10,000 signatures needed, a selfie post card campaign and a one day conference…… Josephine NwaAmaka Bardi responds to the question, why mental health in higher education?
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
'The challenge facing individuals with experiences of mental ill-health is to retain, or rebuild, a meaningful and valued life and like everyone else, to grow and develop within and beyond the limits imposed by their cognitive and emotional difficulties' [1]. My passion to Raise Awareness of Mental Health in Higher Education began from my interacti
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Clare Knighton – The mystery of recovery
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
When people ask me about my job, I tell them that I use my lived experience of mental health to help other people recover. They smile and nod, but I wonder, should I give them a flavour of what that really means? They see me with my name badge on and I get a sense they assume I'm 'cured' or 'better' or 'recovered'; so I think it's important for me
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Directors commentary: 10 years of the IMH
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
[caption id="attachment_1364" align="alignnone" width="2880"] House for a Gordian Knot, Ekkehard Altenburger As the bunting is taken down, and the remaining sausage rolls are cleared away following our 10th Anniversary celebrations, it is an ideal time to take a moment to reflect on the achievements of the past 10 years, and look to the exciting fu
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Josephine NwaAmaka -The meaning and understanding of Mental Health in Nottingham…150 questionnaires, three questions, 150 voices, 5 student volunteers, The Lord Mayor of Nottingham and a cold rainy day
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
The ESRC Public Engagement Event successfully took place on Saturday 12th November 2016 at St Peter’s Square in Nottingham. This event follows the successful RAMHHE conference which was held on 10th October 2016 and the ongoing campaign which encourages students to leave one sentence about how we can support students in higher education with mental
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Alessandro Bosco: Alzheimer Europe conference 2016
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Can we create a dementia-friendly society? This was the question around which people with dementia, carers, professionals and academic researchers gathered during the 26th Alzheimer Europe conference in Copenhagen.A large representation from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) attended the event to promote the innovative (and diverse) research tha
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Emma Nielsen - Mind your ‘C’s and ‘S’s: The Language of Self-harm and Suicide (and why it matters)
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
We all say things that we don’t mean sometimes. Perhaps the time that you snapped at the end of a long day or said that deliberately hurtful comment in the heat of an argument. Sometimes these instances are easily recognisable (perhaps easily apologised for). However, often our language conveys more subtle messages as well. Even everyday expression
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Anne Goodwin -From Clinical and Academic Writing to Fiction
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
In March 2003 I attended an event on novelists in conversation with psychologists for trainees and supervisors from the Leicester University DClinPSy training course in which the writers AS Byatt, Nick Hornby and Pat Barker were interviewed by psychologists Steven Frosch, Simon Thomas and Caroline Garland about their work. I was keen to attend, not
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Katherine Brown - Stigma and Self-Harm: Why, and What to do?
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Self Injury Awareness Day, 1st March 2016For most people reading this blog, the notion that mental illness is stigmatised will not be new. You may be one of many who are fighting to end the stigma – particularly if you have lived experience of mental illness, work in a sensitive field, or both. Yet stigma continues to be a pressing issue for those
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Emma Nielsen - Media Matters: The impact of media reporting of suicide
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
This article was co-written by Emma Nielsen, a researcher in the Self-Harm Research Group at the University of Nottingham and Sophie, a mental health worker with lived experience of bereavement by suicide.  Sophie’s words are quoted throughout.  …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sometimes it feels like the world is full of a lot of rules
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Stephanie Sampson - Improving Lives in Nottingham: Practical and research challenges faced by essential third sector services
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
‘Improving Lives’ (IL) (formerly Integritas) is a small, independent charity that delivers both one to one case support and advocacy services to adults with complex health and social needs within the city of Nottingham. The service was formed as a community interest company in November 2006 and became a registered charity in February 2012.  IL is l
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Mental Health Awareness Week
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
  This week is Mental Health Awareness Week.  Find out more here:
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Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year!
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Dear readers, Thanks for following us through 2015! It has been great to have so many people sharing experience, research, views and opinions - the blog really wouldn't be the platform that it is without you. We hope you have a brilliant festive season and look forward to sharing some great new content with you in January.  Remember: if you en
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Emma Nielsen - Self Injury Awareness Day #SIAD
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
After reading her IMH Blog Mind your 'C' and 'S's, the charity Rethink got in touch with our editor Emma Nielsen and asked her to write a contribution for their blog to mark Self Injury Awareness Day 2016 (#SIAD). We are delighted that Emma took up the invite - check out her piece for Rethink here. Emma Nielsen (@EmmaLNielsen) is an Associate Fello
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Clare Knighton - Peer Support – ‘You’re trained now aren’t you?’
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Having found hope in dark places, having experienced the power of Peer-support for myself, I have returned to the world of employment. Can I ask you to let that sentence just sink in? I felt I had lost everything and would never work again. Here I am, fully employed as a Peer-support worker. So my recovery journey has taken an unexpected path. I wo
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#KEIAwards2016 - Knowledge Exchange and Impact Awards 2016
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Recently this wonderful blog was nominated for a Knowledge Exchange and Impact Award 2016, in the media category. Sadly we didn’t win, but we did have the opportunity to attend the awards night, and what a fantastic night it was. The awards celebrate some of the University's biggest achievements across all departments and campuses, including China
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Call for content
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Dear reader, Do you have something to say about mental health, integrated health care or wellbeing? Are there any issues that you feel passionately about and would like to communicate to a wider audience? Well good news….we are looking for content and would love your input! We would welcome any content broadly related to mental health and health ca
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Andrew Grundy - Thoughts on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI): Involvement in research has changed my life!
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
A few years ago, if you had said to me that I would be celebrating the publication of an academic research paper, I would have laughed. In 2007, attempting my MPhil nearly broke me, and this, amongst other life pressures, caused me to have a psychotic breakdown. I was in and out of hospital that year, and was eventually given a diagnosis of paranoi
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Hilmar Sigurðsson - ADHD and Medication – What About Exercise?
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
There is a growing concern among professionals in regards to increased use of ADHD prescription drugs. In this case I will not discuss the recreational use of such stimulants, rather discuss the increase rate of prescription for children and adolescents diagnosed with Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a neurodevelopmental dis
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Shaista - Reintegration and Diet Culture
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Eating Disorders Awareness Week, 22-28 February 2016At work I found a copy of the book Naturally Thin on a shelf of what I assumed to be donations. I skimmed through the pages expecting to get a few giggles, but was sorely disappointed. The only thing about the experience that evoked anything reminiscent of enjoyment was the fact that someone decid
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Kat Dyke - Tourette’s syndrome: facts and fictions
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological condition which affects approximately 1% of the school age population. To put that into perspective, if Wembley stadium were full that would be 900 people, which makes TS far more common than most people believe.People with Tourette’s syndrome have ‘tics’, which are involuntary and difficult to
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