PPR

Many thanks to Órlaithí Flynn, Mark H Durkan & Gerry Carroll, who have signed our Open Letter to the Health Minister calling for urgent action - a reduction in antidepressant prescribing, investment in community-based alternatives, and focus on ensuring real participation and choice.

At the end of June, just a couple of weeks after so many of our friends and activists across Belfast were burnt out, displaced, or threatened from their homes by racist pogroms, members of PPR’s Take Back the City team travelled to Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

We learnt a huge amount about activists and grassroots community initiatives which were plugging the gaps in state support for the most marginalised communities, fighting systemic racism, poverty and housing inequality, and building alternatives from the ground up that directly meet their needs.

✍️ Join us! Sign the Open Letter to the Health Minister before Monday 26 October. 🔗 bit.ly/4yZSXeQ

We need to address the root causes of distress, reduce antidepressant over-prescribing and invest in accessible, community-based alternatives, giving people clear information, real choices and a meaningful say in their support.

This week, @thedetailtv.bsky.social revealed that Stormont ‘heatmapping’ exercises found that 1 in 6 areas across NI were unsafe to house asylum seekers… Adding to that the areas where they had “reservations”, and you’re left with just over half of NI deemed safe for asylum seekers to live.

Is this all we expect from the authorities, to map out these areas of increased threat and violence and then abandon the people who live there? Can we allow those who facilitate racist violence to control who gets to live in their communities?

New Script for Mental Health welcomes the new MHRA safeguards, which follow an extensive review prompted by concerns from patients and families about how antidepressant risks are communicated. Read more here 👉 www.gov.uk/government/n...

These new safeguards reinforce the urgent need for the Health Minister to implement the Give 5 framework across Northern Ireland, ensuring people have access to clear information and a wider range of support options.

New Script for Mental Health welcomes the new MHRA safeguards, which follow an extensive review prompted by concerns from patients and families about how antidepressant risks are communicated. Read more here 👉 www.gov.uk/government/n...

In September, housing activist Sean Kane delivered this poem about the reality of homelessness to a Housing Rights conference… This morning, at our housing clinic, we heard from people all over the city facing homelessness, intimidation, eviction, mould & damp issues, isolation, and much more.

At the end of June, just a couple of weeks after so many of our friends and activists across Belfast were burnt out, displaced, or threatened from their homes by racist pogroms, members of PPR’s Take Back the City team travelled to Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

We learnt a huge amount about activists and grassroots community initiatives which were plugging the gaps in state support for the most marginalised communities, fighting systemic racism, poverty and housing inequality, and building alternatives from the ground up that directly meet their needs.

The Department for Communities recently published their updated housing statistics this summer, for the first time counting the number of homeless individuals as well as households. The numbers were shocking…

On this day in 1943, PPR's founder, trade unionist, women's rights and human rights activist Inez McCormack was born. Along with many others, Inez fought relentlessly to secure commitments to human rights and equality in the Good Friday Agreement.

33,500 families are facing homelessness, thanks to a lack of social housing supply. People in distress are unable to secure support for mental health, with suicide a particular issue for young men. Communities of colour fear racially motivated attacks daily.

On this day in 1943, PPR's founder, trade unionist, women's rights and human rights activist Inez McCormack was born. Along with many others, Inez fought relentlessly to secure commitments to human rights and equality in the Good Friday Agreement.

She was critical in securing those commitments, and critical of the manner in which they were implemented in the years that followed, particularly of the primacy good relations were given over equality, and the effective veto to progress that this handed bad actors.

Structural factors like inequality, poverty, discrimination, unemployment, and homelessness all affect our mental health. In recent years, global organisations like the UN and WHO have urged governments to pay more attention to these social drivers of mental distress.

Good relations. A useful framework to help the state promote equality between different groups? Or a problematic, ambiguous term that can be used as an excuse to avoid tackling inequality?

At our recent housing support drop-ins, we’ve had people with a huge range of issues, and have helped people to send complaints to the Housing Executive, Mears, housing associations and private landlords…

A huge thank you to the staff at Central Library for welcoming us so warmly for Culture Night #CNB26 💛 There was a great buzz throughout the evening, with so many people stopping by to choose some healing words, listen to poems read aloud by Maxi & Maura, and have conversations about mental health.

What really stood out was the appetite for a different approach, one that starts with connection, compassion and choice, and looks beyond a narrow, medication-only approach to mental health. Thank you to everyone who stopped, chatted, shared their thoughts and spent time with us.

New Script warmly welcomes Mental Health Matters for Women from the Women's Regional Consortium. This research powerfully highlights the gendered nature of emotional distress and trauma and why we must connect the symptoms to their root causes. www.womensregionalconsortiumni.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Other important recommendations include the need for sustainable funding for Women’s Centres, gender-informed data, a Women’s Health Strategy and the development of a fully funded Mother and Baby Unit without any further delays.

New Script warmly welcomes Mental Health Matters for Women from the Women's Regional Consortium. This research powerfully highlights the gendered nature of emotional distress and trauma and why we must connect the symptoms to their root causes. www.womensregionalconsortiumni.org.uk/wp-content/u...