Participant Fifteen: A

“Somebody’s birthday party, we’re friends from the day centre. I feel inspired, they brought me a cake as well for my birthday. I don’t often go out, I’m a recluse. I’m glad to get home when I’m out, I feel the urge to get home as soon as possible.”

“This picture was taken here at the hearing voices network. It makes me feel heard and wanted. We take turns speaking and have input while we are speaking, anything that’s on your mind. Doesn’t have to be mental health. You’re not solo, alone, on your own, and there is help out there. I belong to various networks, I belong to [anonymised] Borough’s users group, you select topics for incidents in the mental health system and discuss transformations and developments and cooperations. Another club I belong to is patients’ council, we congregate and have badges on the ward and discuss with clients’ treatment, their diagnosis, their activities, their cleanliness. Sometimes, patients there, no one getting clean clothes, their clothes aren’t being washed, so we’ve got a kitty downstairs where we inject money into patients care to have clothes collected and then given to patients on the ward while they stay. To make them feel more hygienic and part of the community. We discuss methods, deal-with methods and prevent methods. There are doctors, nurses, advocates, social workers, OT workers and there’s about twenty of us in the room discussing patients’ care. It helps to reduce tension between patients and doctors and nurses. They’re being heard, they’ve got a voice.”

“That’s me doing leaflets, putting leaflets in bags for the kiosk that sells food to the public. It’s a job, we participate in jobs, shredding, administration, section work, cleaning. I don’t like cleaning. They give you a purple t-shirt and a blue plastic apron, not me, my colleagues at the centre, I’m just a service user, a member.”

“This is a member of the hub, who is a musician in the club and has made a selection of current CD’s and an album, he’s on YouTube and is a vocalist and song writer. We were just passing, I have known him for years, ten or more years, he gives concerts to service users. Coming to these concerts makes me feel welcome and inspired. You get lost in the zone, it’s a form of escapism.”

“Art is key to me. It’s enhancing, it’s spiritual. It helps me mentally and prevents triggering unwelcome voices in my head. When doing art activities I hear them [the voices] but not in depth or detail.”

“There are statistics that more Black people are in hospital in comparison to White people, and more Black people are sectioned than White people and more Black people go through manhandling. If they don’t take their medication they get given an injection. These are the statistics.”