Professor Linda Gask had a successful career as psychiatrist and academic, despite living with depression and anxiety. She speaks with candour about her experiences of periods of mental ill-health.
From Professor Gask's introduction to her lecture:
"I’ve always had an interest in people with common mental health problems – with depression, anxiety, eating problems – rather than more severe mental health problems such as schizophrenia. My interest has been in the people who don’t or do get help in primary care. Only about 10% or less of people with mental health problems are treated in the mental health services, although many of my younger colleagues find it very hard to believe that GPS treat the majority of people with mental health problems. So that’s been my interest and I taught medical students, I taught junior doctors, all of the things that one would expect, but as well as that I’ve been a patient and I’ve been a patient in terms of my mental health ever since I was in medical school."
To download a transcript of the 2016 Disability Lecture, use the following link(s):
Transcript - PDF version (download)