Ahead of a special event, best-selling author, stand-up and consultant psychiatrist Benji Waterhouse shares the realities of working in psychiatric care, and using comedy to lighten the load.
When Benji Waterhouse (Medicine 2010) informed a consultant surgeon he planned to specialise in psychiatry, he was told it was a waste of a perfectly good doctor.
“It’s not a popular specialism,” says Benji. “Whereas other medical disciplines are more black and white, there are no easy answers in psychiatry. You’ve got to be a lot more creative, there's a lot of grey areas, but that suits me.
“I grew up in a very loving but dysfunctional family, so I was also hoping to get the cheat codes to fix them.”
And did he? “No, I’m still looking for those,” he laughs.
A natural affiliation to the arts drew Benji to writing and stand-up comedy alongside his career in the NHS. Now a Sunday Times bestselling author and an award-winning comic, he uses humour to shine a light on the realities of mental health services. “It’s also therapeutic for me,” he says. “Humour gives light in the darkness.”
He returns to Leeds for a special event on 12 November, where he’ll take a laugh-out-loud look at the realities of working on a psychiatric ward and navigating the modern NHS.
Writing about a taboo subject like psychiatry wouldn’t have got the readership without jokes.
On his first day on a psychiatric ward, Benji watched a consultant psychiatrist discharge a patient who was thinking of jumping from her bedroom window. The risk wasn’t high enough to keep her in hospital because she only lived on the second floor.
"Psychiatric beds have gone down from 70,000 in the 1980s to less than 20,000 now," he says. "My initial experience was living those numbers, and it was a shock. You go into a caring profession, and you’re forced to look for creative ways not to offer care because you’re drowning in referrals.
"It's a harsh transition from studying. I had a fantastic time at Leeds. I learnt and experienced so much, and it set me up for my career. But the textbooks often tell you if you get the diagnosis right, prescribe the right treatment, the patient will walk off into the sunset. The reality is more complicated.”
Now a consultant, Benji feels things have only got harder in psychiatric care. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, where mental health services receive around 9% of the NHS budget, mental illness accounts for over 20% of the disease burden. “There’s raised awareness around neurodivergence, and more people coming forward for help, but the services are shrinking. You’re endlessly having to do more with less, and more and more staff are leaving.”
Stand-up comedy gave Benji a way of dealing with the burden of the role, but also an opportunity to give a voice to those he sees in his day job.
“My parents had always wanted me to pursue a sensible career, and that was medicine,” Benji says. “I took the hit for my three younger brothers who were allowed to do more creative jobs – one’s a chef, one’s an artist and one’s a jeweller. But going into comedy gave me my creative fix in the end.”
He first discovered stand-up as a Leeds student, enjoying regular comedy nights at Hyde Park Book Club and the Original Oak. He studied a course in comedy in London, and began performing soon after. Benji combines humour with storytelling, and often reads chapters of his books to the audience.
“Writing about a taboo subject like psychiatry wouldn’t have got the readership without jokes. I road tested my book through the stand-up. The audience acts as a very brutal but helpful editor.
“I enjoy performing it. It’s such a great artform because you can try out your idea at a gig and there’s a pure immediacy to it.”
His debut book, You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here: A Psychiatrist’s Life, was described by one critic as “a book every government minister should read”.
“I’m not sure they did,” Benji laughs. “But people know about the crisis now – not necessarily because of my book, but it adds to the narrative.
“I’m very honest because I also think anyone entering the profession should be aware of the challenges. Many of those are ethical. You’re one of the only doctors who can violate human rights on a daily basis by sectioning people and forcing them to take medicines when they don’t want to.”
With his first book optioned for television by the BBC, Benji is now working on his second publication. Despite his growing success outside of the hospital, and the challenging environment within, Benji isn’t going anywhere. “I would never leave the NHS. It’s hard, but there is value in not giving up on people.”
Further information
Register to attend Benji’s special event on campus at 6pm on 12 November.
For further information, email Ed Newbould, Digital Communications Officer at the University of Leeds, at e.w.newbould@leeds.ac.uk.