Welcome to Proper Mental episode 54 with my guest Antonio Ferreira, an activist, speaker and lived experience consultant.
He works as a volunteer for several mental health charities, sharing his story and experiences as part of his mission to eliminate stigma and misconception of mental illness within racialised communities.
At the age of 16 he spent 2 years as an inpatient on a mental health ward after attempting to take his own life. At that point he had been diagnosed with Undifferentiated Schizophrenia and Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and was experiencing auditory hallucinations.
Antonio takes me through his story and what it’s like to be hospitalized as a teenager but also what it’s like to leave hospital, take A levels and go on to study Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience at university.
We chat about his work as a consultant on the set of Eastenders where he worked with the cast and crew on a recent schizophrenia story line.
And we chat about his recent campaign and petition calling out tokenism by mental health charities and urging them to be more authentic in their anti-racism efforts.
Antonio not only has an inspiring story but an inspiring outlook on his life and the future. It was awesome to chat to him and I can’t wait to see what he goes on to achieve in the mental health arena!
You can follow him on social media @antonioferreira_mh and find out more about his campaigning and activism via his website Antonio Ferreira | Mental health activist and public speaker
You can catch up with my work at www.propermentalpodcast.com or connect with me via Instagram @propermentalpodcast.
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Thanks for listening!
Enjoy!