What can bureaucratic justice do for mental health?

This innovative research programme, funded by a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award, explores the justice perceptions of service users in primary mental health services, advancing our understanding of how they interact with the frontline bureaucracy they encounter.

This study pioneers the application of bureaucratic justice theory in mental health and is led by the Lab’s Co-Directors Professor Joe Tomlinson, Dr Jed Meers, and its associate members.  

Over a six-year period, this large-scale project will aim to advance understanding of administrative justice for mental health services: build a new body of research and resources to explore the significance and value of bureaucratic justice in mental health services; provide a platform to embed lived experiences into research practices; and create a platform for innovation and help transform understanding of bureaucratic justice in mental health. 

Comprising an interdisciplinary community of researchers, this study will provide a rigorous body of work in this area, using evidence-based methodologies alongside more creative and participatory approaches, including input from service users and their lived experience.

With a strong commitment to translating this research into practice, a guiding question for the programme will be how mental health service providers, system designers, and policymakers can intervene to make mental health services more just and effective. 

Please get in touch if you have any areas of interest or contributions you would like to provide.