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On the Brink: Stories of harm and healing from a lifetime in psychiatry
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'Deeply thoughtful and compassionate ... Don't Turn Away is a fine book and is accessible for the seasoned psychiatrist and general reader alike.' The British Journal of Psychiatry
As Featured on BBC Woman's Hour
'Deeply thoughtful and compassionate' Susie Orbach, author of In Therapy
'A book with the power to move and inform . . . [Campling] is an expert in "intelligent kindness".' Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know
'Fantastic new book from Penny Campling - 5 stars' Dr Kate Lovett, former Dean, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Over the course of her 40-year career, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Penelope Campling has worked with patients from all walks of life, from survivors of abuse to ICU doctors struggling under the strain of Covid-19. She has seen many positive changes in how we approach mental health – and yet she is increasingly troubled by the state of our health services. Too often those suffering from serious mental illness are being neglected, locked away, even abused.
In Don't Turn Away Campling takes us into the therapy room, offering unique insight into how we treat those in distress. She shows us how the progress made in a more optimistic era of psychiatry is fast being eroded; how our struggling healthcare system often fails those who need our support; and how crucial it is in today's uncertain world that we do not turn away.
Candid, compassionate and, above all, hopeful, Don't Turn Away is a story of troubled minds and how we try to heal them. '[An] insightful, important book . . . an exhibition of what could be possible and an invitation to act to deliver that vision.' Kathryn Mannix, author of Listen
'A lucid and much-needed articulation of the frustration shared by so many struggling to keep the NHS afloat' Iona Heath, BMJ
'As a GP I wish I could send patients to Penelope Campling; as someone worried about failing mental health services, I wish she were in charge.' Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being
'An important book, moving and honest… stands out in its field of psychotherapist memoirs' Beth Guilding, TLS
'This book oozes compassion and kindness and made me want to be a more understanding doctor.' Kate Milton, British Journal of GP Practice
'Deeply thoughtful and compassionate ... Don't Turn Away is a fine book and is accessible for the seasoned psychiatrist and general reader alike.' The British Journal of Psychiatry
As Featured on BBC Woman's Hour
'Deeply thoughtful and compassionate' Susie Orbach, author of In Therapy
'A book with the power to move and inform . . . [Campling] is an expert in "intelligent kindness".' Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know
'Fantastic new book from Penny Campling - 5 stars' Dr Kate Lovett, former Dean, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Over the course of her 40-year career, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Penelope Campling has worked with patients from all walks of life, from survivors of abuse to ICU doctors struggling under the strain of Covid-19. She has seen many positive changes in how we approach mental health – and yet she is increasingly troubled by the state of our health services. Too often those suffering from serious mental illness are being neglected, locked away, even abused.
In Don't Turn Away Campling takes us into the therapy room, offering unique insight into how we treat those in distress. She shows us how the progress made in a more optimistic era of psychiatry is fast being eroded; how our struggling healthcare system often fails those who need our support; and how crucial it is in today's uncertain world that we do not turn away.
Candid, compassionate and, above all, hopeful, Don't Turn Away is a story of troubled minds and how we try to heal them. '[An] insightful, important book . . . an exhibition of what could be possible and an invitation to act to deliver that vision.' Kathryn Mannix, author of Listen
'A lucid and much-needed articulation of the frustration shared by so many struggling to keep the NHS afloat' Iona Heath, BMJ
'As a GP I wish I could send patients to Penelope Campling; as someone worried about failing mental health services, I wish she were in charge.' Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being
'An important book, moving and honest… stands out in its field of psychotherapist memoirs' Beth Guilding, TLS
'This book oozes compassion and kindness and made me want to be a more understanding doctor.' Kate Milton, British Journal of GP Practice
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 28, 2022
20 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 10, 2022
This is a difficult read but also a must-read, a copy should be sent to every MP in the country.
September 28, 2022
Don't Turn Away: Stories of Troubled Minds in Fractured Times by Penelope Campling
I finished this book as another sad and timely story broke about abuse in mental health facilities and the heavy feelings and despair at the structures of the NHS and health facilities in the UK (as well as wider society) felt very real.
This book was deeply moving, fascinating and stark as Campling recounts with real sensitivity her 40 year career as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. I learnt a lot about mental health treatments and structures, learning about therapeutic communities which I never knew existed. Campling's time in the NHS spans an important era of mental health treatment as she saw the closure of old asylum-style hospitals and moved to "modern treatments".
Campling is mindful of patient and clinician confidentiality and anonymity and changes names/markers to remove identities but still delivers personal and stark stories. This is by no means an easy book and I read it over a couple of months as it discusses suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, abuse, severe mental health issues to name a few of the triggers. However, I did find light and hope in Campling's manner, in the work and victories she had and it made me reflect on my own personal circumstances.
This is a book I wish every MP would read, every person running the NHS, local councillors and more. To start those discussions about the funding for and the treatment of those suffering with their mental health. Cannot recommend this enough for those that feel capable of picking it up! Thank you so much to publisher for the copy.
I finished this book as another sad and timely story broke about abuse in mental health facilities and the heavy feelings and despair at the structures of the NHS and health facilities in the UK (as well as wider society) felt very real.
This book was deeply moving, fascinating and stark as Campling recounts with real sensitivity her 40 year career as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. I learnt a lot about mental health treatments and structures, learning about therapeutic communities which I never knew existed. Campling's time in the NHS spans an important era of mental health treatment as she saw the closure of old asylum-style hospitals and moved to "modern treatments".
Campling is mindful of patient and clinician confidentiality and anonymity and changes names/markers to remove identities but still delivers personal and stark stories. This is by no means an easy book and I read it over a couple of months as it discusses suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, abuse, severe mental health issues to name a few of the triggers. However, I did find light and hope in Campling's manner, in the work and victories she had and it made me reflect on my own personal circumstances.
This is a book I wish every MP would read, every person running the NHS, local councillors and more. To start those discussions about the funding for and the treatment of those suffering with their mental health. Cannot recommend this enough for those that feel capable of picking it up! Thank you so much to publisher for the copy.
August 9, 2022
My review is on my website https://bookread2day.wordpress.com/20...
In Don’t Turn Away Penelope takes us into the therapy room, offering a unique insight how we treat those in distress. She shows us how the progress made in a more hopeful era of psychiatry is fast being eroded, how our struggling healthcare system often fails those who need our support , and how crucial it is today’s uncertain world that we do not turn away.
Penelope a psychiatrist see a doctor who was exhausted working in an intensive care unit with Covid-19 patients he had thought of suicide.
Penelope then see an ICU doctor who used to love his job , but now dreads going to work, knowing that his staffing shortage have become so much that standards were dropping to a dangerous level and he couldn’t bear the thought of taking any time off and leaving his colleagues with even more pressure.
Penelope takes us through what it was like for nearly forty years ago as a junior psychiatrist in a mental asylum the Towers, in one of two Victorian asylums in Leicester. It was an institution where she found patients that had been locked away and forgotten for years. In the asylum she came across some cases of moral injury that can lead to feelings of guilt, disgust and anger, sometimes leading to suicidal thoughts. She stayed there until it closed.
It is now since asylums have closed and the impact of hospital beds reduced, that we find people with mental illness end up in prison or homeless.
I think that since Covid–19 more and more people are struggling with mental health issues than ever before. I think that we need more psychiatrists on hand to treat and help those who are suffering from mental health illnesses.
It’s not just adults, it’s children and the medical team that need the mental health services. But it is the Health ministers that let those people down without enough help as all the Health ministers do is talk about giving more money for the mental health services, but it never happens.
Anyone who reads this book will understand that Penelope loves her job and I give full praise to all psychiatrists that help people with things that are troubling them.
Who should read this book patients, clinicians, politicians and us the ordinary people. Penelope Campling has done a marvellous job in describing what her job entails and being honest about the kind of people she has had to help.
We all know now that there is a shortage of doctors and nurses, and now I can see why now after reading this book Don’t Turn Away, that doctors and nurses are in need help with the pressure that’s getting to them and with their own mental health illness.
In Don’t Turn Away Penelope takes us into the therapy room, offering a unique insight how we treat those in distress. She shows us how the progress made in a more hopeful era of psychiatry is fast being eroded, how our struggling healthcare system often fails those who need our support , and how crucial it is today’s uncertain world that we do not turn away.
Penelope a psychiatrist see a doctor who was exhausted working in an intensive care unit with Covid-19 patients he had thought of suicide.
Penelope then see an ICU doctor who used to love his job , but now dreads going to work, knowing that his staffing shortage have become so much that standards were dropping to a dangerous level and he couldn’t bear the thought of taking any time off and leaving his colleagues with even more pressure.
Penelope takes us through what it was like for nearly forty years ago as a junior psychiatrist in a mental asylum the Towers, in one of two Victorian asylums in Leicester. It was an institution where she found patients that had been locked away and forgotten for years. In the asylum she came across some cases of moral injury that can lead to feelings of guilt, disgust and anger, sometimes leading to suicidal thoughts. She stayed there until it closed.
It is now since asylums have closed and the impact of hospital beds reduced, that we find people with mental illness end up in prison or homeless.
I think that since Covid–19 more and more people are struggling with mental health issues than ever before. I think that we need more psychiatrists on hand to treat and help those who are suffering from mental health illnesses.
It’s not just adults, it’s children and the medical team that need the mental health services. But it is the Health ministers that let those people down without enough help as all the Health ministers do is talk about giving more money for the mental health services, but it never happens.
Anyone who reads this book will understand that Penelope loves her job and I give full praise to all psychiatrists that help people with things that are troubling them.
Who should read this book patients, clinicians, politicians and us the ordinary people. Penelope Campling has done a marvellous job in describing what her job entails and being honest about the kind of people she has had to help.
We all know now that there is a shortage of doctors and nurses, and now I can see why now after reading this book Don’t Turn Away, that doctors and nurses are in need help with the pressure that’s getting to them and with their own mental health illness.
August 4, 2022
Powerful read. RTC
February 13, 2024
Having just resigned from my job in community mental health, this was a book that I was deeply interested to read.
Written by a psychiatrist and psychotherapist with decades of experience, both in the NHS and in private practice, Penelope Campling tells it like it is.
From asylums to therapeutic communities, we've seen services decimated since the 80s and with referrals ever rising, it is the whole of the world that suffers as the effects ripple out.
Lack of beds for acute patients, lack of staff due to rising levels of sickness, or problems recruiting and retaining - is it any wonder people are rapidly losing hope and faith that there is any help out there at all.
Full of common sense suggestions from someone who's worked on the front line, I really respected her words. This wasn't just a glimpse into individual patients, but more, examples were given of certain themes in mental health. Whether that be generational or collective trauma, the effect of unresolved or current grief, suicide, eating disorders as well as less understood conditions.
While it cannot be denied that things are quite bleak currently, there is still a hint of what we can do collectively to help ourselves and each other to make a better world.
Written by a psychiatrist and psychotherapist with decades of experience, both in the NHS and in private practice, Penelope Campling tells it like it is.
From asylums to therapeutic communities, we've seen services decimated since the 80s and with referrals ever rising, it is the whole of the world that suffers as the effects ripple out.
Lack of beds for acute patients, lack of staff due to rising levels of sickness, or problems recruiting and retaining - is it any wonder people are rapidly losing hope and faith that there is any help out there at all.
Full of common sense suggestions from someone who's worked on the front line, I really respected her words. This wasn't just a glimpse into individual patients, but more, examples were given of certain themes in mental health. Whether that be generational or collective trauma, the effect of unresolved or current grief, suicide, eating disorders as well as less understood conditions.
While it cannot be denied that things are quite bleak currently, there is still a hint of what we can do collectively to help ourselves and each other to make a better world.
July 28, 2022
Firstly I wish to thank the lovely folk at Elliot & Thompson for sending me a copy of this brilliantly written, exceptionally eye opening and thoroughly thought provoking and confronting book with a request for an open and honest review.
The author, Penelope Campling, has worked as a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist for 40 years. In that time she has seen her fair share of difficulties in how mental health is seen and dealt with in NHS Healthcare settings.
The book, very respectfully, discusses many people who Dr Campling has come into contact with during her time in healthcare. The case studies are, at times, quite difficult and sometimes very uncomfortable to read. I saw a comment from another reviewer who said that a copy of this book should be sent to every MP in the land. I’m not sure I could agree with that statement any more if I tried.
An exceptionally well written account of a Dr’s experience of the changing landscape of Mental Health Care over the last 40 years.
Mental Health should never be stigmatised and people with mental health issues/illnesses/disorders should be cared for, respected and treated like human beings. They should never be treated as lesser or unimportant because of perceived stigma surrounding their illnesses. This book illustrates that fact in a very eloquent, but also matter-of-fact way.
A book I would highly recommend. But I would also give the advice to go in with an open mind and an even more open heart.
The author, Penelope Campling, has worked as a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist for 40 years. In that time she has seen her fair share of difficulties in how mental health is seen and dealt with in NHS Healthcare settings.
The book, very respectfully, discusses many people who Dr Campling has come into contact with during her time in healthcare. The case studies are, at times, quite difficult and sometimes very uncomfortable to read. I saw a comment from another reviewer who said that a copy of this book should be sent to every MP in the land. I’m not sure I could agree with that statement any more if I tried.
An exceptionally well written account of a Dr’s experience of the changing landscape of Mental Health Care over the last 40 years.
Mental Health should never be stigmatised and people with mental health issues/illnesses/disorders should be cared for, respected and treated like human beings. They should never be treated as lesser or unimportant because of perceived stigma surrounding their illnesses. This book illustrates that fact in a very eloquent, but also matter-of-fact way.
A book I would highly recommend. But I would also give the advice to go in with an open mind and an even more open heart.
July 30, 2022
I found this book really interesting. it's a topic very close to my heart.
I really enjoyed the look back at mental health throughout history. It was interesting to see what has changed, and what really really hasn't.
I have read lots of books on mental health, but none like this - it's coming from a really unique place, and looks at mental health at a slightly different angle. It's not a self-help book, it's not an advice book, it's not even a memoir but it's all of those things and more!
Really interesting, really intriguing! Now to find more books like this!
I really enjoyed the look back at mental health throughout history. It was interesting to see what has changed, and what really really hasn't.
I have read lots of books on mental health, but none like this - it's coming from a really unique place, and looks at mental health at a slightly different angle. It's not a self-help book, it's not an advice book, it's not even a memoir but it's all of those things and more!
Really interesting, really intriguing! Now to find more books like this!
October 2, 2022
For some reason this took me a very long time to read. I kept putting it down for a long time before giving it another go, and I don’t know whether it was the subject matter, but I’ve read similar books without issues.
It’s an interesting read with various cases the author has dealt with over her years as a psychiatrist based in Leicester. I feel maybe it was a bit longer than I would have liked, and reading it on my Kindle probably didn’t help with that.
I’d still recommend it and think it was a good read.
It’s an interesting read with various cases the author has dealt with over her years as a psychiatrist based in Leicester. I feel maybe it was a bit longer than I would have liked, and reading it on my Kindle probably didn’t help with that.
I’d still recommend it and think it was a good read.
May 17, 2023
I think this is an important book, addressing the failures of the mental health system at a systemic level and logical level. My only struggle with the book was that it seemed to just be pushing the idea of therapeutic communities as the solution.
July 28, 2025
3.5 stars ⭐️ - It didn’t feel like there was a novel main message of the book (maybe that’s because I’ve read similar work!) it’s more of a reflective piece of work on the authors time in psychiatry, which was interesting to read about
September 21, 2025
Brilliant read. Well balanced view of both positives and negatives working in psychiatric care. Personal experiences yet written in such a way general understanding can be taken to understand holistically the mental health sector. Should be a most read for anyone looking to go into the profession.
April 18, 2023
Another book about how the nhs is going to shit. Overall good though.
August 8, 2023
I loved this book. Fascinating and depressing but such a huge insight into systemic and ideological holes in our mental health system
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews