Lucy Foulkes – A New Vision for Mental Health

I’m a psychologist with a history of anxiety. Treating it as a permanent problem might make young people feel worse

Author: Editorial 10th July 2023 0 Comments

“When we give children the label but no tools to challenge it, their worlds grow smaller. My life’s greatest moments involved facing my fears” This opinion piece from Lucy Foulkes has been published in The Guardian. It begins: “I was an anxious…
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collaborative practice

anxiety, fear, Lucy Foulkes, The Guardian

Overmedicalization of young people’s distress is undermining and disempowering families

Author: Editorial 7th July 2023 0 Comments

This article by Emma Fergusson, Shona Reed-Purvis and Lucy Foulkes has been published in Nature. It begins: “Cases of mild or transient distress in young people are increasingly viewed as problems that require medical intervention. As CAMHS clinicians, we argue that…
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a coherent system

children and adolescents, Clients & Patients, Emma Fergusson, fa, Lucy Foulkes, Nature Mental Health, Outcome Orientated Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (OO-CAMHS), Shona Reed-Purvis

Mental health awareness campaigns may actually increase distress

Author: Editorial 14th April 2023 0 Comments

This article by Jack Sears has been published by Mad in the UK. It begins: “An article published in New Ideas in Psychology hypothesizes that mental health awareness efforts in Western countries may be partially responsible for the rise of mental health problems…
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a coherent system

Jack Andrews, Jack Sears, Lucy Foulkes, Mad in the UK, mental health awareness campaigns, New Ideas in Psychology, Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis, wellbeing

Are mental health awareness efforts contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems? A call to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis

Author: Editorial 16th February 2023 0 Comments

This paper by Lucy Foulkes and Jack L. Andrews has been published by New Ideas in Psychology. The abstract says: “In the past decade, there have been extensive efforts in the Western world to raise public awareness about mental health problems,…
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a coherent system

Clients & Patients, inflation hypothesis, Jack Andrews, Lucy Foulkes, mental health awareness, New Ideas in Psychology

The big idea: Is it your personality, or a disorder?

Author: Editorial 3rd November 2021 0 Comments

“Psychological diagnoses offer an easy way in to understanding character – but our habit of using them comes at a cost” This article by Lucy Foulkes has been published in The Guardian. It begins: “It takes around 30 seconds to diagnose…
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a wellbeing society

diagnosis, disorder, Lucy Foulkes, personality, The Guardian

Losing Our Minds: What Mental Illness Really Is – and What It Isn’t

Author: Editorial 8th April 2021 0 Comments

This book is from psychologist Lucy Foulkes. The publishers say: “Public awareness of mental illness has been transformed in recent years, but our understanding of what it actually is has yet to catch up. Too often, psychiatric disorders are confused with…
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a coherent system

adolescence, books, children and adolescents, COVID-19, Defining mental illness, diagnostic labelling, Lucy Foulkes, normality, stress

Defining mental illness

Author: Editorial 7th April 2021 0 Comments

This 42 minute podcast is from BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week series, hosted by Andrew Marr. The producers say: “Reports of a mental health epidemic among young people both leading up to and during the pandemic are now widespread. Sally…
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a coherent system

Andrew Marr, audio, BBC, children and adolescents, Defining mental illness, Lucy Foulkes, psychosomatic illness, Radio Four, Sally Holland, Suzanne O’Sullivan