Richard, I was unable to attend the CP conference, would it be possible to get a copy of both presentations? Or perhaps some references?
I do believe that if we were to influence social and health policy more we may be in a better position to influence social and health inequalities. This does raise the question of what makes me think psychologists can offer an alternative, and perhaps we can't as a profession on its own.
Instead, I think sometimes we can utilise the power we do have to develop links with other people who may be more effective at building links with the people whose voices it would be important to hear from i.e. people who have experienced social and health inequalities. I do make a huge assumption here that psychologists may not have experienced these, whereas a reality may be that they too may have experienced some inequality.
It may be naive and idealistic (of sorts) of me to believe that whilst there are various mental health agendas these all tend to emphasise individual approaches. My perception is that whilst we have developed some skills in manipulating individuals (via Clin Psy training in particular) to think at an individual level, we could perhaps try to also use these skills to manipulate people with greater power (e.g. policy makers, MPs etc) to shift (even a little) their thinking so that these agenda mean social change rather than individual problems.
One route may be through policy, I dont think it is the only route. I'd much rather tackle a problem at multiple fronts, however in order to do this I would prefer a space where I can voice my anxieties at perpetuating an individualistic and power hungry agenda, and be able to speak openly and receive comments and suggestions. Sometimes this is a place where I feel I can do that, other times I do feel lost. Although this being said, I do like reading the discussions that happen here....perhaps its my confidence in posting on here that I need to work on! haha
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