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29 March 2023

Professor Claire Henderson delivers IoPPN Inaugural Lecture 'Listen, share, negotiate – Approaches to empower and destigmatise'.

The fourth inaugural lecture of the 2022/23 IoPPN Inaugural Lecture Series, entitled 'Listen, share, negotiate – Approaches to empower and destigmatise' was delivered by Professor Claire Henderson on Thursday 23 March 2023.

Claire Henderson Inaugural

Claire Henderson is Clinical Professor of Public Mental Health, her areas of expertise are in the evaluation of complex interventions in mental health and in evaluation of interventions to reduce mental health related stigma and discrimination. Her research interests include development and evaluation of interventions both at the service level and societal level, to promote empowerment among people with mental health problems with respect to involvement in care, condition self-management, and stigma reduction.

Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft Professor of Community Psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health and the Centre for Implementation Science, IoPPN, opened the lecture with a welcome speech showcasing Professor Henderson’s career highlights.

I am very happy to be able to give this lecture at a time when the government is working on new mental health legislation including the recommendation of Advance Choice Documents, and after the success of Time to Change in reducing stigma and discrimination in England and Wales.

Professor Claire Henderson, Clinical Professor of Public Mental Health, IoPPN

Following her Medical degree at the University of Oxford, Claire completed her PhD with Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft at KCL 1999-2003, then worked in the USA for 5 years (New York State Office for Mental Health 2003-06 and Veterans Health Administration 2006-08). She returned to King’s in 2008 to work on Professor Thornicroft’s programme grant looking at stigma which led to the Time to Change campaign to evaluate targets, and improve attitudes towards mental health. Professor Henderson’s work on Advance Choice Documents fed into the independent review of the Mental Health Act led by Professor Sir Simon Wessely in 2018. They are now being implemented by the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

The work of Professor Claire Henderson on stigma reduction, shared-care, and advance decision making is important because this represents the future of mental health care. This signals a transformation from a paternalistic approach to patients to partnerships of staff with people with mental health conditions, in a joint effort to move towards recovery. Professor Henderson has shown that evidence-based and ethically sound interventions, pursued with determination over a long period, can lead to important real-world improvements in mental health care.

Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft, Professor of Community Psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health and the Centre for Implementation Science, IoPPN

Professor Henderson is currently Principal Investigator and co-applicant on several mental health service research and public mental health projects, investigating recovery colleges, Advance Choice Documents and Culturally Adapted Family Intervention for Black African and Caribbean service users, mental health literacy, equipping pharmacy staff in England to help people in danger of suicide and domestic violence, and stigma reduction in low- and middle-income countries.

In this story

Claire Henderson

Clinical Professor of Public Mental Health