Colleagues. Runners. Extremely long-term optimists.
Two mental-health specialists from Hastings & Rother who went for a run, got fed up with feeling overwhelmed and came home with a 19-year plan.
Who does what
One solo journey around Earth and one community journey to the Moon and back.
Team Earth
Psychiatrist and solo world runner
Dr Strings is a psychiatrist in the Hastings & Rother Community Learning Disability Team. She supports people with learning disabilities and specialises in mental health. Team Earth is her solo virtual lap of the world.
She is hoping Team Sofa will prove considerably easier to recruit.
Team Moon
Learning disability nurse and volunteer-team leader
Hopkins is a learning disability nurse in the same community team. She specialises in mental health too, and she is gathering a volunteer team for the journey to the Moon and back.
She has already suggested that one Moon trip may not be enough before Dr Strings gets around the world.
In their own words
Hopkins and Dr Strings support people with learning disabilities and specialise in mental health. Over the years, they have come firmly to believe that good mental health is about far more than medication.
Exercise, connection, feeling valued and doing things you enjoy with friends and family all matter. Time in the natural world can make a real difference to how we feel.
On a run one evening, they decided they were fed up with feeling overwhelmed by problems that seemed enormous. Extreme Psychiatry was their answer: something big, positive and shared.
“Extreme Psychiatry takes good mental health out of the clinic and into the big, wide world.”
Why the skull?
Look closely and the skull is full of sky, trees and a path. It is a reminder that good mental health does not belong only in a clinic.
Sometimes the best thing is to get outside and roam.
Everyone should be able to take part
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