Jean Johnston
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As a former carer of mental illness, Jean Johnston writes, advises and gives talks on mental health awareness issues such as self harm, depression, psychosis, recovery and the role of the carer. As an independent campaigner she promotes the importance of maintaining good psychiatric care both within the community and hospital settings.
Having spent over 2 years working with, as well as monitoring social websites such as Facebook, Bebo etc with regard to mental health issues, Jean raises awareness not just of the benefits but also the many problems, risks and dangers which occur on the internet. These issues involve codependency, the high prevalence of suicide/self harm/aneroxia etc and where there can be the serious risks of harm and damage from many of the thousands of groups/pages on Facebook which provide 'peer support'. This concern is now being voiced by mental health professions/charities and government agencies about such groups where people can claim to be 'professional/trained' but are unregulated. She now advises government agencies and charities on the perils of social networking - including the frequency of exploitation, manipulation and subversive activity. She also works with politicians, the medical profession, mental health organisations/charities, and the media regarding mental illness and its issues.
She is author of To Walk on Eggshells : is to care for mental illness"There is no health without mental health" - Wellscotland
