BBC Three - mental health season

Okay, so BBC Three has recently been showing some programs on the theme of mental illness. As much as I'd love to say so far it has all been AMAZING and INSIGHTFUL and ACCURATE about EVERYTHING, I can't. I have some issues with it.

Aaaaand cue rant.

Let's start with the title of this group of programs. It's a Mad World. Okay, they're probably trying to poke fun at the phrase, challenge the stigma around the association between mental illness and craziness, but I think this could be lost on some people. Moving on.

Don't Call Me Crazy: a three-part program documenting the events at an adolescent mental health unit in Greater Manchester. When I heard about it, I thought it would be really good, showing a true representation of mental health sufferers. Don't get me wrong - it did that. To an extent. The issue I had with this is that the McGuinness Unit is an inpatient-only unit. There are many units like it up and down the country - some are inpatient, some are for day patients and inpatients.

Yes, the program might have changed some people's views about mental illness, because the unit doesn't look like a standard hospital ward (side note - people are also treated for mental illness in hospital wards, but typically this is for intensive care, eating disorders or physical conditions, ie self harm, relating to the mental illness. Extra side note, I am not a trained professional, I just know people who've experienced this kind of thing, so what I say might not be true for everyone everywhere). But the program only looks at inpatients - people who have been struggling too much to cope with everyday life - and people who have been sectioned under the mental health act. Being sectioned means the nurses in charge of your care have the right to choose what you do / eat, and you will usually be under more supervision, because you are deemed at risk or something similar to that.

I don't know how many people know about the day unit side of things. Loads of young people attend the day program of mental health units because, like inpatients, they find life on the outside too difficult at the moment, but don't currently need as much supervision from staff and are able to cope overnight at home. This is a side of mental health hospitals I would really like to see covered by programs like this. Yes, Don't Call Me Crazy did make a really good start in showing what it's like to be an inpatient, but being a day patient is much more common and I think that needs to be shown and expressed.

Next, I watched Diaries of a Broken Mind. Again, I have an issue with the title. It suggests there's something wrong with you if you have a mental illness. It reminds me of something I heard once about negative thoughts, and how "it's not necessarily a bad way of thinking, it's just that this way is better". It just gives me that underlying sense that people with mental illnesses are broken and need to be fixed.

Watching people record their own perspective of their mental disorder was really interesting. I'd never heard or seen anyone speak about agoraphobia or bipolar disorder, and I'd never even heard of dissociative identity disorder (which, I now know, is like multiple personality disorder). Again, the program highlights the issues that people with severe or little-known mental disorders experience, and again, there was very little coverage of the less severe, and more common, disorders like depression and anxiety. (I guess the less well-known disorders make for better and more interesting TV?)

This program did give me a real insight into different mental illnesses and people's experience of them, though - so did Don't Call Me Crazy, to an extent - but I just hope that whatever BBC Three has planned next for mental health season, it's a little, well, better.

End of opinions.
- Alice

Little Birdy

photo from Little Birdy's facebook page.

I would say I'm gonna start blogging more often, but I can only do that when I've actually gone out and done stuff (which isn't that often)! Anyway, it's been a while.

A few weeks back, Bristol-based crafter Little Birdy posted a giveaway on her facebook, and I ended up being the lucky winner! I was sent all of the items pictured above, individually bubble-wrapped in a lovely hand-decorated parcel. I first heard of Little Birdy when I started going to Making Things Club, a club that's helped me feel brave enough to try different crafting techniques and find out about different arts-and-crafts people. I'm super glad to have found out about all of them, and am especially thankful to Little Birdy for putting the giveaway on. Below are some close-up photos of a few of the items I received. 

I love this little pin (even though I don't live in Southville). It's made from shrink plastic, has a lovely colour scheme, and I always worry about wearing it out in case the horns get damaged.

This hen currently lives in my parents' room, seeing as my mum very subtly mentioned how much she liked it ("can I have one? I want this one." I often feel like I'm the mum). Little Birdy makes them from fabric scraps, and the feet are made of wire.

These upcycled mini-pincushions have become one of the most well-known pieces made by Little Birdy recently, when they were featured in Reloved magazine. They are one of my favourite combinations in the world - cute and useful! - and since it arrived, I've been scouting the charity shops for small cups and saucers to try my hand at making some of my own.

Little Birdy makes a huge variety of things. She has some amazing hand-illustrated porcelain in her shop, and her Madam hens are just incredible - they have huge Antoinette-esque bouffants!

There is currently a giveaway on Little Birdy's facebook page to win one of the pincushions featured in Reloved magazine, so go and take a look, or check out her website.

- Alice