Breakthrough is a toolkit for turning hopelessness into success sadness into deep joy and
stigmatisation into fuel for positively transforming others' lives. Please please please read
this inspirational book--it will change your life. Professor Ged Byrne MBE Consultant Surgeon
and Director of Global Health at NHS England Ahmed Hankir has given us a gift--a true
Breakthrough. This timely book reminds us that mental health 'flaws' can be tools: that
vulnerability and shared humanity can be deployed to heal our fellow wounded travelers. Andrés
Martin MD PhD Professor Yale Child Study Center and Medical Director Children's
Psychiatric Inpatient Service at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital Connecticut USA There is
no health without mental health. We all know that people with mental illness deserve relief
from their suffering but why do so many of us remain reluctant to seek treatment and help?
Defeat the stigma. You deserve to be healthy. In Breakthrough World Health Organization
Award-Winning psychiatrist former psychiatric patient and mental health advocate Dr Ahmed
Hankir delivers a unique and powerful insight into mental health and wellness mental illness
mental health treatment and the culture surrounding mental health by tracing his own personal
recovery journey from impoverished and shunned psychiatric patient to becoming an NHS
Consultant Psychiatrist. The book explores many of the issues currently dominating the
discussion of mental health and illness including the impacts of poverty unemployment
homelessness the use of medication to treat mental illness the widespread prevalence of
stigma discrimination and racism in mental health and much more. Breakthrough is a resource of
hope and a companion for people suffering in silence who feel isolated and disconnected from
society. The take home messages are clear: living with a mental health condition is nothing to
be ashamed about and with the right support recovery is a reality for the many and not the
few.
