St Mary's Supports Mental Wealth Festival

St Mary’s University, Twickenham has given its support to the Mental Wealth Festival, which runs from 16^th to 17th September. The festival will host events in the Houses of Parliament, City Lit and other central London venues. As well as sponsoring the event, two St Mary’s academics, Fiona Wilson and Dr Carole Murphy, will deliver talks to attendees on their specialist research areas. On Thursday 17th September, Dr Carole Murphy will speak on Survivors of Trafficking: shame, stigma and mental health, exploring the issue of stigma and those who have been trafficked upon rehabilitation. Meanwhile, Fiona Wilson will give a talk on Emotional Intelligence & the impact on mental wealth. The Mental Wealth Festival brings together a wide range of partners who are passionate about supporting people’s mental wellbeing. The festival will highlight the way mental health issues impact on so many aspects of daily life, and how the arts, politics, culture, faith and the media can support our ‘mental wealth’. Dr Carole Murphy is Programme Director Sociology and Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at St Mary’s. Carole’s teaching is informed by her PhD research, including the construction of social problems, the criminalisation of social problems, and confronting stigma and social exclusion in recovery from addiction. Fiona Wilson is a lecturer on the Secondary English PGCE and School Direct Programmes and the undergraduate work-based learning programme specialising in Education. Other key partners of the festival include the Cathedral Education Centre, an international charitable trust, and Beyond Words, a charity that produces books, eBooks and other resources for people who find it easier to understand pictures than words. The festival is free to attend and the full programme can be found here.