PCCS Books

This book is a revised and retitled second edition of A Straight Talking Introduction to Being a Mental Health Service User (2010). UK mental health services were in crisis when this book was first published. They are in even greater crisis now. This updated second edition offers a cohesive basis for collective change to the individualising and medicalising of ‘mental health’.

This book is for anyone who knows, loves, is baffled by, or wants to help someone who is, has been, or is going to be 16. Sixteen is where anything can happen and often does; the eye of the storm of adolescence, filled with demands, challenges, turbulence and passion. This book is written for psychotherapists, but also for parents, teachers and anyone who has an interest in how the teenage mind works.

The ‘Our Encounters with…’ series collect together unmediated, unsanitised narratives by service-users, past service-users and carers and survivors. These stories of direct experience will be of great benefit to those interested in narrative enquiry, and to those studying and practising in the field of mental health. The collection brings together a range of voices on the theme of suicide — those who have been suicidal, alongside the friends, family and staff who have lived and worked with them.