Hel Spandler

We couldn't be in better company! @asylummagazine.bsky.social
😊

'The technocrats / are taking over the asylums...'
I am very glad my poem 'A psychiatric hospital is not a factory' is in the new issue of Asylum. Big thanks to @hspandler.bsky.social & all at @asylummagazine.bsky.social for supporting my work & for campaigning so consistently over so many years ❤️❤️

Ambivalent Activism Ambivalent Activism - Working with Contradiction, Hesitation and Doubt for Social Change; What if doubt, hesitation and ambivalence weren’t barriers to activism but powerful tools for change? This bol...

Pleased to have a chapter about mental health activism in this exciting new book about Ambivalent Activism. Out now!

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/ambivalent-a...

@brisunipress.bsky.social

Ambivalent Activism Ambivalent Activism - Working with Contradiction, Hesitation and Doubt for Social Change; What if doubt, hesitation and ambivalence weren’t barriers to activism but powerful tools for change? This…

"Ambivalence is pervasive in #Activism but has far too long been neglected by scholars. This important and original collection explores the potential of ambivalence in a wide range of contexts." - Silke Roth, University of Southampton

Amazing issue of Asylum Magazine out just now. So much valuable insight within its pages. If you don't experience mental illness, reading Asylum is one way to approach understanding it a little more. The only mag I subscribe to anymore.
@asylummagazine.bsky.social

The Northern Rose Podcast Ep.5: A National Scandal - Neglecting Our Most Vulnerable with Dr. John Mulligan In this episode we're joined by Dr. John Mulligan, a Unite Representative and clinical psychologist to explain how over a decade of austerity has systematically abandoned society's most vulnerable.

www.thenorthernrose.com/p/the-northe...

With a focus on the situation in Manchester, this podcast discusses how austerity in the UK has systematically decimated inpatient and community mental health care

The Silence feels Safer: Why I Trust ChatGPT More Than Mental Health Services When ChatGPT becomes the mental health crisis care you wish you had all along

"Machines have no empathy"
(Sherry Turkle)
But if people say ChatGPT is kinder than almost every clinician they have come across, this says a lot about the quality of therapeutic alliances nowadays

Brilliant blog by Wren Avez

www.psychiatryisdrivingmemad.co.uk/post/chatgpt...

Attacking the rights of a marginalised group isn’t a win for feminism.

Demanding that women be defined by our biology isn't a win for feminism.

The people driving this are not acting in the interests of women. They're taking us all backwards and ushering in the far right.

Important thread

"For as long as critical psychiatry fails to engage with critics, it can & never will be different"

So many survivors are saying this. Its time to be taken seriously.

A disabled art activist has sent a powerful message to Labour over its DWP benefit cuts A disabled art activist has sent a powerful message to Labour over its DWP benefit cuts from Canary on 21 March 2025

A disabled art activist has sent a powerful message to Labour over its DWP benefit cuts

Dolly Sen is sending Labour a clear, and harrowing message that its DWP cuts will lead to countless more deaths of disabled people.
www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025...

Wherever we sit on the psychiatric culture wars, I think psy professionals & academics need to admit we've collectively failed to create a compelling, compassionate & unifying narrative about mental suffering (regardless of what damn words you use to describe it).
Shame on us! 😟

How many times do we have to say it? *Austerity doesn’t work*. More cuts to public spending is economically illiterate and morally indefensible - people didn’t vote Labour to get more Tory austerity. FFS tax extreme wealth, don’t slash public services @patmillsuk.bsky.social

Professionals using their platforms to legitimise government oppression, whether deliberately or not, are a part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Richly well deserved 👏
If you haven't listened to this, I'd thoroughly recommened it

The good news is there is already a team of actual interdisciplinary experts putting together detailed advice around data collection on sex and gender, informed by medical science as well as feminist and trans perspectives. They are the MESSAGE project and you can learn more here:

Culture warriors see not sick Britain, but a plague of 'overdiagnosis'. How convenient | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett Instead of dismissing huge swaths of the population, how about a nuanced conversation about neurodivergence and mental health, asks Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Good to see a more nuanced approach to simplistic & dangerous "overdiagnosis" debates

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump officials kill federal research on safer period products over mention of transgender men The study is meant to improve health during menstruation.

US study on sustainable menstruation products cancelled cos it *mentioned* that trans folk menstruate too.

www.advocate.com/news/usda-sc...

Ambivalent Activism Ambivalent Activism - Working with Contradiction, Hesitation and Doubt for Social Change; What if doubt, hesitation and ambivalence weren’t barriers to activism but powerful tools for change? This bol...

Co-authored a chapter on ambivalent mental health activism for this new book which will be out soon.

Looks great. Looking forward to reading all the other chapters.

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/ambivalent-a...

Everyone is invited to the online launch of our spring issue. Meet our artists, authors, poets and guest editors Stop Oxevision and supported by NSUN (National Survivor User Network). Date: Thursday 13th March Time: 05.30 - 0630 Melbourne Time/ 00.00 - 01.00 Indian Time 18.30- 19.30 GMT / 13.30-14.30 Toronto Time Register here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/IdeFAw49RfSOcK-3GP4qzQ#/registration

Front cover of Asylum Magazine

Do join us tomorrow, if you want to know more about
@StopOxevision or just hear some mad poetry come along.

Register here us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

This is a truly terrifying take on #MAGA, but despairingly plausible ...

RFK Jr.’s Mental Health Bait and Switch The newly anointed HHS secretary is weaponizing legitimate anger at the failures of current psychiatric care to gut public services, abandon poor and disabled people, and expand the police state.

"We mustn't let the narcissism of small differences prevent us from uniting to do what is required of us at this crucial historical juncture...Whether we will, as a society, choose solidarity or abandonment & whether we will meet suffering with care or with cruelty"
newrepublic.com/article/1918...

Asylum has landed with subscribers! @asylummagazine.bsky.social @stopoxevision.bsky.social

I sense this issue will be as popular as our special BPD issue we published over 20 years ago & still coveted
@stopoxevision.bsky.social
@nsunnews.bsky.social
@asylummagazine.bsky.social

Mad Zine pedagogy: using zines in critical mental health learning and education This article explores how zines might be used as a medium for generating and communicating alternative forms of Mad-centered knowledge in diverse learning contexts. It draws on our research project...

Using zines in critical mental health education

Open Access paper
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Online launch of Spring issue of Asylum mag.
It's gonna be another cracker..👍🏼🧨🎆
Hear from guest editors & contributors @stopoxevision.bsky.social
Supported by @nsunnews.bsky.social
@asylummagazine.bsky.social
Register here for joining link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

A group of Kosvan mental activists inspired by @asylummagazine.bsky.social translated our first ever issue into Albanian. Chuffed to bits! 🤗

Hospital in the Mind: Film Screening What does the therapeutic community approach have to offer us in 2025? Join us for a screening & discussion of this thought provoking film.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hospital-i...