You, Who You Are, and Why You Matter

About Neil Deuchar

Neil is a recently retired consultant psychiatrist and senior health services director who lives in Stratford upon Avon with his children a piano a variety of guitars and lots of books. During his NHS career Neil introduced spirituality into mental health care created a values base for commissioning that encourages active participation of people with lived experience of mental illness led decision aids that address power imbalances between healthcare professionals and clientele advocated for the involvement of patients and carers in service delivery designed enterprises that enabled disadvantaged people to develop personal leadership and agency and campaigned for environmental financial and social sustainability in health and social care systems. Since retiring Neil has supported higher education in environmental engineering for indigenous communities in Ecuador given informal advice on collectivism for farmers in the Philippines undertaken outreach in remote villages in Northern Ghana and established a recording studio and production infrastructure for rap artists from all backgrounds in Accra. Following a more recent masters degree in theology at Birmingham University Neil is training to become a spiritual counsellor and interfaith minister and currently works voluntarily in the fields of conflict transformation peace-building and victim support. Neils two daughters are both activists (one in the arena of feminism the other in environmentalism) and his son is developing an interest in social education and human rights.