The Compass

Russia’s actions in the Crimea and Ukraine, and the modernising of its armed forces at home, are causing anxiety in the High North. Here Norwegian (as well as broader Western) security and economic interests converge with those of Russia, and can conflict. Will the High North be the next flashpoint in a new Cold War?

(Photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Norwegian Foreign Minster Boerge Brende attend a wreath ceremony at the Russia Monument, Kirkenes, 2014. Credit: Berit Roald/AFP/Getty Images)

What will the United Kingdom vote to leave the EU mean for Northern Ireland – and the rest of Ireland? BBC correspondent Edward Stourton revisits the city of Londonderry - or Derry - an area where people voted strongly to remain in the European Union, against the tide of the rest of the UK. There he discovers how locals fear that a border across the island of Ireland, between the Irish Republic which is still an EU member, and a post-Brexit Northern Ireland outside the EU, will disrupt their lives. Will the Northern Ireland peace process also be affected? And does the Brexit vote mean the survival of the United Kingdom itself is now in question?

(Photo: The Union Jack flag shattered and broken. Credit: Shutterstock)

The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes returns to Stirling in central Scotland, where she grew up and went to school. In an area where people voted strongly to remain in the European Union, against the tide of the rest of the United Kingdom, what effect has this had on how people feel about their relationship with their biggest neighbour - England.

She hears how the Brexit vote has caused divisions within families and from people who are now concerned that leaving the EU could be the lever that takes Scotland out of the United Kingdom altogether.

(Photo: The Union Jack flag shattered and broken. Credit: Shutterstock)

The people of Wales received hundreds of millions in EU grants to regenerate areas depressed by de-industrialisation. Yet Wales, like England, voted to leave the EU. In many cases, the areas voting most strongly for leave were those receiving the most EU money.

Bethan Kilfoil, a former BBC Wales correspondent in Brussels, and now a resident in Ireland, travels home to North Wales to find out why people voted the way they did. She explores what Brexit may mean for Wales in the future, and what the differences in patterns of voting between Welsh and English speaking areas tell us.

(Photo: The Union Jack flag shattered and broken. Credit: Shutterstock)

What has the European Union referendum vote revealed about the divisions within the UK? And what might this mean for the cohesion of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

(Photo: The Union Jack flag shattered and broken. Credit: Shutterstock)

Christopher Harding is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the influence that culture has on mental illness and mental health treatment. The questions being answered are a culmination of the series in which he explored depression in Japan, adolescent mental health in Sweden, the change in how those who hear voices in the UK are treated and the treatment of mental health in Ghana.

(Photo: A border crossing. Credit: Shutterstock)

What options do people in Ghana have when a person suffers mental illness? In this religious country, most people seek out spiritual interpretations or traditional methods of healing. Despite there being only 18 trained psychiatrists in the whole of Ghana, advocates of Western-style practices have been pushing for the use of medication and the human rights of the mentally ill. In this final programme of a four-part series, Christopher Harding asks whether spiritual and biological interpretations and treatments for mental illness can ever get along.

(Photo: A street in Ghana)

For years, hearing voices served as a symbol of a fear we all share - losing our minds. But voice hearing is now known to be an experience of almost limitless range, from cruel distress to creativity and meaning. The UK is at the forefront of a movement that has changed the way patients and psychiatrists view the voices that some people hear. Christopher Harding is in his adopted homeland of Scotland to explore how our ideas about the mind, and about reality shape these experiences and what life is like for voice hearers in the UK today.

(Photo: Silouhette of man sitting on top of a hill under a tree. Credit: Shutterstock)

Despite Sweden's reputation as an ideal place to grow up, the mental health of its adolescents has become a public health concern, with more young people reporting problems and seeking psychiatric help. Is it down to a tougher economic climate, school stress, social media, so-called "curling parents"? Christopher Harding investigates and asks whether Sweden is struggling to strike a balance between good mental health awareness and the creation of a medicalized culture of vulnerability with young people hung up on everyday troubles and traumas, dwelling on their reactions as pathological.

Producer: Keith Moore

(A group of teenagers. Credit to IStock)

Up until the late 1990s, depression was all but unknown in Japanese society and pharmaceutical companies had given up on trying to sell anti-depressants there. Fast forward to today and court cases alleging overwork depression and overwork suicide, reassuring commercial branding of depression as a "cold of the soul" and increased media attention have turned Japan into a highly medicated society. In the first episode of a five-part series about mental health and culture, Christopher Harding explores how in just a few years, psychiatrists, lawyers and the pharmaceutical companies helped introduce 'depression' to Japan.

Producer: Keith Moore

(Photo by Tori Sugari)