BU Research Blog

Bournemouth University are collaborators in the CO-LAB Research programme, a EU funded Horizon2020 RISE consortium COLAB with colleagues from Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark.

The University of Stavanger invites applications for a doctorate scholarship in interagency collaboration between mental health and criminal justice. The scholarship is part of the EU funded CO-LAB Research programme.

CO-LAB Research programme
Effective collaboration between mental health (MHS) and correctional services (CS) impacts on mental illness and reduces reoffending rates. Service leaders have indicated a need for more effective models of collaboration. Researchers have identified the Change Laboratory Model (CLM) of workplace transformation as a more effective means of supporting interagency collaborative practice than current integration tools. It provides a way to optimise the effectiveness of mental healthcare provision to offenders through a model that fosters innovation and collaborative processes. However, the change laboratory, highly successful internationally and in other clinical contexts, is a new idea in prison development, none as yet being applied to the challenges facing the MHS and CS. The wickedness, complexity and unpredictability of challenges facing interagency working in these secure environments means that piloting the CLM is premature and it must first be adapted to the MHS/CS context.

The aim of this programme is to validate the change laboratory model ready for implementation in practice. It builds a community of practice that enriches international research capacity and cooperation to achieve this aim. It brings academic knowledge of the Change Laboratory model to the market of interagency practices between mental health and correctional services for the development of innovation and the advancement of integrated service provision to mentally ill offenders. Knowledge exchange takes place through secondments, interactive workshops, the development of workforce training programmes, study tours, shadowing opportunities and ethnographic research. Through this knowledge exchange, the consortium delivers a user-informed prototype of change laboratory model ready for implementation in the MHS and CS field. This validated change laboratory model, offers the ERA a clear strategy with which to promote integrated care for mentally ill offenders.

The Ph.D. project
The Ph.D. project contributes to the ethnographic research dimension of the COLAB programme.  Although the project will be developed by the Ph.D. candidate, the overarching objective of the project is to explore the current interagency practices in MHS and CS from the perspective of front line professionals and using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as its theoretical perspective.  Part or all of the data collection must take place in the UK and therefore candidates should be prepared to spend a total of 6 months in the UK collecting data and have a good command of English.

Through participation in the COLAB consortium, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to build their cultural competences and their own EU research networks across both practice and academic partners. COLAB partners come from academic institutions in Finland, Denmark, Norway the UK and the Netherlands.

https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/129882/doctorate-scholarship-in-interagency-collaboration-between-mental-health-and-criminal-justice

For further details: please contact Sarah Hean

shean@bournemouth.ac.uk