Withdrawing from psychiatric drugs 

Many people want to come off their psychiatric drugs, however very few are given any support to carry this out. While there is much talk of choice there is little choice for those who decide they wish to stop taking the drugs.

Making Waves has been awarded funds to work with Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust on a project to support people who want to come off psychiatric drugs.

Research, though limited, suggests that gradual withdrawal can prevent or reduce withdrawal symptoms, and that close support can prevent the need for hospitalisation. Read more >>

Life Story Project 

A life story is an account of a person’s life, including stories of experiences and relationships that have shaped the person’s identity. These are the kinds of things that make us who we are, and is sometimes the kind of information that is difficult to access for some people who use services.  We are exploring a variety of methods in order to produce a ‘toolkit’ of techniques to help staff in the care setting and people with lived experience engage in life story work. The draft toolkit is available online. Read more >>

Whose Recovery Is It Anyway? Workshop 

This event was an opportunity to discuss what has become of ‘recovery’ and what is happening to the concept of peer support. Some people who use mental health services now understand recovery as a bad thing and peer support workers are being asked to be involved in forcibly drugging people. Was this what we expected?

Both ideas originate from survivors of psychiatric services. This begs the questions, Do we need to reclaim them, rename them or try and exercise some control over how they are used?

The day focused on generating discussion around these issues. Our report summarises the presentations and discussion. We are keen to get your comments.