Lydia Sapouna Editor

Harry Gijbels is a retired mental health nurse and academic with over 40 years of experience in challenging mental health practices and education. He continues to be actively engaged in this work, for example with the Hearing Voices Network Ireland; Lydia Sapouna is a Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Ireland. Her teaching, research and community contributions are primarily in the area of critical mental health, education and practice. She is very interested in the politics of mental health and the role of social activism in changing power imbalances in mental health systems. Lydia and Harry played a key role in the establishment of the Critical Voices Network Ireland and are co-organisers of the annual Critical Perspectives in Mental Health conference at University College Cork; Dr Gary Sidley is a freelance writer, trainer, blogger and conference speaker. He worked for 33 years in the NHS mental health service, first as a psychiatric nurse and then as a clinical psychologist. He is a vocal critic of bio-medical approaches to mental health and author of Tales from the Madhouse: An insider critique of psychiatric services, also published by PCCS Books.