ABSTRACT

Clare Coutts is a mental health worker in Exeter, England, who's helping to facilitate survivor-run initiatives across the southwest region. By 2004, there are twenty-four hearing voices groups in that area, so it's a particularly exciting place to be starting new programs. The tourists thronging the picturesque villages of Devon and Cornwall have no idea they're in the midst of one of the major centers of the UK psychiatric survivor movement. Clare Coutts and Andrew Barkla, the mental health workers who are Mary Barstow's co-organizers, present the rationale for Extra Ordinary People. Their work is guided by an innovative framework that defines two kinds of expertise: that of professionals, called "experts by training", and the equally important group of "experts by experience". Mind in Exeter has become one of the leaders in the provision of training and consulting by "people qualified to teach through their life experiences and use of services", as its project brochure says prominently on its cover.