Penelope Campling is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. For twenty years, she ran the NHS personality disorder unit in Leicester, and she is the co-author of 'Intelligent Kindness: Rehabilitating the Welfare State' (CUP, 2020). Now retired from the NHS, she continues to lecture and campaign, and works in private practice. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, she has been supporting clinicians on the frontline in intensive care units.
"‘This memoir of [Dr Campling’s] career is wide in scope and also acts, in part, as a call to arms to improve the state of the UK National Health Service today … deeply thoughtful and compassionate ... Don't Turn Away is a fine book and is accessible for the seasoned psychiatrist and general reader alike.’ The British Journal of Psychiatry ‘Candid, compassionate and, above all, hopeful, Don't Turn Away is a story of troubled minds and how we try to heal them. '[An] insightful, important book . . . an exhibition of what could be possible and an invitation to act to deliver that vision.' Kathryn Mannix, author of Listen 'A lucid and much-needed articulation of the frustration shared by so many struggling to keep the NHS afloat' Iona Heath, BMJ 'As a GP I wish I could send patients to Penelope Campling; as someone worried about failing mental health services, I wish she were in charge.' Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being 'An important book, moving and honest… stands out in its field of psychotherapist memoirs' Beth Guilding, TLS 'This book oozes compassion and kindness and made me want to be a more understanding doctor.' Kate Milton, British Journal of GP Practice 'Deeply thoughtful and compassionate' Susie Orbach, author of In Therapy 'A book with the power to move and inform . . . [Campling] is an expert in ""intelligent kindness"".' Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know"