Great to hear Karen! Hope they all get something from it.

Hello Bluesky. No one ever seems to see (or maybe they just don't care about) my posts. Is it because I don't use hashtags? #PsychiatricDiagnosis #BPD #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #IdentityDisturbance

The 'conceptual black hole of borderline personality disorder': how can BPD be not real mental illness but too unstable for therapy, described as not personality disorder but treated as only personality disorder, and also, borderline of what? Open access: doi.org/10.1080/0161...

The Philosophy Bites podcast has had nearly 50 million unique episode downloads so far… philosophybites.com

It would indeed be interesting to know any future considerations by the @newsnmc.bsky.social from evidence such as this.

Kenwright et al: "MH nursing students reported the lowest levels of practice confidence... barriers to achieving proficiencies...exclusion of field-specific knowledge and skills, which devalued and threatened their professional identity". #MHDeservesBetter doi.org/10.1111/inm....

Enjoyed talking to mental health staff in Perth today, discussing the action/consequences model and the ethics of responding to risk when working with people diagnosed with 'personality disorder'. Anyone interested can see more from this webinar: youtu.be/sC3CVq10XCM?...

As an @rcn.org.uk member I get the @nursingstandard.bsky.social through the post each month. Claims to be your 'essential nursing journal', yet there is often little to no content around mental health. As a mental health nurse, that is what is essential.

In the past two weeks separate people have emailed me to say how much this resonated with them. When nurse education becomes futile. From late 2021, but still one of the best things I've written, and may resonate with you if you haven't seen it:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The model of-- work yourself into the ground & then recharge with some 'wellbeing' activities, is a con. It just serves the machine.

It's not too much to ask to have meaningful work, connection with colleagues, a sense of belonging & congruence with your values. And workplaces that support this.

The despondency is real. Something is needed but there is perhaps a localised UK shift. The RCN indicate others beyond them have a view on this matter & in my belief ignore they have become the other (questions of whether they can be trusted on MH nursing). -perhaps a new union will fill the void.

Yes! 🙂

I was at an RCN Mental Health Forum listening event this evening, and there is still a lot of discontent around mental health nurse education. I raised this issue at RCN congress in 2022, but it seems little has changed:
youtu.be/xYwmZYthm5M?...

Hard agree. The profession is lost.

I saw a theme from a patient focus group was "we are signposted to death". I thought yeah that's awful, & then thought tbh our service does that too. We try to be helpful & find out what's going on for people but then sometimes the outcome is that a person's needs are best met in another service 1/4

Full response here regarding the press release on 'boost to mental health services' including new emergency mental health departments. The bits that didn't make it into the Nursing Times:
mentalhealthdeservesbetter.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/r... #MentalHealth #NursingandMidwiferyCouncil #Nursing

Something we do well in Clinical Psychology is to have regular clinical supervision. It is just standard, normal, it's not 'if there's time' or a luxury. I see some of what nursing & medical colleagues work with every day & it amazes me they don't have reliable access to the same...

A pet-peeve of mine for mental health nursing. Involved in so much of the 'dirty work' of mental health care in terms of legal authority over people, nurses holding power, detentions, restraints etc - such closeness with such messy power dynamics, yet thinking about it all is seen as a luxury.

I'll still be living in Scotland, and still interested in the field of 'personality disorder', so I'll be around, but my shift is over. (4/4)

We also had our first in person conferences since 2019, at Abertay University, Dundee in 2024 and 2025. These conferences have had more and more lived experience representation, both in attendance as well as contributing to presentations, and that is the only way forward. (3/4)

The last 6 years has been a privelege, to keep the network going through covid with online conferences, co-producing three animations to raise awareness and information about 'personality disorder' (2/4)
www.scottishpersonalitydisorder.org/videos

Yesterday was my last Scottish Personality Disorder Network conference as part of the executive group. Time poverty means I sadly cannot do everything I want to. (1/4)

Another talk about to start at #SPDN2025 Conference.
“Empathy differences in borderline personality Disorder” by David Hayward