Mental Health and Justice is a multi-disciplinary research initiative, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and addressing a cluster of public policy challenges that arise at the complex interface where mental health and mental healthcare interact with principles of human rights.
The principal aim of the project is to develop clinical, legal, and public policy strategies for jointly satisfying two fundamental imperatives: the imperative to protect people in contexts where they can be vulnerable, and the imperative to respect their agency and autonomy.
The Mental Health and Justice initiative takes place at a time of active reform in the area of mental health and mental capacity legislation, across the UK and around the world. This five-year project will support the reform agenda by undertaking research pertaining to two concepts that have been central to the reform movement: the concept of support in decision-making and the concept of decision-making ability.
The collaboration involves clinical experts, lawyers, philosophers, neuro-scientists, social scientists and service-users in a research network that will be delivering practical guidelines, enhancing policy engagement, and advancing interdisciplinary working and innovation in service-user involvement in research and public engagement.
Mental Health & Justice research underpinning this project:
Ariyo, K., McWilliams, A., David, A. S., & Owen, G. S. (2021). Experiences of assessing mental capacity in England and Wales: A large-scale survey of professionals. Wellcome Open Research, 6(144), 144.
Ariyo, K., Kane, N., Ruck Keene, A. & Owen, G.S. (2023). Interpersonal influences on decision making capacity: a content analysis of legal cases. Forthcoming, Medical Law Law Review
Ariyo, K., Ruck Keene, A., David, A. S., & Owen, G. S. (2021). Insight and equality: A systematic review and meta-analysis of socio-demographic associations. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 00207640211036174.
Craigie, J. (2021). Conceptualising ‘Undue Influence’ in Decision-Making Support for People with Mental Disabilities. Medical Law Review, 29(1), 48-79.
David, A., & Ariyo, K. (2021). Insight is a useful construct in clinical assessments if used wisely. Journal of medical ethics, 47(3), 185-186.
Kane, N., Ruck Keene, A., & Owen, G. (2020). Avoiding hard capacity assessments will not help. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 216(3), 165-165.
Kane, N. B., Ruck Keene, A., Owen, G. S., & Kim, S. Y. (2021). Applying decision-making capacity criteria in practice: A content analysis of court judgments. PloS one, 16(2), e0246521.
Kim, S. Y., Kane, N. B., Ruck Keene, A., & Owen, G. S. (2021). Broad concepts and messy realities: optimising the application of mental capacity criteria. Journal of Medical Ethics.
McWilliams, A., Fleming, S. M., David, A. S., & Owen, G. (2020). The Use of Neuroscience and Psychological Measurement in England’s Court of Protection. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 1081.
Owen, G., Martin, W., Gergel, T. (2018) ‘Mis-evaluating the future. Affective Disorder and Decision-Making Capacity for Treatment: a Temporal Understanding’. Psychopathology, 51(6), 371-379.
Owen, G., Freyenhagen, F., Martin, W., & David, A. (2017) Clinical assessment of decision-making capacity in acquired brain injury with personality change, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 27:1, 133-148
Ruck Keene, A., Kane, N. B., Kim, S. Y., & Owen, G. S. (2019). Taking capacity seriously? Ten years of mental capacity disputes before England’s Court of Protection. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 62, 56-76.
Ruck Keene, A., Kane, N. B., Kim, S. Y., & Owen, G. S. (2023). Mental capacity—why look for a paradigm shift?. Medical Law Review
Stephenson, L. A., Gergel, T., Keene, A. R., Rifkin, L., & Owen, G. (2020). The PACT advance decision-making template: preparing for Mental Health Act reforms with co-production, focus groups and consultation. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 71, 101563.