Ex-mental health chief's depression
Updated on 22 June 2007
A former mental health trust chief has talked of his battle against alcoholism and depression.
Lionel Joyce, one of the country's leading mental health professionals, said he wanted to remove the stigma that such illnesses still hold for many people.
He ran mental health services in Newcastle upon Tyne while receiving treatment for his conditions and said his experiences as a patient helped him as a leader.
Mr Joyce was named on Thursday as one of seven members of the new Public Guardian Board, which protects people with mental health problems.
At the beginning of his NHS career, as an admin assistant, he drank heavily and was at times suicidal.
His depression led to a nine-month spell in a psychiatric hospital when he was 24.
In 1975 he had his last drink and still attends three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week.
He ran three Nottingham hospitals - Highbury Hospital in 1979, then Mapperley and Saxondale Hospitals, which specialised in psychiatry. He was headhunted to Newcastle in 1985 and ran the city's mental health services with a staff of 3,000 and a budget of £100 million.
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2000, the same year he stepped down as trust chief when it was merged with another.
The father of three said: "I set up groups of patients to help the trust to do its job and I always identified myself as somebody who had been a patient and used services. I thought it was very important to say that to the patients and staff.
"We had a staff of 3,000 and a lot will have had a mental illness."
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
