It is often the relationships between the providers of services and people on the receiving end which are at the heart of people’s experiences of the mental health system.  As we have discussed in the past, both service users and carers, on the one hand, and workers, on the other, can feel alienated by current approaches to delivering services.  Mick McKeown is a Reader in the School of Health at the University of Central Lancaster and active in the Trades Union movement.  He is interested in how alliances can be built between mental health workers and the psychiatric survivor movement, and the role of Trade Unions within that.  Mick has also thought and written a lot about the relationship between community-based groups such as CCrAMHP and Higher Education Institutions. Mick will share some of his ideas, as a starting point for discussion, which might include some thinking about the alliances that CCrAMHP might seek to make with other groups, institutions and initiatives.