The Wellbeing Foundation

Collective Wisdoms: Michael Corry on the mind and psychiatry

The Wellbeing Foundation — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:49:02 GMT

This is part of an interview with Dr Michael Corry conducted by Caroline Brennan of Giant Leap Productions.

We have edited this section into a separate podcast as it represents an excellent summary of his views on the significance of the mind, and how mental distress and disturbances should be dealt with, as well as his views on how psychiatry in Ireland has failed at that task and why.

Giant Leap Productions is an Irish educational media production enterprise.

We are deeply grateful to Caroline for her kind permission to reproduce the interview as a podcast. Please visit http://giantleapproductions.ie if you would like to hear more of the excellent interviews in the Collective Wisdoms Series and other wonderful material produced by Giant Leap.

Collective Wisdoms: The Michael Corry Interview

The Wellbeing Foundation — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:37:28 GMT

This is an interview with Dr Michael Corry conducted by Caroline Brennan of Giant Leap Productions. It covers Michael's childhood and adolescence and his life as a doctor in Africa, as well as his experiences with psychiatry, and is perhaps the most intimate of interviews he has ever given. Giant Leap Productions is an Irish educational media production enterprise. We are deeply grateful to Caroline for her kind permission to reproduce the interview as a podcast. Please visit http://giantleapproductions.ie to hear more of the excellent interviews in the Collective Wisdoms Series and other wonderful material produced by Giant Leap.

Delete Section 59.b — Stop forced administration of electroshock

The Wellbeing Foundation — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:38:46 GMT

The Irish Senate is to consider voting out a section of the Mental Health Act which allows forced administration of ECT without consent or without any external review. The psychiatric lobby opposes this. The Wellbeing Foundation and the newly-formed Irish Network of Critical Voices in Psychiatry are for the deletion of 59.b See also http://delete59b.com Basil Miller, Director of Communications The Wellbeing Foundation, on Declan Meehan Show, EastCoastFM, 22/03/2011

Robert Whitaker on Today With Pat Kenny

The Wellbeing Foundation — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:38:43 GMT

The acclaimed American investigative journalist Robert Whitaker, author of several books on mental distress, speaks to Pat Kenny about the research and conclusions in his important new book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.

Why has the number of adults and children disabled by mental illness skyrocketed over the past 50 years? Why does this epidemic parallel so closely the growth and dominance of psychiatric drugs as treatment?

Whitaker documents a history of science and medicine that raises a heretical question: Could the drug-based paradigm of care be fueling this modern-day plague?

Whatever the short-term effects of psychiatric drugs, where many trials suggest they can be effective, Whitaker analyses the full history of their use and asks: What about their long-term effects?

His new book carefully documents an answer to that question for four major psychiatric disorders and for child and adolescent disorders. The answer is frightening. The drugs worsen long-term outcomes — and recovery from debilitating mental states has become rare.

On the 'Today With Pat Kenny' show on RTE Radio 1 on 28 February 2011, Whitaker debates with bio-psychiatrist Patricia Casey, professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, whether we need to start an open conversation about how to stem the epidemic of disabling mental illness in society and move to a paradigm of care that helps people get well and stay well over the long term.

Panic Attacks — Meditation

The Wellbeing Foundation — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:26:12 GMT

There are five podcasts in the 'When Panic Attacks' series. These are resources to help anyone who has a panic attack to deal with it, and learn how to diminish and eventually eliminate such attacks.

Based on the book When Panic Attacks, by renowned psychotherapist Dr Aine Tubridy, the series includes a discussion of panic attacks in this first episode, followed by episodes including an Emergency Drill, a system of Relaxation, instruction on Breathing Techniques to cope with panic symptoms, and a Meditation to calm the mind and help avoid future attacks.