I’m a person labelled ‘paranoid schizophrenic’ (of thirty years), and have recovered to a good
extent, with the help of mental health services, holistic health, effective therapeutic
relationships and other community and spiritual modalities. I still have episodes of voices and
structure my life around them. I have a relatively good life despite many remaining epistemic
injustices both in this country and internationally, in relation to those of us with impairments
or disabilities.
I’m also part of the PSI-STAR Programme at RCSI ( The College of Surgeons Ireland). The
Psychosis Ireland Structured Training and Research Programme (PSI-STAR) is an all-Ireland,
cross-disciplinary training and research programme. It is funded through a Health Research
Board Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA), a structured doctoral training program leading
to the award of a PhD. The Psi-Star team is made up of a newly established consortium of
leading psychosis researchers, experts through lived experience, clinicians, young people and
others, all of whom share an interest in changing how we think and respond to people who
experience psychosis.
PSI-STAR is made up of five PhD projects, each of which will focus on an issue or
experience related to psychosis. Each PhD project will be conducted over four years, starting
in October 2022.
The involvement of people with lived experience of psychosis, family members of people
with psychosis and organisations with an interest in mental health and psychosis is central to
PSI-STAR. This PPI involvement is embedded in all aspects of PSI-STAR. There is a PPI
lead for PSI-STAR and each PhD project will have its own PPI partner. This means that each
scholar will have the opportunity to work alongside people with lived experience of
psychosis as part of their PSI-STAR project team.
The College recently asked us to give lectures on our work and experience of voices etc. I
gave a lecture in the last week of February, 2025. There were 13 attendees, whom I gather
were mainly PhD students in Psychiatry with one professor of psychiatry I noted.
I based my lecture on my work with the HSE as a Peer Support Worker (PSW) – although my
role is still officially undefined – over the last 15 years. I also talked on my experiences in
recovery from more chronic stages of the condition and especially nutrition.
Nutrition seems to be currently a buzzword in psychiatric circles and I detailed how despite
psychiatric drugs helping some of us, they also deplete our bodies of certain essential
minerals and vitamins. I detailed my holistic regime – used in conjunction with one major
tranquilliser b.d. (twice a day) and one minor tranquilliser p.r.n. (pro re nata – as and when
you need it). Anybody taking psychiatric drugs need to be supplementing their diet with high
potency magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin D & Co-enzyme Q10 (my experience..but also cited
on Pubmed..online). These and other holistic supplements can be extremely beneficial to
those of us who are taking or dependent on psychiatric drugs long-term. Of course the
question remains as to whether most Survivor-Users(SU) can afford these supplements due to
poverty that many of us face. Appropriate housing and employment remain difficult for SU’s
to obtain, let alone decent nutrition and exercise.
Overall I felt that my talk was well received. There is huge benefit to effective dialogue on a
wider level between psychiatrists and those of us within ongoing mental health challenges.
Note on language: many SU’s prefer to use the term ‘hearing voices’ as a descriptor for what
others may prefer to call ‘psychosis’ or ‘schizophrenia and allied terms’.