In his BBC Radio 4 series, “Is Psychiatry Working?”, Horatio Clare explores very important questions on diagnosis and treatment. He talks with doctors and researchers, compares psychiatry with psychology, and hears from people with lived experience. He himself has lived experience of treatment for mental health issues, and he draws on this to inform and to investigate further. As the title suggests, the series recognizes that mental health care is not perfect, but it draws out positives as well.
One difference Clare highlights in comparing psychiatry and psychology is focusing on how people feel and how to treat this, as opposed to focusing on what may have led to these feelings. Another point raised was about diagnosis: not everyone wants a diagnosis. Some people prefer not to know. Diagnosis can open doors, making sense of uncertainty, but it can also close doors, limiting and labelling a patient.
I’ve heard Horatio Clare on BBC radio before, when he made slow radio, walking in the composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s footsteps through wintry German countryside. I also remember a book Clare wrote, retracing the migratory journey of a swallow. Thoughtful explorations of music and nature: two parts of life which have real impacts on wellbeing for many of us.
While one of the programmes in the present series mentioned the use of art and music in in-patient mental health care, it highlighted that first and foremost, medication needs to be in place. And obviously art and music will not themselves solve the issues or replace medication. I feel they can help most with prevention – stopping issues developing so far – or in ongoing “managing” or “living with” issues. Expressing yourself and your feelings through art, or using art as a way to step back from those feelings and set them aside: either way, being creative can become a trusted and familiar outlet, refuge and stimulus. So can music and nature, changing mood. They’re also empowering because they are something you can do for yourself. That matters, when feeling out of control is a major factor in mental health issues.
Another recent BBC Radio 4 programme, The Almanac Of Anxiety, interviewed men living with mental health issues who have found working at The Horticultural Therapy Trust’s garden very helpful. One man had only just been discharged from in-patient care, and had gone straight back to the group.
How our minds work is so complex, that so many different tools and responses can help, complementing one another.
Medley 