Mental health advocacy is something relatively new on my list of life priorities, inspired both by my own experiences of mental health systems in the United Kingdom, including three stays in an acute mental health hospital in Dudley between 2023 and 2024. I’m not a mental health expert. If I was, I’d be able to help fix my own head! I am however someone who can see where the cracks are in the system, and use some of the skills I do have to try and fight for better care for those who need it the most.

You see mental health care in the UK is beyond broken. To call it a postcode lottery would be an insult to lotteries, and in some cases, the only differences between prison and a mental health ward is the ability to smoke whenever you want, and the lack of a ‘hard curfew’. Having experienced acute mental health wards, crisis houses, home treatment and community care services I can tell you that there are plenty of people who DO CARE about patients and their wellbeing, but they are stuck in a never-ending game of false assumptions, lack of funding, and a failure to see patient behaviour for what it sometimes is; a desperate cry for help.

If you go to a hospital in the UK because say: You got run over or had your appendix burst, you’ll be cared for at the nearest appropriate hospital, only being moved closer to home out of convenience to patients and their relatives. If you have an acute mental health crisis, you’re often kept in A&E departments waiting for a bed. Not at the nearest mental health hospital to you, but one in your local authority. See, NHS funding for mental health, a part of adult social care comes out of council tax, meaning that you are treated where you live. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that poorer areas… Get less funding as a direct consequence of this.

I’ve been raising awareness for male mental health in particular for over a decade, starting with my work at RaceSpot TV, where we had CALM as our charitable partner for a UK specific Sim Racing series. I’ve worked with the NSPCC to highlight the links between child abuse and long term mental health, and I have just launched a podcast with a friend whom I met in Bushey Fields Hospital in Dudley, entitled “Breaking Down, Breaking Down”.

Future planned work includes a comprehensive Sim Racing survey into how it affects mental health (Positively and negatively), investigative reporting into the state of mental health services in the West Midlands, and helping the third sector in developing effective peer support systems to empower active participation and sense of community. Stay ‘tuned’ for updates.