Mad COVID was a shared space for grassroots mental health survivor / service user projects that started during the COVID19 pandemic. This website is being maintained for historical purposes – please note that none of its projects are currently active.
Welcome to #MadCovidVoices
Mad Covid Voices aims to amplify the voices of people using secondary, tertiary and inpatient services during the Covid19 pandemic. It grew out of our Mad Covid Diaries project as a way to involve more people, who didn’t feel like writing a diary to get their voices heard!
People can take part by answering a few questions about their experiences in writing, over skype or over the phone – basically, whatever way’s easiest for them. We will share these experiences on our blog.
Some people also gave consent to share a transcript of their interview in full. We’re uploading these over the coming weeks. You can read them here.
Mad Covid Voices Blog!
My word against theirs
As psychiatric patients, we are so often disbelieved or not listened to in the first place. Our accounts of poor treatment and trauma are dismissed as an overreaction; we reach out for help only to be deemed attention seeking; even our interpretation of the world is pathologised and declared as symptomatic of our madness.
‘We don’t fuck about, do we?’: MadCovid, 1 year on
On this day last year – 17 March 2020 – the Hardship Solidarity Fund GoFundMe page was set up for donations after Bethan and Jo had been in conversation about it since early March. Around the same time, Bethan set up the MadCovid WordPress site to publish Mad people’s diaries, with the aim of documenting…
The Second ‘Wave’: Mad COVID’s Symposium / #MadMeetUp – 28.10.2020
TW: Suicide Mad COVID held a #MadMeetUp / Symposium on the 28.10.2020, to discuss the impact COVID19 has had on the mad community. As well as looking back, we also explored what mental health services and others can do to support us during the impending second ‘wave’ and any further lockdowns. It was an incredibly…
PIP in a pandemic
I’d never heard of PIP before I realised I was eligible – at least 3 years, I might add, after I should have made a claim. Only after I’d begun the application process did I begin to tune into the conversations about unfair and discriminatory assessments. Suddenly it was all I was hearing or talking…
I really miss hugging people
Jo’s #MadCovidDiaries 15.6.2020 Jo’s 13th vlog is out now! Jo reflects on the previous week which has been difficult. She talks about her friend who has recently died and the emotional labour that goes into Zoom and Skype meetings. Jo misses her family and friend and her dog in particular! Jo did another diary entry…
“I’ll just give you a call once a week to make sure you’re alive”: The impact of changes to mental health service delivery during COVID19. Part 2
Last week we published part 1 of a blog about changes to the delivery of mental health services during COVID19, based on 16 interviews that we’ve done with people using mental health services across the UK. In that blog we highlighted major changes, including significant reductions in contact, inconsistent and ad-hoc check-ins, disparities in the…
Mad Covid Voices, with Lou
27th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? The care itself has just gone remote, just phone calls – phone calls instead of normal GP appointments, and then it was explained to me that if needed I can get access to an in-person meeting, meaning if I’m in crisis, I imagine. But my…
Mad Covid Voices, with Sam
22nd April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? I mean I didn’t really have much to begin with, so I think it would have changed a lot more if I actually did have some. I’m technically under secondary services, but other than the occasional check in with a psychiatrist I don’t really have…
Mad Covid Voices, with Avery
21st April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? All of my face-to-face appointments have been cancelled, or moved to telephone appointments, but in the telephone appointments they’re not really been able to make another appointment. It’s just kind of been a one-off “are you currently fine?” level of contact, kind of for the…
Mad Covid Voices, with Rowan
20th April 2020 My trauma therapy ended suddenly 18 months ago, as funding was cut. I see my GP every 6 weeks and see a neurologist. I am waiting for a place for neuropsychology therapy to help with sensory issues. I have OCD, but there are no services in my area to help with this.…
Mad Covid Voices, with Frankie
19th April 2020 How has the ward changed since COVID19? For a couple of weeks it was a lot quieter, because the way this mental health trust has been working has been that any new patients get sent to one specific ward for two weeks to check they don’t have Coronavirus symptoms before coming here…
Mad Covid Voices, with Ashley
18th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? Well I used to have therapy twice a week, I’d had an individual session and a group session, and since I’ve went down to basically only having a phone session, and that’s every two weeks. The groups haven’t been running at all. Also all of…
Mad Covid Voices, with Eli
17th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? My care hasn’t really changed. I knew I’d be discharged from Early Intervention around Feb 2020, so I guess this process has basically just been a little more disorganised! I was contacted by someone from EIT yesterday who wanted to do the usual questionnaires they…
Mad Covid Voices, with Kerry
15th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? Prior to COVID19 I was seeing my care coordinator every week, I was having therapy every week, obviously seeing my GP every 2-3 weeks. Now, everything’s moved to over the phone, so some therapy over the phone which is interesting… some that are every week,…
“I’ll just give you a call once a week to make sure you’re alive”: Changes to how mental health services are delivered during COVID19: Part 1.
To date, we’ve done 16 interviews with people using mental health services across the UK. This is the third in a series of blogs highlighting key issues that they’re facing as a result of COVID19. Some of the people we interviewed gave consent to publish their interview in full, which are being uploaded here, and…
Difficulties and uncertainties getting help in a mental health crisis.
To date, we’ve done 16 interviews with people using mental health services across the country. This is the second in a series of blogs highlighting key issues that they’re facing as a result of COVID19. Some of the people we interviewed gave consent to publish their interview in full, which will be available to read…
Mad Covid Voices, with Jesse
14th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? So obviously most things have been shifted online. I’m working with one of the EIP services (Early Intervention in Psychosis) and it’s quite intensive, they have a bunch of different things rather than just seeing someone once every few weeks. Normally my Care Coordinator would…
Mad Covid Voices, with Stacey
13th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? COVID has changed a few things about my care, and I’ve found it quite disconcerting. Until a few months ago I was seeing a CPN every few weeks for general monitoring and support. She actually left the CMHT at the beginning of March, and I…
Mad Covid Voices, with Alex
13th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? I’m in a DBT programme in my health ward, but I had only just started, I’d had 6-8 appointments with my therapist and 1 group appointment, and then everything stopped. I think they’ve stopped the whole DBT programme and, as far as I’m aware, my…
Difficulties accessing, reviewing and monitoring medication during COVID19, is compromising the safety of people using mental health services and increasing their anxiety.
Over the past 10 days, we’ve been carrying out interviews with people in primary, secondary and inpatient mental health services across the U.K as part of our #MadCovidVoices project. So far, 14 people have given accounts of how the pandemic is affecting their mental health and their treatment. This is the first in a series…
Mad Covid 