Contrasting settings and their differing impact

In the first half of a two-part article, The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, discusses with her some of her own service-user experiences, and how they have informed her views on ‘what can be done better’. 

Katharine Lazenby, who gave an impassioned and highly memorable address at last year’s Design in Mental Health conference, vividly recounting some of her experiences as a service-user, and how they made her feel,  met up with me recently in London for an interesting hour’s chat. During our discussion we focused both on her own various periods in mental health inpatient facilities – in her 20s one psychiatrist noted that she had spent more time in such care than at home – and on some of the positive work that she is now doing to help others with mental ill health recover. 

Growing up in Hackney in East London, she had, she said, ‘probably been a pretty anxious, and at times depressive, person for as long as I can remember’. She explained: “My mental health started becoming more of a problem when I was studying for an English degree at Cambridge University. After two years of a three-year BA Honours course, I had a breakdown. I think a mixture of factors – including being away from home, and the pressure of study – were too much, and I was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital in north London aged 19; I was there just over a year.”  She was subsequently admitted to the same hospital and ward 10 times over the next 13 years. “My experience there was pretty mixed,” she explained. “Initially, you just go with what is there; you don’t know any different. The hospital was a pretty old and dilapidated hospital site in north London. My 15-bed unit was on a long corridor with single rooms, shared bathrooms and dining rooms, and a communal lounge. The rooms were ‘OK’, but the place was very institutional. I saw it change considerably over the years. “