Published on: 2nd March 2015
We have opened up our doors in a BBC radio series led by the people who work for us and the people that receive treatment and support to challenge the myths, taboos and stigma that surround mental illness.
As part of a week-long look at the services provided by a modern NHS mental health service, BBC Radio Lincolnshire will be featuring NHS staff talking about working on the mental health ‘front-line’ and service users’ sharing their own life experiences of living with a mental illness and their personal road towards recovery.
The mental health series, Picking up the Pieces, will run from Monday, 2 March through to Saturday, 6 March on the breakfast, mid-morning and drive-time shows. In between interviews with staff and service users there will be opportunities for listeners to pose questions live on air to clinicians employed by Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and participate in a psychological therapy exercise.
Each day will feature different services provided by the Trust, starting with housing support, psychological therapies (talking therapies), and an interview with the Trust’s chief executive, Dr John Brewin. Later in the week the focus will be on the work of the county’s only sexual assault referral unit, the work of inpatient teams, children and adolescent mental health services, eating disorder services and crisis services.
Dr Brewin said:
This is a great opportunity for local people to hear more about the services available to them from the voices of the people that work there and from the people in our care. We hope this series of interviews and emotive case studies will go some way to help increase public understanding of mental health and reduce stigma. It is only through improving education and knowledge that we can really change peoples’ attitudes and behaviour around mental health. Mental illness can happen to anyone at any time; in fact one in four will experience it in their lifetime and sadly many of those will also be affected by stigma and discrimination. I hope that this mental health series will raise sufficient awareness and understanding to encourage people to talk openly about mental health issues and seek the help they need.”
