The Story of The Eccentric Times

by

Mark Sampson

So after 2½ years and 11 issues, The Eccentric Times is coming to an end. The reasons for this will be revealed later.

But how and, more importantly, why did it start? Well those involved in the magazine felt (and still feel) a great deal of frustration with the way the mental health system was (and unfortunately still is) going, with people not getting the support that they need. Therefore the idea was to get a magazine together that gave a voice to these feelings.

So a group of us got together to decide what we wanted out of the magazine. We agreed that we wanted a magazine that looked at the day to day issues that were faced by people with a mental illness, which took turns in being both serious and satirical

Obviously the satirical element became Tranquilised Tim, which proved to be the most popular section of the magazine. The name came when one of the Eccentric Times team said "we need a humorous name for this section, something like Tranquilised Tim". While this was meant as an example name, and not necessarily a proposal, the other members of the team found it amusing so we went with it.

However, choosing a name for the magazine was a lot less straightforward. We had literally pages of proposed names, none of which seemed quite right. Proposals included The Mental Elf, A Little Less Conversation... We Want Action (inspired by Adam's love for Elvis Presley) and The Underfunded Times.

In the end though we got so fed up with the whole naming process that, when The Eccentric Times was proposed, everyone said yes, even though some of us (it would be revealed much later) quietly weren’t so keen on it at the time. Still despite the initial reservations of some, everyone now agrees that it worked well.

When considering the format of the magazine I had, at one time, had the bizarre idea that it should be crammed into two sides of A4 paper as I felt it would appear “more militant”. I think it’s fair to say that this was not one of my better ideas and it now embarrasses me that I ever thought it in the first place! J Anyway it would have been very impractical as sometimes we have gone all the way up to 10 pages (or in the case of this issue - 12 pages)!

Some of the biggest problems in getting this magazine produced have been technology related. While the content of the magazine may considered to be cutting edge, the technology used to produce it was anything but! Due to computer problems we lost the mailing list on two separate occasions and had lots of problems with printing!

And while most of the stuff in the magazine was a success there were one or two things that never quite took off. What’s Your Burning Issue and The Bucks Bunny were both good ideas in theory, but sadly we did not get the level of reader interaction required for them to work.

And while Tranquilised Tim may seem to be acid-tongued and unashamed to speak his mind, it may be of interest for you to know that, on three different occasions, bits from his articles have had to either be removed or amended as they were deemed a bit too inflammatory to print! One such occasion was when Tim likened some staff at residential homes to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. While this was intended to be aimed at the minority of residential staff that are bullies, there were concerns that this bit would be easily misconstrued to be an attack on all residential staff (which wasn’t our intention at all). The other two examples we can’t tell you about for fear of litigation! J

Even though I’m personally resolutely left-wing, the highlight for me was when we got invited to meet up with the Buckingham Conservative MP John Bercow, who was pleasant and courteous and took a genuine interest in all we had to say about the state of the Mental Health System. It has also been gratifying to see all the local positive feedback and critical acclaim we’ve received – sometimes even from staff within the Mental Health System (remember - some of them are just as frustrated with the state of affairs as we are).

So if this magazine has been that well received then why is it coming to an end? Well one of the main reasons is that we feel that, if we go on much longer, we run the risk of repeating ourselves. We feel that we've made the points that we wanted to and that rehashing the same arguments again and again would be a waste of time.

Changes in direction were proposed but unfortunately we were unable to agree on what that direction should be. It should be noted however that there has been absolutely no falling out between members of the team, even when there have been differences of opinion about the content, we have discussed and resolved it in a civilized manner without a single person feeling distressed or needing to raise their voice.

Still this might not be the last time you hear from some of the writers. Myself and Adam are both interested in contributing to the Bucks Mind newsletter, but unfortunately at this point in time its future  seems pretty unclear.

As the Editor a lot of the credit for the magazine has been unduly attributed to me, but I cannot stress enough that the Eccentric Times is not and never has been a one man show.

Paul has consistently produced high calibre, thought provoking articles. While being the quietest member of the team (something he touched upon himself in the last issue), when he has managed to get a word in his suggestions and feedback have always been of immense value.

Adam has always been a great source of suggestions and ideas, and has producing some deeply-touching articles, in which he has been brave enough to share personal details about his own condition and life.

Although Eve only started contributing articles to the magazine recently, she has always been there in the background attending meetings, contributing ideas, and providing much needed practical assistance (such as labelling and stuffing envelopes). And bless her, even though she said that her article in the previous issue would be her last, she found it in her to produce another one!

Danya was the person who had the initial vision for the magazine and has since played an invaluable part in a number of ways including: publicity, keeping us up to date with current issues (which has helped inspire many an article), and, most importantly, motivating us. She also makes a lovely cup of tea as well!

This magazine is living proof that staff (such as Danya) and service users can work together to achieve great things. It didn't matter to us one jot whether a member of the Eccentric Times team was a service user or not, all that we really cared about was whether they were passionate about the treatment and well-being of people battling against mental illness.

And last but not least Carolyn Smyth at Bucks Mind has always been a great supporter of the magazine and helped organise its printing and distribution (even sometimes going beyond the call of duty in personally delivering the magazine to some Bucks day centres).

I would also like to thank all of our guest contributors and anyone else who has helped in publicising, printing and distributing the magazine. Your assistance was and still is greatly appreciated.

My Closing Statement

While we have been critical of the Mental Health system in general, we do not want to be seen to be saying that all mental health workers are bad or incompetent; there are some good people out there that make a real and lasting difference in peoples' lives.

Yet nonetheless the truth of the matter is that people with mental health issues are still getting a raw deal. The main reason for this is because there is not enough money available to fund the staff needed to support them and, as a result, people are being discharged from mental health services when they are clearly not ready for it.

And focusing on treating serious problems when they occur rather than doing the necessary work to prevent them is a messier and ultimately more expensive way for a Mental Health service to operate. And it also hurts many service users because they are left to fend for themselves, and as a result get themselves in painful and humiliating situations.

And the recent spate of “reassessments” for people on benefits is despicable beyond words. People with genuine debilitating mental health issues are being deemed ready to return to work when anyone with half a brain can see that they are obviously not. The sad irony of the situation is that the real benefit cheats are usually able to bluff their way through these assessments, while the genuinely mentally ill person may not have the state of mind nor the eloquence to fully explain how serious their condition is.

Some of these people may appear “okay” on the surface but if you push them back in the working environment you will soon find that they are unable to hold down a job. This can be for a number of reasons,  including :

• Being unable to deal with stressful situations.
• Prejudice from others against mental illness.
• Irregular sleep patterns. 

And yes if it doesn’t work out their benefits may be protected for a certain length of time, but that doesn’t undo the likely emotional distress and damage to the person that the breakdown of the job causes.

But anyway, even if some of the subjects we have covered in The Eccentric Times have been serious and/or uncomfortable, we’ve all had a great time in producing this magazine and are proud of what we have achieved with it. And we’d like to thank everyone who has read and supported us over the last 2½  years – you’ve helped make it all the more worthwhile.