Novelist and broadcaster, Jeanette Winterson, will join the University of Liverpool’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer, at a public event to launch a new research group dedicated to exploring the social, cultural, and personal dimensions of understanding mental health.
The group, called Mental Health in Context (MHIC), will consider the broader issues concerning mental health difficulties in the modern world.
Security and fear
Jeanette said: “Dealing with our world is really hard work. It is hard to be healthy, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, in a world where there is so little security and so much fear.
“Good mental health depends on knowing that life has an inside as well as an outside. That’s why reading and the arts are so good. Knowing how to be on your own is one of the keystones of mental health.”
Professor Rhiannon Corcoran and Dr Helen Sharp, from the University’s Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, will introduce three research projects including work aimed at addressing mental health inequalities; new ways of understanding the role of urban living and neighbourhoods in supporting positive mental wellbeing; and the impact of stress on parenting quality and child development.
Reading and wellbeing
Dr Eleanor Longden, will speak about her own, personal experience of mental health difficulties and the crucial two-way relationship between research and the real-life problems it seeks to help.
The plans for Calderstones Mansion at the heart of Calderstones Park in Allerton will also be presented. Home to The Reader Organisation’s International Centre for Reading and Wellbeing, people from diverse backgrounds are invited to experience the power of literature through shared reading groups, training courses, literary events and festivals.
‘Mental Health In Context’ will be held at 5.30pm on Tuesday 21 April at the Women’s Organisation, 54 St James Street. The event is free, but seats are limited and must be reserved here.
