We were delighted to present at the Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI) conference in Cork this November on “Supporting People in Distress: Critical Perspectives on Safe Places and Spaces.”

Our talk, “Stars Will Shine and Curious Minds Will Find a Way: Creating Brave Spaces for Healing”, carried the heart of the New Script for Mental Health campaign message.

Our key messages:

1. The Hard Truth: Systems Still Harm

People in distress and the staff trying to help them are being harmed by fear, shame, and bureaucracy. We played our “No More Ticking Boxes” song, launched for us by singer songwriter Damien Dempsey in the MAC Belfast in August 2025. That song was inspired by Kirsty Scott and Mary Gould, two mothers in the campaign who have lost their precious sons, William and Conall, because of systemic failures in mental health services, and who are fighting to secure truth and accountability. We also extended our solidarity to everyone still struggling without access to the support they deserve.

“Overwhelmed and dysfunctional systems of care cannot create safety.”

One activist shared that as a LGBTQI+ person, she has had to brace herself before every new service, wondering: “Will I be judged? Turned away?” Another spoke of the profound trauma of being sectioned, and fear of it happening again “They have all the power. All you are doing is trying to get out of them. How is this meant to heal you?” A third activist spoke as a professional working within these systems. That the culture can be equally damaging, leading to exhaustion, overwhelming powerlessness, and vicarious and secondary trauma: “Overwhelmed and dysfunctional systems of care cannot create safety.”

2. Why we need A New Script

We need a different conversation. Not just funding for more of the same. The history of psychiatry has culminated in the modern system's tendency to depoliticise, privatise, and pathologise suffering, reframing distress as an individual flaw rather than acknowledging its social causes. As activists who have spent years fighting for change concluded: “It prioritizes bureaucracy over humanity, relying on the futile practice of "ticking boxes" instead of delivering accessible, safe, and humane care. Healing starts with connection that feels safe enough. See the person, not the label. Listen with curiosity, not judgment.”

Through our Give 5: Steps to a Wellbeing Rights Framework we are calling for:

• Community-led, rights-based alternatives: peer respite, real choice, less coercion, and overmedication.

• Government and services finally connecting distress to its causes, poverty, discrimination, violence, abuse, homelessness, isolation. Showing leadership and acting to prevent further harm.

3. Activism is healing

The learning from campaigning together is that at the heart of the healing power of activism are the following:

• Speaking truth to power together.

• Finding voice with others who genuinely care.

• Turning pain into shared meaning and action.

• Replacing disconnection with community and connection.

Creativity and storytelling in safe enough spaces where people feel held and supported are antidotes to silencing, stigma and shame. As one activist said, “Creativity saved my life when nothing else worked.” We call them brave spaces because showing up, speaking out, and holding systems accountable takes courage and solidarity. Caring for each-other first and knowing you don’t have to do it alone, sustains people.

We ended with this invitation: Let us create spaces where people do not have to brace themselves before speaking. Let us be safe, brave people, creating safe, brave spaces. We can heal and grow together. Let's write a new script, together.