The Overend-Knight Medical History Podcast: Destigmatising mental illness: the Sheffield story

This episode explores the transformation of mental healthcare in Sheffield during the twentieth century to address the stigma of mental illness. Such changes were led by prominent local figures like physician Sir Arthur Hall and psychiatrist Professor F.A. Jenner but also by ‘service-users’ themselves. It is important to consider how such changes were experienced by patients to understand the extent to which they addressed stigma in practice. Telling this story helps to open up future conversations about the relationship between mental healthcare, mental illness and stigma in the past. It also shows why history remains vital in helping us engage with ongoing public and policy debates in the present.