Ep 13: Caring for each other well, with Dr Greg Shields

The reMAKERs

We are living in uncertain and anxious times. Mental health is everywhere, but it’s also been largely ‘privatised’ — treated as a personal issue for individuals to address, rather than as a collective response to systemic conditions. This episode of the reMAKERS asks, ‘do we need therapy, or do we need structural change?’ (Or both.)

We also talk about what it’s been like being a mental health professional during the worst of the pandemic in London; how to help the ones we love and ourselves to die well; and what employers need to do if they’re serious about fostering good mental health in the workplace.

Dr Greg Shields is a consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, part of King's Health Partners and one of the oldest psychiatric hospitals in the world. He’s also a senior manager at Maudsley Learning, which offers non-profit mental health education and training. He has special interests in psychotherapy, cancer and palliative care, as well as novel ways of teaching about psychiatry and mental health. This is a conversation about caring for each other well in life, at work and in death.

SHOW NOTES

Things we mention:

Social psychologist Dr Amy Cuddy on the three phases of crisis

Arrested Development song, ‘Fishing for religion’

Martin Luther King on being ‘maladjusted to injustice’

Irish Government trialing a Universal Basic Income for artists

Only Murders in the Building (tv show)