Accessible, entertaining and ultimately optimistic, this book deserves to become a core text for planners, managers and all those working in the field’ – Cathy Pelikan. How do psychiatric patients understand their difficulties? What do they say about professionals paid to care for them? Do they really get treated well and enjoy informed consent? These are some of the questions answered by Experiencing Psychiatry. For the first time in Britain this book offers evidence from a large survey of the views of users of psychiatric services. The picture which emerges may surprise readers who have no experience of psychiatry. It will stimulate debate amongst those who make and deliver mental health policy. In particular it challenges the existing model of care and raises wider questions about citizenship for those with mental health problems.