Dec
16
2011

The ‘Pizza’ express visit or the ‘Italian Job’

Our guest blogger Sue Duncan from The Haven Project (dedicated to the support and treatment of people with a personality disorder) entertains us with her account of the day ‘the Italians’ went to visit! Fridays at the Haven are generally very chilled, we have the Gardening Group in the morning, booked appointments; lunch followed by [...]

Nov
24
2011

Bullying and BPD – new research discussed on BBC Radio 4 All in the Mind

BBC 4 All in the Mind focussed on 22.11.11 on new research that claims to have uncovered that it is more crucial than ever to deal with bullying in schools effectively. The longitudinal study followed children over time to separate bullying from harsh parenting or pre-existing mental health conditions. Part of a huge study, 6000 [...]

Sep
20
2011

A blog in The Independent: PD ‘One of the most controversial & misunderstood areas of mental health’

A recent blog by Anthony Bateman in The Independent – in case you missed it. http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/14/personality-disorders-one-of-the-most-controversial-misunderstood-areas-of-mental-health/

Jul
15
2011

Day 4: Thursday = Saturday

The day started on a sad note – a member of staff here was a close friend of a local man whose brother’s family have all just been murdered. Everybody around them feels very traumatised and upset. A few of us talked about it first thing this morning, and we were all affected by the [...]

Jul
15
2011

Day 3: Kabul Medical University

Yousuf has arranged for us to go and meet the Chancellor of Kabul Medical University today, and we were planning to go this afternoon – but the Chancellor has to go to an urgent meeting at the Ministry of Health, so we have been asked to go at 0830. We wonder if the urgent meeting [...]

Jul
15
2011

Kabul, the hospital and the psychiatrists

The days starts at 7.30 here – meet for a cup of tea before being driven off the hospital for a 8 am briefing. The briefing was for the whole IMC team, and about eight were there for it this morning: surrounded by flipcharts, to-do lists, everybody with at least one laptop on their lap. [...]

Jul
15
2011

End of Day 1 in Kabul – a security briefing

Inside IMH, antique tables with modern PCs , and an elegant sweeping wooden staircase with a huge satellite dish on the roof gave a hectic workaday feel in a setting of well-faded grandeur. The basement bunker was my first appointment, with the recently-arrived head of country security plus our own house’s security guard. I was [...]

Jul
12
2011

Day 1 in Kabul – helping to ‘heal the wounds of war’

Why Kabul and what has this project to do with English PD services? There is a connection, but it is a bit tenuous – and it’s probably better if Bodd explains … “The plane from Bahrain looked to be fairly empty when I did the online check-in , but when I was the last one [...]

Jun
24
2011

Bodd visits the Growing Better Lives launch in Slough

After far too long, at last I write again. Amidst the desolate and ransacked landscape of the NHS, a few shoots of new and fresh green life are starting to emerge. Today was one of them – the launch of Growing Better Lives in Slough. After a morning of heavy rain, a week-long teapot crisis, [...]

Apr
08
2011

Congratulations to the PD services team at North Staff Combined Healthcare

Each year North Staffs Combined Healthcare NHS Trust recognises its staff and teams who deserve recognition for their work and achievements by inviting nominations for their annual REACH (Recognising Excellence & Achievement in Combined Healthcare) awards. The categories this year included the Service User and Carer Award, which ‘recognises outstanding contributions, made by an individual [...]