When Alison Menzies got in touch about Don’t Turn Away: Stories of Troubled Minds in Fractured Times by Penelope Campling I was so sorry I simply couldn’t fit in reading it. In these difficult times of international, national and for many, personal, crisis I thought Don’t Turn Away sounded such an important book that I decided to feature it here on Linda’s Book Bag today.

Let’s find out more:

Don’t Turn Away: Stories of Troubled Minds in Fractured Times has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and is published by Elliott & Thompson. Don’t Turn Away is available for purchase in all the usual places including here.

Don’t Turn Away

Stories of Troubled Minds in Fractured Times

Over the course of her 40-year career, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Penelope Campling has worked with patients from all walks of life, from survivors of abuse to ICU doctors struggling under the strain of Covid-19. She has seen many positive changes in how we approach mental health – and yet she is increasingly troubled by the state of our health services. Too often those suffering from serious mental illness are being neglected, locked away, even abused.

In Don’t Turn Away Campling takes us into the therapy room, offering unique insight into how we treat those in distress. She shows us how the progress made in a more optimistic era of psychiatry is fast being eroded; how our struggling healthcare system often fails those who need our support; and how crucial it is in today’s uncertain world that we do not turn away.

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I don’t know about you, but I think Don’t Turn Away sounds as if we all need to read it as soon as we can.

About Penelope Campling

Penelope Campling is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. For twenty years, she ran the Leicester NHS service for people diagnosed with personality disorder.  She is  the co-author of the highly influential Intelligent Kindness: Rehabilitating the Welfare State (CUP, revised 2020) which led to her being awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of General Practice. She  has worked with patients from all walks of life, from survivors of abuse to ICU doctors struggling under the strain of the Pandemic. She has seen many positive changes in how we approach mental health – and yet she is increasingly troubled that the progress made in a more hopeful era of psychiatry is fast being eroded and that our struggling healthcare system often fails those in greatest need.