Mental Health and Justice

Mental Health & Justice was a Wellcome Trust-funded multi-disciplinary research initiative, running between 2017-2023, addressing a cluster of public policy challenges that arise where mental health and mental healthcare interact with human rights principles.

The fundamental aim of the project was to develop clinical, legal, and policy strategies for jointly satisfying two fundamental imperatives: to respect their agency and autonomy, and to protect people in contexts where they might be vulnerable.

See the video below for further information.

The principal aim of the project was 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 took place at a time of active reform in the area of mental health and mental capacity legislation, across the UK and around the world. The five-year project supported 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 involved clinical experts, lawyers, philosophers, neuro-scientists, social scientists and service-users in a research network that delivered practical guidelines, enhanced policy engagement, and advanced interdisciplinary working and innovation in service-user involvement in research and public engagement.