Destigmatising mental illness: the Sheffield story
This episode examines the evolution of mental healthcare in 20th-century Sheffield, focusing on efforts to reduce stigma and the role of patients, highlighting history's relevance to current debates.
This episode explores the transformation of mental healthcare in Sheffield during the twentieth century to address the stigma of mental illness. Such changes were led by prominent local figures like physician Sir Arthur Hall and psychiatrist Professor F.A. Jenner but also by ‘service-users’ themselves. It is important to consider how such changes were experienced by patients to understand the extent to which they addressed stigma in practice.
Telling this story helps to open up future conversations about the relationship between mental healthcare, mental illness and stigma in the past. It also shows why history remains vital in helping us engage with ongoing public and policy debates in the present.
To enhance the historical perspective, our colleague Dr. Chris Blackmore from the School of Medicine and Population Health explores the evolving language of mental health in his podcast, Middlewood of the Mind. Inspired by Sheffield's Middlewood Hospital, the podcast features insightful discussions with guests Amanda Crawley Jackson, Ian McMillan, Patrick Murphy, and Brendan Stone, as well as collaborators from Sheffield Flourish. Together, they examine how the language surrounding mental health has shifted over time and continues to evolve.
The podcast emerged from the ‘Mind: Your Language’ project, a creative exploration of the conversation between past and present. This project, which included an exhibition, a public talk, and a book by Patrick Murphy and Ian McMillan, was part of the 2024 Festival of the Mind, organised by the University of Sheffield.
Credits
Host
- Professor Allan Pacey, Deputy Vice President and Deputy Dean of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester
Contributors
- Andrew Tattersall, Information Specialist at the University of Sheffield
- Kate McAllister, Associate Tutor at the University of Sheffield
- Dr Chris Millard, Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities at the University of Sheffield
- Josie Soutar, Managing Director at Sheffield Flourish
- Helen Crimlisk, Associate Director of Teaching at the University of Sheffield
Producers
- Professor Sheila Francis, Faculty Director of One University Strategy Delivery at The University of Sheffield
- Andrew Tattersall, Information Specialist at the University of Sheffield
Music
- The Longbeards Beneath The Mountains by Justin Allan Arnold
- Music promoted by Free Stock Music
