All in the Mind Folgen

All in the Mind has been following the progress a scheme called Think Ahead, which trains high-flying graduates to become a new generation of mental health social workers. A bit like Teach First, they are taught mostly on the job with a lot of special support. Not everyone in the field supports the idea but there has been no shortage of applicants. One of the first trainees, Charlotte Seymour who used to work in the legal field, is now based in east London where her clients' needs vary - from very practical help with sorting out rent arrears to emotional support when they fear their mental health is deteriorating. She met Emma during a stay in hospital, under section and her mental health is now vastly improved. But a family bereavement has affected her deeply. Despite not eating or sleeping for days she keeps her appointment with Charlotte to discuss how to keep herself safe at this difficult time. In our Insiders' Guide series - if you've been referred to mental health services, what can you expect to happen at that first appointment? Lisa Rodrigues who has had mental health issues herself and has long experience managing mental health services and Sri Kalidindi, a psychiatrist with South London and Maudsley NHS Trust explain what's involved. This includes building up a good rapport and the taking of a full medical history - including traumatic life events and social circumstances. This helps to establish a diagnosis. Making a list might help if you are anxious - but you should also be realistic as most problems aren't sorted out straight away. A mental illness might make you feel like you don't deserve help - but everyone does, so it's important to go along to that first appointment with an open mind. If you're not sure about something how do you make a decision? Who should you believe if you rely on others to help you decide? Researchers have found that if someone appears confident then we are likely to be influenced by them - our brains literally tune in to confident people. Psychologist Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn from the University of Sussex has scanned the brains of people and discovered that they assess the confidence of others using a specific part at the front of the brain, in the prefrontal cortex. He asked people to play a computer game - with a "virtual" jar of marbles - where the colour of the next one pulled out had to be predicted. Computer-generated faces - with more or less confident expressions - helped to influence their decisions.

We are all guilty of making instant unconscious decisions about other people. Could a greater awareness and a practical approach help to overcome this common hurdle at work?Claudia Hammond hosts a special edition recorded live in front of an audience at the Royal Institution in London to discuss something that happens to all of us - when our minds make snap judgments about other people without us even realising it. It's known as unconscious bias - it doesn't mean bias in any deliberate way. The whole point is that we don't even know it's happening. How does it play out in real life? Claudia Hammond is joined by a panel of experts to discuss what effect the bias in our decision making has on the lives of each and every one of us and what we can do about itTaking part are business psychologist Binna Kandola; Jessica Rowson, from the Institute of Physics who's been examining why more girls don't choose to study physics at school; Emma Chapman, a Royal Astronomical Society fellow; and Louise Archer, Professor of Sociology of Education at King's College London.

Whether you're seeing a psychiatrist, a psychologist or another kind of therapist, the tradition has been that the information all goes one way. Professional boundaries tend to be closely guarded, but social media is changing all that. A quick search online might tell you all sorts about a therapist. Should you engage in this kind of cyber snooping and how about the other way round? Claudia Hammond speaks with Louise Chunn, the founder of welldoing.org, an online directory of independent counsellors and psychotherapists and Susanna Hailstone-Walker, a psychotherapist.How can you overcome performance anxiety? For musicians and music students performing in front of audiences and audition panels, the experience can be terrifying. But this is where a digital simulation of the event could help. We visit the Royal College of Music where researchers have designed a concert hall which even includes a nerve-racking waiting area, and grim-faced judges reacting on a screen, to give students a chance to experience what it's like and to try putting the coping skills they've learnt into practice. The next in our insiders' guide to getting the best out of your mental health services asks what can you do if you're worried about the mental health of someone you know, but they don't want to go for help.We tend to think of the descent into corruption as a slippery slope where people do one small thing wrong and then gradually it gets more serious. But psychologists in the Netherlands have discovered that people are more likely to engage in corruption when there's a big reward and a sudden opportunity, than to do it bit by bit. Nils Kobis from the University of Amsterdam explains.Producer: Adrian Washbourne.