Living Histories: the Voices of People Who Use or Work in Mental Health
A new oral history project, capturing and sharing the voices of people who have used or worked in NHS mental health services in Sussex, has just been launched.
Heads On, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s charity, has launched Living Histories to document a period of mental health history, pushing the boundaries of how NHS organisations listen to, learn from and value lived experience.
The project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, NHS Charities Together and Heads On and documents the stories of this group of people, following the closure of the old asylums in the 1980s, up to and including the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
These are people whose voices are rarely heard in public historical records: people living with severe and complex mental health conditions, and those who care for and support them.
Rachel Blair, Grants and Programmes Manager for Heads On, says: “We are grateful to the people who told their stories, and the volunteers who documented them. We believe that these stories should not be lost, and we’re proud to launch this exhibition and contribute to the conversation.”
Heads On recruited and trained 15 volunteers to record 35 in-depth oral history interviews with people across Sussex. From these interviews, seven podcast episodes have been carefully curated and released with the full consent of participants. The episodes explore themes of care, recovery, relationships, identity and the reality of life with a severe mental health condition.
All audio clips are taken directly from participants’ oral histories, allowing people to speak in their own words about their experiences of mental ill health and mental health services.
Alongside the podcasts, a programme of public exhibitions will take place across Sussex, bringing these stories into local communities and highlighting the human impact of NHS mental health care over the past 40 years.
Living Histories responds to a critical moment for mental health heritage. Many people who experienced the closure of the old asylums and the transition to community-based care are now older, retiring or nearing the end of their lives, placing this first-person history at risk of being lost.
The project also documents the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of people living with severe mental illness and those working in NHS mental health services – a period that permanently changed care delivery, working lives and daily experience.
Listen to the podcasts at headsoncharity.org/histories. See the exhibition at dlwp.com/event/heads-on-living-histories-exhibition
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