Claudia Hammond launches the 2021 All in the Mind Awards – a chance for anyone who has received help for a mental health problem to recognise the people and organisations who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

1 in 3 of us will experience problems with our mental health at some time in our lives. Help and support from people around us can make all the difference in how we cope day to day and set us on the road to recovery. Between now and the end of January 2021 the Radio 4 All in the Mind Awards are seeking listeners’ experiences of brilliant mental health care and will recognise the people – the unsung heroes - who helped make the difference.

There are 3 categories for the awards, the individual, professional or project:

Individual Award : An individual family member, friend, boss or colleague who offered significant support.
Professional Award: A mental health professional whose dedication, help and support made a really significant difference to you. This could be a psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, nurse, volunteer or other professional.
Project Award: A mental health project or group you took part in, either in person or online, which made a big difference to your recovery or the way you cope.

The winners of the awards will be announced during a ceremony to be held in London in June 2021.

Have you ever wondered what therapists are thinking while people sit opposite them telling them their innermost thoughts? Psychotherapist Philippa Perry discusses her graphic novel Couch Fiction which describes what actually happens during therapy. This can help many of us to understand the therapeutic process better.

And we hear of a really simple way of raising achievement levels in teenagers in disadvantaged groups – by giving them three short writing exercises, taking just 15 minutes each. It might sound a little too simple. But preliminary research by Ian Hadden at the University of Sussex suggests it could have a profound effect.

Producer Adrian Washbourne