not to manipulate, direct or be prescriptive.  I've seen some of the DClinPsy teaching materials and watched role play videos on CBT which, from my psychiatric survivor Mother perspective, are counter-productive to independent thinking, too interventionist.  

When I was a mental health service user what I needed most was someone who treated me like an equal, believed in my ability to recover and shared information that would help me take back control of my life again.  I didn't need parental guidance or patriarchal decision-making, or for a Clinical Psychologist (ClinPsy) to compare me to their Bipolar Mother and offload their own thoughts and meanderings (2003, Fife).  That was unhelpful.  Fortunately the CPN was helpful when she came to my home for a visit, shared her life with me, believed in me.  

Maybe coming into my home made a difference.  Seeing something of my personality and potential, who I was underneath the psychiatric drug cocktail which had reduced my agency and made me dependent on the system.  That there was a human being under the skin & drug treatment.  This is important, I think, seeing the person for who they are, and listening, with no other agenda but to be of help.

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Protesting about being marginalised by ClinPsy academics, in front of the MH and Wellbeing Unit, Gartnavel, Glasgow where the DClinPsy Programme is based: "I didn't find it pleasant being in a psychiatric hospital, was always coerced, so I'm looking to research Safe haven crisis Houses ..."

9Sep17 doing a peaceful protest

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In Cupar, food shopping, my rucksack with bags inside to carry messages home in the bus.  Can't afford to run a car now, since the end of 2015, after 40yrs of driving.  It's costly to speak out about bad practices in mental health and to be an unwaged Carer, singlehandedly supporting my son after we whistleblowed about the human rights abuses of the locked seclusion room, Stratheden IPCU, Fife.  NHS Fife benefited, receiving £4.4million from Scottish Government.  It definitely doesn't pay to be a MH campaigner in Scotland.

8Nov17 at Cupar Rail Station passing through

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Risk of relapse in psychosis: facing the fear, resisting mental illness

My Opinion Piece published in Psychosis Journal, October 2017: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17522439.2017.1381757

Link to complete article

"In my experience psychosis was a journey from one place to another, necessary and transitional, in response to life trauma. I believe that we are all on the psychosis spectrum but only some of us will require respite and a break from everyday existence. Preferably a safe haven and secure base from which we can rise again, stronger than before, wiser and more able to face the next challenge that life brings to us."

Risk of relapse in psychosis: facing the fear, resisting mental illness

My Opinion Piece published in Psychosis Journal, October 2017:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17522439.2017.1381757

Abstract

In my experience psychosis was a journey from one place to another, necessary and transitional, in response to life trauma. I believe that we are all on the psychosis spectrum but only some of us will require respite and a break from everyday existence. Preferably a safe haven and secure base from which we can rise again, stronger than before, wiser and more able to face the next challenge that life brings to us.

Keywords: Psychosis, coercion, risk, resilience, recovery

Introduction

I first experienced psychosis three months after the birth of my second son in 1978, due to a number of factors, the main one being an induced labour, with oxytocin, and insufficient pain relief, additional stressor was living with in-laws, in one room, another family member unwell, and all of this combined to cause me difficulties in sleeping. Psychiatrists eventually came to visit and witnessed the situation, my stress, named it “puerperal psychosis” and said it was caused by “hormone imbalance”. I had insight and agreed to voluntarily enter a psychiatric ward for respite, only to be forcibly injected with Chlorpromazine, my breasts bound to stop the milk, separated from my baby son and his two-year-old brother. I was heartbroken at being so inhumanely treated but kept these thoughts to myself, eventually took the pills, conformed and was discharged within three weeks, back into the same situation at the in-laws farm. Within a year I had come off the antipsychotic, the psychiatrist had reduced the 400 mgs/day to 100, 4 × 25 mgs, and then I just stopped it, telling the doctor at the next appointment. He wasn’t happy but the deed was done and I made a full recovery, taking another year to build up my resilience, more confident and outgoing than before. In 1984 after another traumatic childbirth, my third son was born and within a week I again voluntarily entered the local psychiatric hospital.

Critiquing risk of relapse

In “Staying Well After Psychosis” Chapter One first page the authors write:

In psychological terms, relapse is a potentially devastating and critical life event with profound consequences for the emotional and psychological well-being of the person and their family or loved ones. Gumley and Schwannauer (2006 Gumley, A., & Schwannauer, Matthias. (2006). Staying well after psychosis. Chichester: Wiley. [Google Scholar], p3)

I would like to deconstruct this terminology from my lived experience of psychosis and recovery, caring for family members similarly. And attempt to reconstruct it by asking questions, providing a response through storytelling of lived experience. Is risk of relapse in psychosis more about the fear of (more) coercive psychiatric (drug) treatment? Is the concept a form of scaremongering, keeping the fear alive? Should there be a better way of reframing additional episodes of psychoses on a natural continuum rather than an illness paradigm? Do mental disorder diagnoses linked to psychosis hinder the well-being of those experiencing altered mind states as a way of externalising mental distress? 

Every time I experienced a psychosis, after childbirth then at the menopause, I voluntarily entered a psychiatric ward as an inpatient then was forcibly medicated with antipsychotics. After the first episode in 1978, I got off the drugs within the year and regained more confidence. By taking charge of my own mental health and well-being, deciding to recover, I increased my resilience and self-determination. A major influence in regaining independence was my Mother’s personal experience of psychiatric inpatient treatment and Schizophrenia diagnosis, many courses of ECT against her will and my younger sisters being taken into foster care when I was a teenager. This made me even more determined to resist any interference by social work agencies and mental illness labels.

We decided to have another child in 1984 and considered the risks but it didn’t put me off and I was optimistic of a better outcome. It wasn’t to be. My puerperal psychosis in 1984, which began in the maternity ward, was more swiftly acted upon by our local GP who was a friend and I was dispatched quickly into the same psychiatric ward, subjected to forced internal examination and neuroleptics. It was too much for my husband and he got a vasectomy, didn’t want me going through the same coercive psychiatric treatment again. I would have risked it, to have another child. So I was effectively sterilised at 32 years of age.

I found it easier to make a full recovery in the 1970s/80s than in 2002, because of only being on one antipsychotic compared to a cocktail of antipsychotic, antidepressant and “mood stabiliser” in the later episode and a diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder justifying the treatment.

Psychosis runs in my family, cancer doesn’t. I don’t see altered mind states at times of life trauma to be the major issue, rather it’s the treatment which can be re-traumatising, overpowering and iatrogenic. Therefore, I’m working towards researching and developing Safe Houses for Psychosis in Scotland, therapeutic alternatives to psychiatric hospital inpatient care.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Reference

• Gumley, A., & Schwannauer, Matthias. (2006). Staying well after psychosis. Chichester: Wiley. 
  [Google Scholar]

First Aid Kit - It's a Shame

"the psychoanalysis of the psychosis" #HistoryBeyondTrauma "a battle to be sustained"

Tweeting about History Beyond Trauma Chapter 4.1.3 The Ghost Road on 6 January 2018 before midnight:
 
 









 

#HistoryBeyondTrauma 4.1.3 The Ghost Road [title of third book in Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy]https://t.co/aLcI1kbRbA pic.twitter.com/Mif6yObSqk

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

just requested Pat Barker's book The Regeneration Trilogy from East Fife Mobile @onfifelibraries 😀 https://t.co/5LxUSclzlQ

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

"the psychoanalysis of the psychosis" war references #WilliamRivers anthropologist, his work in funeral rites in the Solomon Islands helped him face ghosts haunting nights in Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh WW1 #shellshockhttps://t.co/BrmDSql0ox pic.twitter.com/5RPxQAiDAt

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

"Psychotherapeutic experience on the battlefield led to a renewal of the paradigm of psychoanalysis itself ..." p103 #HistoryBeyondTrauma "psychic casualties" https://t.co/PUnC7KvntR

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

"the symptom is always a message addressed to the other" p103 "On the Road"
"everything is transference" a fundamental principle, forgotten during peace years, rediscovered when disaster returned;
Absalom, Absalom! #WilliamFaulkner "great specialist in human madness" pic.twitter.com/E9H53mWeYL

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

#HistoryBeyondTrauma #Schizophrenia "extremely intense and sensitive transference reactions" not about relationship with therapist #FrommReichmann [1948 paper on treatment of Schizophrenics https://t.co/o1cyVAtaZn pic.twitter.com/jmjQVjMke9

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

psychoanalysis of the psychosis: a battle to be sustained on multiple fronts; mass treatments; war itself; the patient/therapist relationship, no rose garden promised 😁🎧🎸https://t.co/Yin8r6DXJg pic.twitter.com/y7Njl2hpK0

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

favourite song back in the day 💃 https://t.co/JTsOXS7TkD

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

whereas in #StayingWellAfterPsychosis p84 Service Model there's mention of a treatment protocol; ruptures in therapeutic alliance caused by "desynchronous approaches to recovery, relapse detection and prevention"
[desynchronous definition: Lack of synchrony, as in brain waves] pic.twitter.com/BPVvm9fJIu

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

comparing psychoanalytic psychotherapy to cognitive interpersonal approaches they seems poles apart @andygumley #MatthiasSchwannauer https://t.co/QTUgYIjNPl

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

I think the difference between psychosis as a journey, an escape, a transition, and psychosis as a mental disorder; IME psychosis was transitional, all 4 times; it wasn't about relapse, rather a response to life trauma; then I recovered from psychiatric treatment x3; journeyed x1 https://t.co/TDU9P4BeyK

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

I much preferred avoiding psychiatric hospital coercive drug treatment hence a vision of Safe Houses for Psychosis with psychoanalytic type help rather than treatment protocol; structured activities & drugs on offer, minimally as required, tapering always on the agenda https://t.co/Sg6pyKRpcM

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

I will have to explore, research to find out if anyone in the UK is doing this type of thing already, apart from the services I'm already aware of; I think in Scotland we need national funding for safe house alternatives, managed locally; different setups, not formulaic https://t.co/hRzL6XUidj

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 6, 2018

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History Beyond Trauma blog page

stop blaming mothers for mental illness

This is a blog post directed towards male academic DClinPsy leaders at both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities who, for 8 years, have marginalised and silenced my survivor Mother voice, preferring Father voices while setting mother Carers against one another.  It's misogyny.

I'm a good Mother like my Mother before me, both of us experiencing psychosis due to life trauma, in my case very painful, induced with chemicals, childbirths, existentially at the change of life and following years of campaigning for justice after my youngest son was abused in Stratheden Hospital, Fife, February 2012, for which I got blamed in an Adult Protection Investigation report.

I didn't do paid work for many years as my 3 sons were growing up, preferring to be around when they were toddlers, pre-school, then after school and in the holidays, spending time with them, enjoying their company.  We had fun together.  I ensured they got piano lessons and other musical tuition (accordion, woodwind instruments, violin) which I missed out on because we lived in a 4th floor flat in Perth as I was growing up. 

me aged about 10, photo taken by my Father Willie Patterson, Perth

my 3 boys 1987 on a visit to Perth

my Mum, pregnant with me, & Dad captured August 1952 on the High St, Perth, by a photographer; note my Father carrying my Mother's shopping bag, his smart yet casual appearance, my Mother's stylish coat, she also carrying bags, her hair long, wavy, hanging loose

My Father William (Willie) Cunningham Patterson wasn't a misogynist or a bully.  He could be autocratic and over-protective, a man of his time, principled, a gentleman, a writer of science-fiction, who liked to dress and dine well (wood pigeon, fillet steak).  He sometimes had library books out for years and would work into the night on his electric typewriter producing scripts for Jeff Hawke, Daily Express, sending them by courier to London to meet the deadline.

I remember sitting in the front row box at the circus aged about 5 with my Dad and shaking hands with Coco the Clown, and a big birthday party in the September after starting Caledonian Road Primary School, then another one aged 12 when in 1st year at Perth Academy, marking the transition.  Fireworks display organised by my Father in the wasteground outside Pomarium Flats, rockets, Catherine wheels, sparklers, in the dark, the skies lit up.  He wore cravats, smoked cigars, Capstan and a pipe, had nicotined fingers.  My girl friends when I was at the Academy thought my Dad was handsome, I was a bit put out by this, he was just my Dad.

 
Looking back, I wasn't used to misogny, and was a confident child with a sense of self, trusting in my own judgements, my family home a safe place and refuge from the world.  On choosing a husband I looked for someone who would provide for me and my family, a safe house and secure base.  I met his family in 1971 and liked his Mother who asked me when I'd be marrying her son, before he said anything!  We got on well.  She was a gem.

my Mother-in-law Elizabeth Muirhead, photo taken by me in her front garden 1976

 

looking ahead

14 September 2016, MH Strategy event Edinburgh

Looking ahead this year I want to focus on researching Safe Houses for Psychosis, gathering stories and information about safe havens and crisis houses in the rest of the UK which might benefit Scotland.

I visited ESTEEM early intervention psychosis (EIP) Project Glasgow on 11 October 2017, meeting with Team Leader Ivano Mazzonchini, and it was a positive experience.  I don't want this to be lost in the negative stuff which followed, that very day, on the way back home, in a letter from the Glasgow DClinPsy Programme Leader.  I complained, it wasn't upheld.   

I think that EIP projects can be a useful alternative to psychiatric inpatient treatment and wonder why the Esteem model wasn't taken up by other health boards in Scotland.  It could have benefitted my sons 2008-2012, in Fife and Tayside, avoiding coercive polypharmacy and locked seclusion room abuses.  Water under the bridge.  EIP for 18-35yr olds is only available in Glasgow and after 1Feb12 I've had to campaign for justice and care for my son singlehandedly, until this present day.

Written in an Email recently:

"I believe that psychosis is transitional, not a disorder, and can be a journey, an escape, a positive and uplifting experience if reasoned out, worked through and helped by companions who are equals, without agendas.  People who are willing to share in an Other's pain and imaginings, and in so doing are part of the psychosis journey.  Transference and counter-transference.  Level playing fields.  Being human."

Safe Houses for Psychosis, that's my vision and hope for the future.

FOI requests: more about the process than the outcome

Mr Gray on twitter

Blog post 6 December 2017: 20 questions on clinical effectiveness at Stratheden Hospital 18 July 2012 containing an FOI Request to Paul Gray, Director-General Health and Social Care/Chief Executive of the NHS Scotland


"Can you please let me know if "recording of use of seclusion, incidents etc. to track change over time in terms of the patient safety agenda" has happened since my son was abused in the locked seclusion room of Stratheden IPCU nearly 6 years ago? 

I would like details of this and the Scottish patient safety agenda, in respect of restraint, seclusion, abusive incidents, human rights issues of locked-in patients.  How this has improved since 2012, how patients and carers are being listened to now, we weren't back then.  And any other information that would help me to understand how things may have, hopefully have, improved for people experiencing mental distress or psychosis and entering Stratheden Hospital voluntarily as a patient, to be supported through psychosis and extreme emotional distress.

I would also like to know how unwaged Carers are being better supported than I was in 2012 after whistleblowing about the locked seclusion room's human rights abuses: no toilet, no light, no water, locked up for hours in the dark, unobserved.  Physical, mental and sexual abuse by Nurses, invading bodies, face down restraint in faeces and urine, as ways of "managing" locked-in seclusion room patients who have shouted for the toilet but not been heard because staff were down the corridor in their staff room, out of hearing and out of sight.  Resulting in glandular infections and series of verrucas, broken hand still needing treatment after psychiatric discharge.  I had to listen to the flashbacks from the abuse for years, my son lives with me.  We got no other support apart from occasional psychiatrist appointments.  Abandoned by community MH services, despite completing a Carer Assessment form.  Unpopular for speaking out about psychiatric abuse and neglect.

This is an FOI request."

Here is the letter FOI response I received 21 December 2017, containing links to the Scottish Patient Safety Programme, Scottish Government and Carers Trust Scotland websites (it didn't enlighten me as to actual improvements within Stratheden Hospital).  And a screenshot of letter:

#HistoryBeyondTrauma 6.1.1 The Mad Tea Party 4Jan18

blog page History Beyond Trauma

blog page Staying Well After Psychosis

Studying Chapter 6 of History Beyond Trauma, 6.1.1 and revisiting the Therapeutic Relationship in Chapter 4 of Staying Well After Psychosis:

#HistoryBeyondTrauma Ch6.1.1 The Mad Tea Party;
"It is with guides like these that we approach the loops, twists, and deadends of time to which our patients lead us."
"Time that does not pass is disruptive ..." Alice & the Hatter teach us pic.twitter.com/DdC7YhPCVp

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 4, 2018

"Little by little we're building a house of time.
Take your time."
".. stammerings of history .."
".. bizarre intersections .."#transference #madness pic.twitter.com/F7RqRykYXE

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 4, 2018

time loops or untimely moments https://t.co/BYcrtoLdiO

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 4, 2018

Arendt 1951 #HistoryBeyondTrauma pic.twitter.com/6AzFxJ7pW6

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 4, 2018

#StayingWellAfterPsychosis Ch4 p76 Therapeutic Relationship
"( ... transference and counter-transference) are embraced within therapy#psychdynamic
(don't agree with "containing" aspect or "corrective" p77, this is misguided & interfering) pic.twitter.com/E7RhfKFETD

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 4, 2018

helping people through psychosis is about helping them to work through it, not suspended animation, which is what psychiatric drugs do, IME of them; they stop the psychosis journey, hinder personal development/insight; 2015 psychosis far better without antipsychotics https://t.co/SE4FXh8ADH

— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) January 4, 2018

it is hard to kick against the pricks (of the ox goads)

[strapline from Acts 5 verse 9, King James Version of the Bible]

Just wrote this in Email to a friend:

"I think that you are challenging the powers that be, in this case the god academia.  Who seem to be driving the oxen, the doctors.  And you are kicking against the goads or pricks (of the goads, the long sticks used to prod the oxen, was just looking it up after the phrase came to mind, to check the meaning). 

You are pricking their conscience.  They don't like it.

Well done on being a prick ....!"

narrow corridors and pet projects

The strapline sums up what I've experienced when engaging, or trying to be meaningfully involved, as a survivor Mother voice on the DClinPsy Programme at the University of Glasgow, situated at Gartnavel Hospital, red brick Admin Building, having first attended a Service User Research Group there on 9 September 2009.

link to Prof Pell's uni page

I've been banned from teaching Trainees on the Glasgow DClinPsy programme by Prof Hamish McLeod after I'd appealed to Prof Jill Pell for a meeting to discuss my concerns about the lack of level playing fields and the years of constraints.  My Stage 2 complaint was not upheld.  [blog post containing letters from McLeod, Senate Office and my response]

I contend that the narrow corridors are influenced by the pet projects of the lead academics, namely Attachment Theory and Risk of Relapse (Prof Andrew Gumley), together with attributing flatness or Anhedonia to Schizophrenia or mental illness (Prof McLeod) rather than, in my experience and others, to the psychiatric drug treatment, often coercive.  ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) is another corridor which can keep a patient/person corralled inside an abusive system, rather than helping them break free.

It's disappointing after 8 years of hoping that my survivor voice might be valued within Glasgow DClinPsy, to find out that they saw me as "less than", favouring others who fit their agendas and could comply, or pretend to comply, with the constraints of the narrow corridors.  The last user/carer (CUSP) meeting I attended on 4 July reminded me of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.  At any moment I might be faced with a Shrink (drink) Me potion and transported back to 2014 when I "belonged", prior to winning the Ombudsman case and an apology from NHS Fife.  

It's not a game when your children have been abused in psychiatric settings, forcibly drugged and locked in a cell with no toilet, water or light, in the dark for hours at a time, unobserved.  Very risky practices.  I didn't see any Clinical Psychologists speaking out about this.  Or standing with whistleblowing Mothers campaigning for justice.  They prefer to constrain, manipulate or silence our voices.  A misuse and abuse of academic power, in my opinion.  And I'm entitled to have an opinion and to state it.  Even if it results in banishment from Glasgow DClinPsy.  So be it.