Mental Health and Criminal Justice
The Mental Health and Criminal Justice strand of the Centre for Criminal Justice Research and Partnerships offers cross-disciplinary excellence in relation to research and knowledge around mental health and criminal justice.
The mental health theme examines key issues related to mental health and the criminal justice system. We are particularly interested in matters of diversity, the interface between services, prevention and risk, and interventions to ensure the streamlining and inclusivity of services for vulnerable people.
Public health and the needs of persons with mental illness within the criminal justice system is also a key priority for us. Partnership working is central to our group and we are keen to foster links with agencies, organisations and users of services and their families for whom criminal justice is important.
Our work is cross-disciplinary and the strand consists of academics from Policing, Nursing, Community Health, Art Design and Fashion, Law, Management, Psychology, Criminology, and Social Work.
Collaborators
We have established collaborations with key people outside of UCLan to enhance the module content and delivery. This included clinical partners who have both expertise of personality disorder and current working experience of the offender personality disorder pathway, ensuring current clinical and occupational expertise informed this project. We also recruited contributors with training and assessment expertise who have lived experience of personality disorder. This has been crucial to our co-delivery ethos of ensuring that people provide their lived expertise to this programme, including the relational elements of the programme that are embedded throughout.
Co-production
We worked with contributors to co-produce the content and teaching. We found that co-production has benefited the programme in many ways, including:
- It applies a whole-system approach to the translation of knowledge into practice
- It combines diverse knowledge bases and experiential perspectives
- It involves working together critically from differing perspectives.
- Everyone is respected for what they bring to the role
- We ensure equal payment structures and embedded funding
Co-Leads: Professor Mick McKeown and Professor Karen Wright
Deputy Lead: Dr Gary Lamph
- Mental health, offending and care pathways
- Secure mental health services and other custodial settings
- Co-production and relational care
- Minimising restrictive and coercive practices
- Family carers - support and involvement
- Intersectional anomalies in care delivery and outcomes
- Mental health and policing
The Mental Health and Criminal Justice Group takes a ‘real world’ approach to research. We have a large number of researchers doing ‘real’ world projects, closely connected to those working in the criminal justice and health sectors and the community.
We recognise the need for a responsive, timely, tailored approach to find solutions that are evidence based.
The UCLan Offender Personality Disorder Higher Education Training Programme
A Collaboration between the University of Central Lancashire and Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
UCLan offers the longest standing MSc in Personality Disorder in England. A team led by the School of Nursing have been commissioned to provide specialist Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Higher Education training to the Northern regional OPD workforce - such as prison workers, offender healthcare staff, and probation officers.
This is a Unique model of training - cross faculty, co-produced and delivered with people with lived experience and practitioners with offender-based clinical expertise from multiple NHS Trusts.
Three OPD modules accredited across three levels - Diploma, Degree and MSc. All three modules were developed with input from OPD practitioners/ clinicians and people with lived experience of personality disorder. We also involved a development team that included representatives from Psychology, the Criminal Justice Partnership and the Lived Experience Advisory Group, which ensured that content and scenarios were specifically aligned to the needs of OPD pathway practitioners. We decided to employ a range of creative assessment methods in this programme, including a poster presentation of a case study (and oral defence), a written essay, and a reflective critical dialogue piece.
Feedback
The first cohort of students gave overwhelmingly positive feedback. Students acknowledged the benefits of being able to share knowledge and network with people working in many different roles.
“Real life examples and hearing from people with lived insight”
“Knowledgeable, warm and informed lecturers”
“Hearing different perspectives”
“Positive learning environment”
Next Steps
The programme is now in its 3rd year of delivery and 11 modules have been delivered from 2019 – 2022, one of which was a national cohort module. Ongoing research evaluation has also been commissioned to measure the impact of the programme on students and their practice.
For more information contact Dr Gary Lamph, Programme Director for the OPD Higher Education Training Programme, School of Nursing, email: GLamph@UCLan.ac.uk or Programme Leader Alison Elliott, email: AElliott1@uclan.ac.uk
We publish high quality research in peer-reviewed international academic journals. Examples include:
- Gardner, K. J., Wright, K. M., Elliot, A., Lamph, G., Graham, S., Paker, L., & Fonagy, P. (2021) Learning the subtle dance: the experience of therapists who deliver mentalisation-based therapy for borderline personality disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology. ISSN 0021-9762 https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23208
- Lamph G, Dorothy, J., Jeynes, T., Coak, A., Elliott, A., Jassat, R, McKeown, M & Thornton T (2021) A qualitative exploration of the label of personality disorder from the perspectives of people with lived experience and occupational experience. Mental Health Review Journal. DOI10.1108/MHRJ-05-2020-0035
- Lamph, G., Baker, J., Dickinson, T & Lovell, K (2020) Personality disorder co-morbidity in primary care ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapy’ (IAPT) Services: A qualitative study exploring patient’ perspectives. BABCP Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy Journal (September 8: 1-15) https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465820000594
- Lamph, G., Elliott, A., Gardner, K., McKeown, M & Jassat R (2020) Offender Personality Disorder Higher Education Training Programme 'Northern Region' Annual Report 2019/20 - UCLan Repository
- Tomlin, J., Dalgleish-Warburton & Lamph G (2020) Psychosocial support for healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology. Psychology for Clinical Settings. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01960
- Farrier, A., Baybutt, M., and Dooris, M. T. (2019) Mental Health and Wellbeing Benefits from a Prisons Horticultural Programme. International Journal of Prisoner Health, 15 (1). pp. 91-104. ISSN 1744-9200
- Gardner, K.J,. Wright, K.M., Elliott, A., Graham, S., Fonagy, P. (2019) The weirdness of having a bunch of other minds like yours in the room: The lived experiences of mentalization‐based therapy for borderline personality disorder, Psychology and Psychotherapy Research and Practice. SSN 1476-0835, https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12243
- McKeown, M., Thomson, G., Scholes, A., Duxbury, J., et al. (2019) Restraint minimisation in mental health care: legitimate or illegitimate force? An ethnographic study. Sociology of Health & Illness. October 2019.
- McKeown, M., Duxbury, J., Thomson, G., Scholes, A., et al. (2019) Staff experiences and understandings of the REsTRAIN Yourself initiative to minimise the use of physical restraint on mental health wards. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. 28(4) March 2019.
- Mckeown, M., and Wainwright, J.P. (2019) Echoes of Frantz Fanon in the place and space of an alternative black mental health centre. Critical and Radical Social Work. ISSN 2049-8608
- McKeown, M., Duxbury, J., Baker, J., Whittington, R., et al. Minimising the use of physical restraint in acute mental health services: The outcome of a restraint reduction programme (‘REsTRAIN YOURSELF’) International Journal of Nursing Studies 95. March 2019.
- Brooks, M., Graham-Kevan, N., Robinson, S., & Lowe, M. (2018). Trauma characteristics and posttraumatic growth: The mediating role of avoidance coping, intrusive thoughts and social support. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advanced online publication.
- Cusack, P., Cusack, F. P., McAndrew, S., McKeown, M., & Duxbury, J. (2018) An integrative review exploring the physical and psychological harm inherent in using restraint in mental health inpatient settings. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 27, 1162-1176.
- McKeown, M., McElroy, E., McIntyre, J. C., Bentall, R. P. et al. (2018) Mental health, deprivation, and the neighbourhood social environment: a network analysis. Clinical Psychological Science. November 2018.
- McKeown, M. (2018) Mental health workforce and survivor alliances: a personal story of possibilities, perils and pratfalls. In: Bull, P., Gadsby, J., & Williams, S. (eds) Critical mental health nursing: observations from the inside. Ross-On-Wye: PCCS Books. Pp.177-188.
- Cusack, P., Cusack, F., McAndrew, S., McKeown, M. & Duxbury, J. (2018) An integrative review exploring the physical and psychological harm inherent in using restraint in mental health in-patient settings. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, DOI: 10.1111/inm.12432
- Spandler, H. & McKeown, M. (2017) Exploring the case for truth and reconciliation in mental health. Mental Health Review Journal, 22, 2, 83-94.
- Gire, N., Farooq, S., Naeem, F., Duxbury, J., McKeown, M., Kundi, P.S., Chaudhry, I.B. and Husain, N., 2017. mHealth based interventions for the assessment and treatment of psychotic disorders: a systematic review. mHealth, 3, 33.
- Saini, P., Chantler, K., & Kapur, N. (2017). GPs’ views and perspectives on patient non-adherence to treatment in primary care prior to suicide. Journal of Mental Health, 1-8.
- Baybutt, M., & Chemlal, K. (2016). Health-promoting prisons: Theory to practice. Global Health Promotion, 23(1), 66-74.
- Husain, N., Gire, N., Kelly, J., Duxbury, J., McKeown, M., Riley, M., Farooq, S. (2016). TechCare: Mobile assessment and therapy for psychosis–an intervention for clients in the early intervention service: A feasibility study protocol. SAGE Open Medicine, 4.
- McKeown, M., Jones, F., Foy, P., Wright, K., Paxton, T. & Blackmon, M. (2016) Looking back, looking forward: recovery journeys in a high secure hospital. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 25, 234-242.
- McKeown, M., Jones, F., Wright, K., Spandler, H., Wright, J., Fletcher, H., Turton, W. (2016). It's the talk: A study of involvement initiatives in secure mental health settings. Health Expectations, 19(3), 570-579.
- Saini, P., Chantler, K., While, D., & Kapur, N. (2016). Do GPs want or need formal support following a patient suicide?: A mixed methods study. Family Practice, 33(4), 414-420.
- Dixey, R., Nyambe, S., Foster, S., Woodall, J., & Baybutt, M. (2015). Health promoting prisons–An impossibility for women prisoners in Africa? Agenda, 29(4), 95-102.
- McKeown, M. & White, J. (2015) The future of mental health nursing: are we barking up the wrong tree? Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 22, 724-730.
- McKeown, M., Roy, A. & Spandler, H. (2015) ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’: supportive social relations in a football and mental health project. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 24, 360-369.
- Ramdour, S., Duxbury, J., Becket, G., & Wilson, S. (2015). A cross‐sectional observational study of healthcare professional views of factors affecting teenage adherence with antipsychotic medication. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 22(7), 491-501.
- Newbigging, K., Ridley, J., McKeown, M. et al (2014) “When you haven’t got much of a voice”: An evaluation of the quality of Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) Services in England. Health & Social Care in the Community, 23, 313-324.
- McKeown, M., Jones, F., Wright, K. et al. (2014) It’s the talk: a study of involvement practices in secure mental health services. Health Expectations, 19, 570-579
- McKeown, M., Dix, J., Jones, F., Malihi-Shoja, L., Carter, B., & Harrison, N. (2014) Service user involvement in mental health practitioner education: movement politics and transformative change. Nurse Education Today (Special Issue), 34, 1175–1178.
- McKeown, M. et al. (2014) A conflict of roles, a conflict of ideas? The unsettled relations between care team staff and independent mental health advocates. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 23, 398-408.
- Spandler, H., Mckeown, M. & Roy, A. (2014) Using football metaphor to engage men in therapeutic support. Journal of Social Work Practice, 28, 229-245.
- Saini, P., While, D., Chantler, K., Windfuhr, K., & Kapur, N. (2014). Assessment and management of suicide risk in primary care. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 35(6), 415.
- Duxbury, J., Pulsford, D., Hadi, M., & Sykes, S. (2013). Staff and relatives' perspectives on the aggressive behaviour of older people with dementia in residential care: A qualitative study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 20(9), 792-800.
- Hunter, C., Chantler, K., Kapur, N., & Cooper, J. (2013). Service user perspectives on psychosocial assessment following self-harm and its impact on further help-seeking: A qualitative study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 145(3), 315-323.
- Pulsford, D., Crumpton, A., Baker, A., Wilkins, T., Wright, K., & Duxbury, J. (2013). Aggression in a high secure hospital: Staff and patient attitudes. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 20(4), 296-304.
- Spandler, H., Mckeown, M. Roy, A. & Hurley, M. (2013) Football metaphor and mental wellbeing: an evaluation of the It’s a Goal! programme. Journal of Mental Health, 22, 544-554.
- Spandler, H. & McKeown, M. (2012) A critical exploration of using football in health and welfare programs: Gender, masculinities and social relations. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 36: 387-409.
- Eadie, D., MacAskill, S., McKell, J., & Baybutt, M. (2012). Barriers and facilitators to a criminal justice tobacco control coordinator: An innovative approach to supporting smoking cessation among offenders. Addiction, 107(S2), 26-38.
- McKeown, M., Malihi-shoja, L., Hogarth, R., Jones, F., Holt, K., Sullivan, P., Lunt, J., Vella, J., Hough, G., Rawcliffe, L., Mather, M. & The CIT. (2012) The value of involvement from the participants’ perspective: not just a cash nexus. Nurse Education Today: special issue on service user & carer involvement, 32, 178-184
Community Approaches to the Criminal Justice System Community-based approaches to the Criminal Justice System 9th June 2021
In June 2021 the CJP and Lancashire Violence Reduction Network ran an event aimed at opening up conversations around community-based approaches to criminal justice. The event was attended by over 160 people.
Speakers included:
- Det Chief Superintendent Sue Clarke, Head of Lancashire Violence Reduction Network,
- Professor Dame Carol Black,
- Professor David Best (University of Derby)
- Mike Barton, former Chief Constable of Durham Police.
The event also included the inspiring experiences of Scott Walker and Louise West. Both provided moving accounts of their own personal experiences within the criminal justice system and substance addiction, their life of recovery and successes, andhow they now contribute to helping others within their local communities.
Discussions included issues such as working in partnership with individuals, providing community interventions and lesser sentences, working more effectively to enable individuals an opportunity to contribute positively within their local area. This in turn enables a change in attitudes of the professionals working with these people where personal experiences can influence how to work effectively with individuals who need interventions such as addiction recovery.
18 June 2020 Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Practice in the Community
We hosted a special webinar in June to develop a shared language around ‘adverse childhood experiences’ to enable the community as a whole to be able to discuss these and assist local organisations tackling the issue. This event was run in partnership with the Health Innovation Campus, Lancaster University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cherryfold Primary School and Sue Irwin an independent consultant who works on ACEs and trauma informed approaches. 25 practitioners working in the SW Burnley area attended the event.
17 June 2020 Suicide and Self-Harm in the Community SSHARE NOW event
Over 150 people registered to attend a Suicide and Self Harm in Communities conference that was due to be held at UCLan’s Preston Campus on the 17th June. The event was due to be hosted by Suicide and Self-Harm Research North West (SSHaRe NoW). SSHaRe NoW is a collaboration between The University of Central Lancashire, Liverpool John Moores University, The University of Manchester, the Manchester Self-Harm Project, the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Trust and the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs). The event was originally to be held in partnership with Healthy Lancashire and South Cumbria. Given the importance of the topic at the current time the group decided to hold a two hour webinar online. This proved immensely popular with 200 people registering to attend and a waiting list of 67 people.
This event was the first online webinar the group had organised. Presentations were given by Neil Smith, Multi Agency Strategic Lead - Lancashire & South Cumbria Mental Health who presented on Real Time data collection for suicide prevention and support and Vicki Wagstaff Healthy Lancashire and South Cumbria who presented on . Whole system approach to self-harm support
The presentations were followed an Ask the Panel session hosted by members of the SSHaRe NoW group
10 March 2020 Pathways to Recovery, desistance and reintegration.
Professor David Best University of Derby and Graham Beck, Governor of HMP Wymott
14 February 2020 Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Practice in the Community UCLan Burnley
We were pleased to host our first CJP event at UCLan’s Burnley Campus in February. Over 120 people registered to attend the event. The event was hosted as part of ongoing work in the SW Burnley area around Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Practice.
Speakers included:
- Nicola Graham-Kevan,
- Rosie and Danny Wolstencroft from Empowering the Invisible
- Chief Superintendent Sue Clarke, Lancashire VRN
- Sue Irwin
- Steve Archer, Witton Park Academy
- Chris Keene and Esther Selway, Cherryfold Primary School Burnley
29 March 2019 Understanding Resilience in the Face of Adversity: Next steps for Lancashire
This was the second of our Understanding Resilience workshops. UCLan’s Professor Dawne Gurbutt opened the event and thought -provoking presentations were given by Detective Chief Superintendent Susannah Clarke from Lancashire Constabulary and Jade Amelia.
Over 60 practitioners, academics and students attended the event
21 November 2018 Mental Health and Criminal Justice: Defining and Containing the Big Ideas
24 May 2018 Vulnerabilities and Crime: Victims, Offenders and Frontline Practitioners Conference
This event aimed to highlight the reasons why vulnerability is emerging as a central concept within the criminal justice and health and social care environments. The event was opened by Dr. Rachel Cragg, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic Development at UCLan. Presentations were given by Mike Cunningham (College of Policing), Prof. Stuart Kirby (UCLan), Prof. Mick McKeown (UCLan), Neil Smith (Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria STP), Men After Prison, Prof. Nicola Graham-Kevan (UCLan) and Julie Cross (Lancashire YOT). A panel discussion also took place with speakers and also included Karen Cassidy, Public Health Lead for Vulnerable and Complex Populations (Blackburn with Darwen Council).
9 May 2017 Inspector Michael Brown OBE: ‘Policing and mental Health: Just doing the wrong thing righter’
In March 2017 we were pleased to have Dr. Anthony O’Brien lecturer in mental health nursing at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and a nurse specialist in liaison psychiatry, come to visit the Partnership. As part of Dr. O’Brien’s visit, UCLan hosted ‘An Audience with Tony O’Brien’, in which Professor Tim Thornton lead a conversation with Dr. O'Brien on his research and academic experiences. Additionally, a full day conference was held at Westleigh Conference Centre and centred on ‘Rethinking the Criminal Justice System and Mental Health’.
This was a very popular event and included presentations from Dr. O’Brien, Professor Duxbury (UCLan), Inspector Michael Brown (College of Policing) and Sarah Swindley (CEO Lancashire Women’s Centre). The event was designed to promote ideas and relationships for better services for people with mental health problems and safety outcomes within the Criminal Justice System.
March 2017 Criminal justice organisations to work with UCLan to address challenges facing sector
In March 2017 we were pleased to have Dr. Anthony O’Brien lecturer in mental health nursing at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and a nurse specialist in liaison psychiatry, come to visit the Partnership. As part of Dr. O’Brien’s visit, UCLan hosted ‘An Audience with Tony O’Brien’, in which Professor Tim Thornton lead a conversation with Dr. O'Brien on his research and academic experiences. Additionally, a full day conference was held at Westleigh Conference Centre and centred on ‘Rethinking the Criminal Justice System and Mental Health’. This was a very popular event and included presentations from Dr. O’Brien, Professor Duxbury (UCLan), Inspector Michael Brown (College of Policing) and Sarah Swindley (CEO Lancashire Women’s Centre). The event was designed to promote ideas and relationships for better services for people with mental health problems and safety outcomes within the Criminal Justice System.
For further information, contact criminaljustice@uclan.ac.uk
News
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