I have been through many of the issues that I have reported on in others’ cases through my journalism and writing.
Thanks to personal experience of learning disability and mental distress I have worked with several mental health and learning disability practitioners’, social care, and housing titles.
This is what makes me different from other social affairs journalists – I have experienced many issues of those I am talking to.
- The abstract debates about welfare cuts
- Cuts to mental health services and the NHS
- The shortage of social housing
Experiencing mental distress 20 years ago gave me the knowledge, determination and empathy to tackle topics too many journalists avoid. Mental health treatment will be addressed finally with the new Mental Health Bill becoming law in 2026-27, and not before time in my view.
Have a look at my social affairs writing portfolio below.
Automation Is Eating the Economies that Fuel the Industries that are Automating In this piece of social commentary, I observe that automation in the media and automotive industries are destroying the incomes of those who would otherwise be consumers of the products made by those industries.
Beat Stress – Feel Better. I co-wrote this men’s guide to tackling mental distress.
UK prisoners given tents and methadone on release– a report on how many UK prisoners end up on the streets straight out of prison.
UK to Remove No-Fault Eviction Clause from Private Tenancy Law– a report on changes to UK tenancy law that should favour tenants.
I did an investigation into corruption in the US prison system, interviewing the then Inspector General of the US Department of Justice
Battling elective mutism in autistic children
What do you do when your autistic child simply stops speaking to you at home? Richard Shrubb investigates the experience of the Dyer family on the Isle of Wight
Social services failing to support older teenagers who may be homeless
Child S lived in Manchester for 10 months when he was found hanged in bed and breakfast accommodation. Born in Eastern Europe he came to England at the age of 16 with his father to find work. But by the time he arrived in Manchester he had been abandoned, was unable to speak English and had no money.
Features
Winning the Mental Battle. An exploration of positive psychology as a step beyond traditional mental health treatment
Swings and Roundabouts – May 2008. Discusses the service user’s statutory right to advocacy.
Safety First – October 2008. A discussion of the use of police cells as a ‘place of safety’ for service users detained under s136 of the Mental Health Act
Perspectives column
I was a columnist for MHT between 2009 and 2017. Here are some of the best examples.
MHT Perspectives negotiation (Opens as a PDF) – for my Perspectives column, a discussion of negotiation between mental health staff and service users in light of famous schizophrenic John Nash’s Non Cooperative Game Theory (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics and had a movie made about him
People with schizophrenia should be encouraged to aim high in life. An examination of the ‘Dustbin Diagnosis’ idea.
Fears as mental health beds cut– a sample investigation I did for the national newspaper.
Download
In this piece I looked at the prizes and perils of support groups coming together to fight for special educational needs provision.
LDT Mental Maze MayJune 2014 p12-13Download
Face the Facts – April/May 2012. A look at the barriers to research small scale organisations face in order to get novel treatments accepted in medicine
On the Edge – May 2011. How some families struggled to pay for the care they needed owing to local authority cuts
Thousands of vulnerable people face losing access to valuable support as legal aid cuts leave advice services struggling to stay afloat. Richard Shrubb reports
The greenest new homes cost more to build but much less to run. Richard Shrubb examines the case for increasing rents to help pay for them
I produced a volume of work for the RCN’s Mental Health Practice.
Here’s an example looking at the Nordic Alcohol Model, showing how alcohol related harm does up when taxation and other government measures are loosened. Download
A look at a potential pharmacological treatment for autism-related Face Blindness
Lobbying and protest – how it is high time the disability movement went out on the streets to oppose austerity