NSUN trustee, Rachel Rowan Olive, attended the launch of the British Institute of Human Rights online tool earlier this month. The 'Know Your Human Rights' tool is aimed at helping mental health service users raise issues around human rights in their care. BIHR are looking at how they can make sure the tool is widely used and get feedback on how to develop it further. Read more
NSUN member Simon shares his candid account. 'I’m what’s known as a high functioning Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) sufferer. That’s what I was told many years ago and I accepted the diagnosis at the time. I now believe I don’t have the disorder. Here is my story of why I believe this.' Read more
Against the backdrop of `mental health awareness week’ I am feeling suicidal. My life has no purpose or meaning, and I can no longer run the gauntlet of discrimation and abuse I face on a daily basis. Read more
'After 23 years we are apparently no longer valued by decision-makers or funders (...) at the time when we are most needed, nobody will actually fight for us', says Sarah, as the user-led organisation she is part of faces shut down in Liverpool. Published here as part of NSUN's campaign The Value of User Led Groups, this blog is a personal view on the threat of extinction to the Liverpool Mental Health Consortium. Read more
'There is a file on my computer recording my engagement in twenty years of mental health activism. This file was initially entitled Mental Health. But I have been driven to rename it. It is now entitled The War. I do not use the term lightly' Read more
'You may have not had the chance to study, go to uni or you may have had to drop out of reaching your goals due to the BPD but remember that your experiences are invaluable and can be used to effectively reach others who maybe experiencing similar to yourself' writes Katie Read more
Dr Emma Ormerod reflects on how patients will have a greater say in decisions when the essential power dynamic remains the same. Read more
The Women’s Mental Health Network is a partnership of voluntary organisations from across the sectors, that works to give women with mental health needs a voice and drive forward change within the system so that these voices are heard. Read more
My journey as a mental health equality activist has been painful, a public health warning to your sanity as you see the delusions to how racism operates in which whiteness is in the room but has been invisible when talking about equality., says Colin King, who recently set up the ‘Whiteness and Race Equality’ network in mental health Read more
I'm a person who struggles with suicidality and the government has appointed a 'suicide prevention minister'. You'd think I'd be happy. Or at least willing to give this notion a chance. But no. I'm angry, says Madame Merteuil Read more
Paul has kindly written to us and asked us to share his story. Paul is active in a number of service user involvement meetings in Leeds as well as giving talks and being part of panels both locally and nationally. Read more
'It is really something to come out of hospital, after taking an overdose, and feel worse than what drove one to take the overdose in the first place.' Read more
''every time I did confide in anyone – be they family member or health professional – I was let down, every time, by their failure to protect me from further harm.'' Read more
Jessica Gallier writes about a series of events that followed her father's suicide and the way in which they affected a vulnerable, grieving family whilst doing nothing to prevent future deaths Read more
I don’t often write personal stories and am not even sure why I am writing this – some kind of provisional settling of accounts maybe. And it’s not a good subject for a New Year but we don’t control time.... Read more
NSUN member Vanessa Yim reviews Lynn Tang's latest book 'Recovery, Mental Health and Inequality: Chinese Ethnic Minorities as Mental Health Service Users' Read more
A blog by Scheherazade, on the launch of the recently published Power Threat Meaning Framework. Scheherazade was among the crowd that gathered at Friends House, Euston, on 12 January to listen to the speakers at the launch Read more
Liz Sayce, disability rights commentator, reflects on the need for full legal equality - without which it will never be fully ok to talk about mental health Read more
Advocate Simone Aspis writes about what she'd like the mental health act review to do to ensure people with learning difficulties / autism are better included Read more
Advocate Simone Aspis reflects on what the mental health act review could focus on Read more
Originally written by Dina Poursanidou for her blog in Asylum magazine Read more
Joy Hibbins, who runs a Suicide Crisis Centre primarily set up to support people who do not access other services, reveals that, lately, a lot of of callers who use the traditional mental health system have been contacting her organisation instead of the mental health crisis teams...which take too long to get back to people - if at all. Read more
Martyn Coyle has been an advocacy campaigner for over 15 years. He was recently asked to write a post in light of the review of the Mental Health Act Read more
In the light of the almost daily revelations about workplace sexual harassment and abuse, peer researcher Alison Faulkner wishes to highlight the devastating impact that sexual abuse as well as the impact of secrecy. Read more