Mental illness on the NHS front lines with Dr Benji Waterhouse

Welcome to episode 194 with Dr Benji Waterhouse who is a front-line NHS doctor specialising in psychiatry and an award-winning stand-up comedian.

He is also the author of the best-selling medical memoir ‘You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here’ where he has written about his work as a psychiatrist and the stories of the patients he has met along the way.

In this episode I chat to Benji about his book and his work and why he decided to work in medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality.

We chat about the process of sectioning someone, the origins of psychosis and delusions and some of the myths around mental illness in general.

We also chat about the impact that working in mental health can have on medical staff and the difficult decisions that have to be made when mental illness accounts for 28% of the overall disease burden but only receives 13% of funding.

We also get in to empathy, burnout, psychedelics and how to deal with a patient who thinks he’s a werewolf.

This episode is a lovely mix of humour and insight and it was fascinating to learn more about the other side of psychiatry!

You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it!

You can connect with Benji on social media @doctor_benjis

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

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Thanks for listening!