Top mental health podcasts

And now it’s 2017! Happy New Year! Traditionally we kickstart January by recommending some of our favourite blogs. In the past we’ve covered mental health, dementia and vlogging. This year we’re looking at mental health podcasts.

Podcasting is a form of audio broadcasting on the internet. You can download apps or programmes to listen to podcasts, or alternatively you can just listen on the podcast webpage. It's usually possible to subscribe to a regular podcast and receive notifications of new episodes if you find one you really like.

Personally I love listening to the radio, so finding interesting podcasts is just taking that one extra step on a highly rewarding audio journey. You can find out more about other people’s views, experiences and stories around mental health – not just in the UK but anywhere in the world. An added bonus: they’re usually free. And the real joy is that you can listen anytime and anyplace that has an internet connection (or download for later if you’re going somewhere offline).

As usual the bias in our choice is mainly (although not entirely) towards medical distress as opposed to medical illness. (You can read more about the debate around the medicalisation of mental health on this blog). However, you only have to type "mental health podcast" into your internet search engine and you will discover that the choice of listening options is endless. So, if our top picks are not yours, just start looking. But now to our list:

Shrink Rap radio

Later this month I’m starting a free online course with Future Learn - Psychology and Mental Health: Beyond Nature and Nurture with Professor of Clinical Psychology Peter Kinderman of Liverpool University. And then, as luck would have it, I found this podcast with him: Exploring the Disease Model Debate.

It’s just one of hundreds of podcasts on the Shrink Rap radio site from US clinical psychologist David Van Nuys. “All the psychology you need to know and just enough to make you dangerous”.

The Psychology Podcast

Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman brings us The Psychology Podcast.

“Each episode will feature a guest who will stimulate your mind, and give you a greater understanding of yourself, others, and the world we live in.” Recent topics have included – exercise and mental stamina, and the psychology of improvised comedy.

On Being – a social enterprise with a radio show at its heart

If you're interested in finding out how trauma can affect your mental health, then here's a podcast worth tuning in to: "Restoring the Body: Yoga, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Treating Trauma" with Bessel van der Kolk. Bessel is the Medical Director of the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts in the United States.

Wellbeing podcasts from the Mental Health Foundation

The Wellbeing podcasts aim to help you relax and improve your sense of wellbeing. They feature a number of subjects including mindfulness, stress and relaxation, positive thinking, wellbeing and nutrition, and exercise and mental health.

All In The Mind - ABC Radio National

An Australian radio station has a podcast on the innovative Open Dialogue approach which was developed in Lapland and is now spreading around the world due to its high success rates in helping people experiencing severe mental distress. We hear about the way it’s working in Bradford at a Soteria House.

Wellcome Collection – Feeling Emotional

This podcast from the Wellcome Collection features psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and writer Susie Orbach in conversation with writer, campaigner, international speaker and trainer Jacqui Dillon, Chair of the Hearing Voices Network.

University of York podcasts

What’s it like being a Dialectical Behavioural Therapist or a Mental Health Nurse? Listen to interviews with mental health nurses who talk about their roles within the profession, what they get out of their jobs and why they followed these career paths.

The League of Awkward Unicorns

With a title like The League of Awkward Unicorns you just have to find out more! This is a podcast from friends and authors Alice Bradley and Deanna Zandt who talk about anxiety, depression and all the other ways your brains can play tricks on you.

Act for Change - A Night with Mental Health 

A trio of talks from 2014, including Professor of Clinical Psychology Richard Bentall on the social causes of psychosis. Hosted by YouTube but audio not video.

All in the Mind – BBC Radio 4

Another All in the Mind, this time from the British Broadcasting Corporation. These BBC Radio 4 podcasts explore  "the limits and potential of the mind, how we think and how we behave". Claudia Hammond is the regular presenter.

Medicine Unboxed

Medicine Unboxed engages the public and front-line NHS staff “with a view of medicine that is infused and elaborated by the humanities”.

Here we have Research Psychologist Eleanor Longden, Consultant Psychiatrist David Sturgeon and Professor Richard Bentall in discussion on The Heard Voice.

Royal College of Psychiatrists

Interview based podcasts from the professional medical body responsible for supporting psychiatrists throughout their careers. You can dip into a huge range of topics: everything from the Demonisation of psychiatrists in fiction to Tasers and tasering.

Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development

A podcast promoting and supporting good mental health in the workplace.

And finally...

Public Health Network Cymru will also be launching a new podcast series any minute now. It has been recorded over the past few months, with topics including LGBT health, the Knowledge Exchange, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The Network will also create short 5 minute podcasts with topics including the Well-being of Future Generations Act, and the Public Health Wales Wellbeing statement and plan.

Dip into some of these podcasts and let us know what you think. We always love to hear from you – you can ring, email or post a comment in the box below. And tell us about your favourite podcasts too.

All the best for 2017 from the mental health team at PAVO – Anne, Carla, Jane and Jackie.

Crisis cards or a buddy – maybe an app will do?

In North Powys members of the mental health charity Ponthafren Association can apply for a crisis card. Traditionally such a card is used to give someone chance to say how they wish to be treated in a mental health emergency when they may have difficulty in making their wishes known. The card could contain a list of useful organisations that people could contact in a crisis, and also details of someone close to the person who should be contacted to support them through the crisis.

I was interested to know if other organisations are providing cards – we are occasionally asked this question by people emailing or ringing our Information Service, and so set about researching the topic online…

What soon became clear was that most of the pages in my “crisis card” search threw up historical documents. There was much of interest to be read about the original development of the crisis card, such as the fact that: the first card to be used in this country was developed by the UK-based International Self Advocacy Alliance and jointly launched with Survivors Speak Out in 1989.

Articles going back to the nineties, when the initiative was first being developed, included detailed analysis of potential content of crisis cards. Some discussion papers seemed to imply that a paper document the size of a book rather than a simple credit style card might be required, as described in this article in The Psychiatric Bulletin in 1998.

But times have moved on… and my ongoing search then revealed that paper copies of cards are being superseded in some areas of Britain by mobile phone apps providing a similar function. In Cambridgeshire the SUN (Service User Network) has developed and promoted its own crisis card mobile phone app, which was launched with a flash mob event in Cambridge city centre in December 2013.  According to the SUN Network website: "The crisis card mobile phone app provides a one-button-press ‘call for help’, so you can reach out to your support network without having to face a phone call".

The app is free, and whilst it has been developed and designed in Cambridgeshire it is available for use by anyone in the UK.

Kate Brown, physiotherapy lead for inpatient mental health services at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, said: “The app is designed to help mental health service users in times of crisis but also as a way of monitoring their mental and physical health. We’ve demonstrated it to our ward staff and the staff have shown it to patients so they can use it after they have been discharged. It’s a new way of people getting help and it’s been welcomed by our staff and service-users.”

And mobile phone apps are not only being used to replace crisis cards but to support people experiencing mental distress in all kinds of situations. The apps are often developed by National Health Service trusts in consultation with people in contact with their services. A brief search highlighted the following readily available apps:

• My Journey – developed by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust – by staff and people using the Early Intervention in Psychosis Service.
• QDoc – developed by the Black Country Partnership NHS Trust – “to support mental health service users manage their consultations.”
• Buddy – developed by South London & Maudsley NHS Trust - clients “use text messaging to keep a daily diary of what they are doing and how they are feeling, helping to spot and reinforce positive behaviours.”

And the NHS has, on its own website, a new library page dedicated purely to mental health apps, which have “been reviewed by clinicians to ensure that they are safe and trusted.” In a digital world where it can sometimes feel that we are being bombarded by apps we can at least feel somewhat reassured that someone has checked out the app for us in advance, perhaps? (Some of the apps are free, and others have to be paid for).

What do you think about mobile phone apps aimed at supporting people in mental health crisis or emotional distress? Have you tried one? If so, have you found one you like? If you haven’t tried one, would you like to? What about the range of apps available... do they cover approaches that interest you, or are there still gaps in provision? 

Would you rather have a real life buddy, a Buddy app, or both? Let us know what you think in the comments box below.