Mad in the UK

MITUK’s mission is to serve as a catalyst for fundamentally re-thinking theory and practice in the field of mental health in the UK, and promoting positive change. They believe that the current diagnostically-based paradigm of care has comprehensively failed, and that the future lies in non-medical alternatives which explicitly acknowledge the causal role of social and relational conflicts, abuses, adversities and injustices. They campaign for a change in the professional and public discourse about emotional distress and unusual experiences; for support, both within and beyond services, which meets people’s real needs; and for social policy which addresses the causes of distress at its roots.

MITUK strive to do this in several ways:

• By providing summaries of research articles that regularly go unnoticed in the general media because they challenge conventional wisdom.
• By hosting a community of writers with diverse experiences and backgrounds who share our belief that the current paradigm of mental health care has failed and needs to be rethought.
• By providing a forum for readers to add their thoughts and opinions to this discussion.
• By reporting in-depth pieces that deconstruct the conventional ‘evidence base’ for psychiatric drugs and other aspects of current mental health care and tell of alternatives to conventional interventions.
• By providing links to a range of websites, podcasts and blogs that also offer ideas, information, projects and resources beyond the current paradigm