My research interests focus around three main themes:

(1) Mental Health Law analysed through a socio-legal perspective – which includes work conducted on:

(a) ‘risk’ as a policy driver within mental health law reform;

(b) decision-making processes and its regulation within the mental health and the social care context; and,

(c) the impact of varied environmental influences on mental health, such as, accommodation and educational environments, and how the law responds to these often conflicting issues.

(2) Law and Pharmaceuticals, with an emphasis on drug licensing procedures, regulation of wider drug access mechanisms, for example, the internet, and the particular influences of these on vulnerable groups, for example, children and those with mental disorder and disability, and

(3) Pharmacogenomics and the socio-legal implications of this.

 

In 2009, a grant from Mersey Care NHS Trust to fund a study of the implementation of mental health legislation illustrates my ability to secure external funding and to generate successful scholarship. Building upon a previous ESRC funded research looking at the role of charities in housing the mentally vulnerable, this project has and will generate a wide range of original and innovative research outputs. These publications will analyse the empirical data collected to advance our theoretical appreciation of risk assessment and its management in the mental health law context. This work will be completed as part of a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (autumn 2012-2013).