As a child I didn’t understand what the word stigma meant, but I certainly knew how it felt. My father experienced severe mental illness necessitating regular hospital inpatient stays.
In the 1960s there was little empathy or understanding of mental illness. As such, ignorance was rife. Those experiencing mental difficulties and their carers often found themselves isolated, even by their own communities.“As a man I felt compelled to learn more about mental illness.
Why was my father viewed differently to other fathers?”In the North East of England where I grew up, there was a very macho culture.
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