Mad in the UK launched today

Anyone interested in mental health - and the way mental health problems are to be explained and understood - will be interested in a new website that launched today.

Mad in the UK (MITUK) is a sort of younger sister of the well-established Mad in the USA site.

As its first post explains, acting in concert with Mad in the USA it will:

carry UK specific content and provide a voice for UK professionals, service users/survivors, peer activists, carers, researchers, teachers, trainers, lawyers, journalists, volunteers and others who are working for change in the field of what is usually referred to as ‘mental health’. 

MITUK believes that the current diagnostically-based paradigm of care has comprehensively failed, as indicated by lack of evidence for its core tenets, rising numbers of those diagnosed ‘mentally ill’, and increasing concern about the failure of much ‘treatment’ to help people recover. 

MITUK, along with many others, believes that the future lies in non-medical alternatives which explicitly acknowledge the causal role of social and relational conflicts, abuses, adversities and injustices. 

We campaign for a change in the professional and public discourse about emotional distress and unusual experiences; for support, both within and beyond services, which meets people’s real needs; and for social policy which addresses the causes of distress at its roots.

Mad in the UK will act a hub for critical discussion, campaigning and action, and provide links to the many other resources, projects and organisations which are also developing positive ways forward.