Mental health

‘I needed therapy after I gave birth, but now I’m going it alone’

Steph experienced a mental health crisis while having her second child. Therapy saved her, but when it ended she felt loss.

Bristol mental health patients are still being sent miles from home. How are local services trying to eliminate the damaging practice?

The city’s mental health trust is failing to stop out of area placements, but it's an uphill battle amid high demand for treatment, limited funding and staffing shortages.

Autistic woman wins damages after police put ‘false and misleading’ information on her record

In the latest in a series of payouts from the force, Avon and Somerset Police were found to hold records incorrectly describing her as having 'split personality, violent when not medicated'.

Bristol student who took her own life had mental health disorder ignored, judge rules

Natasha Abrahart’s parents argued that her university failed to make allowances for her social anxiety disorder.

‘Simply inconceivable’ university didn’t owe duty of care to student with severe social anxiety, court told

Natasha Abrahart, a physics undergraduate at the University of Bristol, took her own life the day before she was due to give a presentation.

Laughing it off: how comedy can aid recovery from trauma

A new free art therapy course aims to help people work through mental ill-health through the medium of standup.

Revealed: Bristol Mind loses core mental health service it has run for 25 years

Whistleblowers from the advocacy service, which has now transferred to new providers, allege mismanagement by the board of trustees.

Young woman took her own life at psychiatric hospital following series of failings by NHS Trust, inquest concludes

Zoe Wilson, 22, was not transferred to an acute ward despite telling staff she was hearing voices that told her to kill herself

Cutting Bristol’s air pollution could help citizens’ mental as well as physical health

Evidence increasingly suggests that traffic pollutants can adversely affect the brain, impact cognitive function, and increase the risk of mental health problems. Bristol’s Clean Air Zone cannot come too soon.

Police denied autistic woman access to appropriate adult after suicide attempt

A second complaint has been upheld against Avon and Somerset Police over their treatment of a woman who says she has suffered years of hate crime.

How Bristol is responding to surging demand for mental health support linked to Covid-19

The rise in referrals was lower in Bristol than the national average. The Cable speaks to NHS and voluntary mental health services about how they are coping during the pandemic and what is on the horizon.

Improvements at Priory Hospital Bristol after serious issues revealed last year

The private psychiatric hospital has taken urgent action following a damning inspection and ward closures in 2020.