Dr Jill Anderson
Senior Research Fellow
School of Social Work, Care and Community
Jill, who has a background in social work, is an experienced researcher and educator with an interest in mental health. She works half time as Senior Research Fellow on Helen Spandler's Wellcome funded project, exploring radical mental health zines.
Jill lives in Lancaster where she co-facilitates Critical and Creative Approaches to Mental Health Practice (CCrAMHP) and is a trustee for Lancaster District CVS. Jill is a member of the editorial group of Asylum magazine.
Jill grew up in the Scottish borders and in Cambridge and studied English at Bristol University. She worked in the voluntary sector, before qualifying in social work at the University of Sheffield. Jill worked in mental health in Nottingham in the 1990s, during which she was a trustee for Nottingham Advocacy Group and co-supervisor of the patient advocate based there.
Jill has taught social work at the Universities of Nottingham, Lancaster and Cumbria, where she was coordinator of the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) training. She has also worked as a Problem Based Learning facilitator in the school of Medicine at Lancaster University.
For many years, Jill coordinated the interdisciplinary Mental Health in Higher Education (mhhe) project, affiliated to the Centre for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health at the University of Birmingham. She is involved - alongside members of COMENSUS - in the Developers of User and Carer Involvement in Education (DUCIE) network. Jill has been an active contributor to national workforce development initiatives in mental health and was co-author - with Bob Sapey - of the College of Social Work Mental Health curriculum guide.
Jill has organised a wide range of conferences and workshops on learning and teaching in mental health. She is a regular reviewer for journals in the areas of social work and mental health and has experience as an external examiner. Jill was co-editor - with Helen Spandler and Bob Sapey - of Madness, Distress and the Politics of Disablement (Policy Press).
- BA in English, University of Bristol, 1987
- MA in Applied Social Studies/CQSW (with distinction), University of Sheffield, 1991
- PhD in Educational Research, Lancaster University, 2018
- Zine scholarship
- Service user and carer involvement in education
- Third sector social work
- Social work education
- Arts and mental health
- Registered social worker, Social Work England [SW68419]
- Trustee, Lancaster District Community and Voluntary Solutions
- Editorial Group member, Asylum magazine
- Editorial Board member, Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice
Mental health services have failed to deliver the changes demanded by the service user movement and, despite anti-stigma and awareness-raising campaigns, the stigma and discrimination of people with mental health difficulties persists. Progress depends, at least in part, on conceptualising alternative ways of seeing, practising and imagining mental healthcare.
As Senior Research Fellow in the 'Crafting Contention' project - coordinated by Professor Helen Spandler - Jill is involved in identifying, analysing and co-producing 'MadZines’: zines, comics and graphic memoirs created and self-published by people with lived experience that communicate alternative and challenging ideas about mental health and psychosocial disabilities. The research will expand our understanding of madness and distress, contributing to the evolving field of Mad Studies and informing both policy and practice in mental health. To find out more visit madzines.org
Use the links below to view their profiles:
- Crafting Contention: The role of zines in contesting mental health knowledge and practice [Funded by Wellcome]
Email: Email:Dr Jill Anderson
Use the links below to view their profiles: