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’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…
“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…
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 