Writing to Recovery

On 26 March 2015 the Mental Health Foundation staged The Dust of Everyday Life, a conference at the CCA in Glasgow designed to ask challenging questions about the relationship between mental health and the arts. The findings will help to shape future editions of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, as we prepare for our tenth programme in 2016. The Dust of Everyday Life consisted of a series of panel discussions touching on film, TV, theatre, photography, and writing, as well as stigma, social justice and raising awareness. This is a recording of our session on writing, which asked the question: from memoirs to creative fiction, what role can writing play in overcoming mental health issues? The panel consisted of Gail Porter (writer, TV presenter and health campaigner), Duglas T Stewart(singer-songwriter, BMX Bandits), Michael Rowe(associate professor, department of psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine)and John McCormack (Scottish Recovery Network). The panel was chaired by Mark Brown (editor of 1 in 4 magazine)