Neil
Neil Quinn has a background in community development, social work, public health, and academia. He has experience running programmes designed to combat stigma around mental health and promote artistic practices.
Name: Neil Quinn
Years: 2000s – Present
Neil Quinn has a background in community development, social work, public health, and academia. He has experience running programmes designed to combat stigma around mental health and promote artistic practices.
Neil speaks about his experience organising these programs and promoting artistic identities. He also touches on funding and how his work has transitioned over the course of his time in the field.
Excerpts:
“I think people enjoyed not just being seen as someone with long-term mental health problems but as a visual artist or a creative writer. So it was giving people another identity. I think that was important.”
“You know, if I go to a conference, for instance, on mental health… it often doesn’t engage me in the issue of mental health. Whereas, you know, I go to a powerful play or I hear an amazing poem, then that really resonates with my experience of mental health … It opens up your insides.”