The Healing Properties of Writing

OWs in the spotlight

The Healing Properties of Writing

Grant Budge (M 1984-1989) and his start-up publishing company are making strides with its goal of providing a route for support to those suffering poor mental health – all through the power of literature.

Integrity Media is all about extending the reach and influence of their authors and their stories. Their specific objectives are twofold: first, to help authors rediscover, rebuild and relaunch themselves, and secondly but equally, to guide others to bring integrity back to our society.

Grant discovered that writing his own story helped him to put life events into perspective, accept them for what they were, and discover a path to move forward. The result was the creation of “Mental As Anything”, an autobiographical account of his life and struggles with poor mental health, which will be available for purchase from the Integrity Media Ltd website on World Book Day, 3rd March 2022.

Grant told us, “Mental health continues to be an issue that society and businesses are increasingly facing. There is no one solution because issues and challenges are so personal. What we need is a portfolio approach to helping those suffering, and Integrity Media believe creative writing can sit at the heart of that, for two reasons. First, it helps the individual to understand and counsel themselves, and as a

“Mental health continues to be an issue society and businesses are increasingly facing.”

consequence step forward more positively. Secondly, through publishing these stories we can increase the awareness and understanding of mental health and society’s influence over it.” With this in mind, Integrity Media launched two short story competitions: one for 16-to-18-year-olds, and the other for 19-to-24-year-olds.

The shortlisted submissions will be compiled into a collection, which will be published by Integrity Media Ltd. The authors of one or more submissions will be given the chance to develop their short story into a full-length novel, and will be guided through the publication process by the team. The winner will be nominated in late January 2022.

Further to this, Integrity Media has developed a wellbeing service called ‘Re-Engage’, where they work with companies to use creative writing as a tool to enable those suffering poor mental health to find a pathway forward. They will be speaking at ‘The Future of Work Summit’ next February, presenting alongside leading HR professionals from Kellogg’s, Unilever, Superdrug and Dyson.