David Armes is a mental health service-user, a survivor of severe mental distress and a survivor of some unpleasant pharmaceutical decisions taken by psychiatrists. He has a BA (Hons) 1st Class Politics with Sociology, and a PhD in mental health related social policy.
Whilst David accepts ‘survivor’, as well as ‘service-user’, status he regards the treatment with medications he has received over the last 15 plus years as successful in numbing his mind and body enough to function as a student and part-time paid research worker. Unfortunately for him he could not really do much else during this time.
He sees this as the problem with mental health services, since he has found it a really hard battle to get anyone to see beyond a severe mental illness diagnosis, and thinks that the kinds of services which eventually helped him feel more confident should have been provided much earlier in his psychiatric career.
Mainly for this reason, David is supporting the In-Sight social enterprise since it will be an opportunity for new ideas, about what recovery techniques work best, to be piloted and thus hopefully end up as an alternative and/or addition to standard NHS services.
David has participated in self-management and recovery research since the turn of the Millennium. He has worked with Rethink, and organised a conference to showcase the innovatory work of Strategies for Living. Between 2006 and 2007 he was employed as a Senior Research Fellow in Chronic Disease Management with the University of Bedfordshire, and most recently worked at the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London.
PUBLICATIONS
Armes.D. (2009). ‘‘Getting Better – In Theory’ : Creating and then using, a Foucauldian service-user/survivor theoretical standpoint in my own journey of ‘recovery’.’ In A. Sweeney, P.Beresford, A. Faulkner, M. Nettle, and D. Rose (eds.) This is Survivor Research (Ross-on-Wye : PCCS Books).
click on this link to download David’s chapter  survivor_research_ch_14_david_armes1-25-06-09
Armes, D. (2009). Mission informed discursive tactics of British Service-User/Survivor Movement (BUSM) resistance to formalisation pressures accompanying contractual relationships with purchasing authorities. Journal of Mental Health (currently published online with JoMH website – a journal article will follow later this year).
Oliver, S., Armes, D & Gyte, G. (2009). ‘Public involvement influences a national research agenda’ The Patient (confirmation has been received that publication is due this year).
Armes, D. (2007). If you have a dream - try and follow it. In J.Burnham (ed). ‘Recovery Booklet’ (Hatfield : University of Hertfordshire Centre for Mental Health Recovery).
Armes, D., Randhawa, G. (2007). Not quite forgotten draft report of a New Deal for Communities Estate mental health needs assessment (Luton: University of Bedfordshire).
Oliver, S., Armes, D., Gyte, G. (2006) Evaluation of public Influence on the NHS Health Technology Assessment programme: Final report. (London: Social Science Research Unit / Institute of Education).
Armes, D. (2006) Enablement and Exploitation: the Contradictory Potential of Community Care Policy for Mental Health Services User/Survivor-led Groups. Unpublished University of Luton Doctoral Thesis.
