2018 Conference

The second biennial conference of the network occurred on 26th - 27th June 2018.

The programme for the plenary sessions can be found here and for the parallel sessions here. The full programme and abstracts booklet can be found here.

About the event

Mental disability law (including both mental health law and mental capacity law) in the UK and Ireland have come into its own in recent years, and there is now a wide range of researchers active in the field, in a variety of disciplines. This conference is intended to bring these people together for the first meeting of what it is hoped will be an ongoing academic network.

The conference is sponsored jointly by the School of Law at the University of Nottingham and the Institute of Mental Health, a partnership between Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Nottingham. The conference will combine plenary and breakout sessions.

Plenary Speakers

Click the speakers below to watch their plenaries

The Effects of Austerity

• Julie Gosling, Director, Making Waves UK Lived Experience Network
• Iris Elliott, Head of Policy and Research, Mental Health Foundation
• Paul Atkinson, Free Psychotherapy Network

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: What is this ‘New Paradigm’?

Watch the plenary

• Margret Osterfeld, Member (Germany), Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture
• Georg Hoyer, Member (Norway), European Committee for the Prevention of Torture
• Dainius Puras, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
• Eilionoir Flynn, Centre for Disability Law and Policy, NUI (Galway)

The paper that served as the basis for discussion at this plenary may be found here.

What do we want from a New Mental Health Act?

• Simon Wessely, Chair of the Independent Review into the Mental Health Act
• Diana Rose, Professor of User-Led Research, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
• Colin McKay, Chief Executive, Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland

Thank you to our sponsors