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Staff profile

staff list  BackMs Laura Lea

  • Job title: Co-ordinator of Service User & Carer Involvement
  • Dept: Applied Psychology
  • Tel:
  • Campus: Salomons
 

Laura Lea BSc Hons CQSW

Departmental Role:

Laura co-ordinates service user and carer involvement| for the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programme| facilitating a number of projects that enable trainees to learn from people who have used mental health services.

Laura has extensive experience as a freelance trainer and writer. Previously she has worked with Sussex Partnership Trust, Mind, Together, Royal College of Psychiatrists and NHSU amongst others. Her area of interest is service user and carer involvement, lived experience, the experience of using services and caring for someone who uses services. Laura’s previous work as a social worker and her own experiences of living with the challenge of ill health enable a perspective from which she advocates a holistic approach to mental health service provision.  Laura provides consultation about service user and carer involvement in mental health service provision.

Main areas of responsibility

Laura works with staff, members of the community, trainees and trusts to facilitate the involvement of service users and carers in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programme. She co-ordinates Salomons Advisory Group of Experts by Experience (SAGE) and the first year placement advisor scheme for clinical psychology doctoral trainees.  She is joint tutor of the teaching unit in critical, community and service user perspectives and has written: A guide to involving Service Users and Carers in Teaching. |

Current Interests

Service user and carer involvement in training, education, practice, and delivery of services

Mental health and spirituality

Recovery and social inclusion

Self-management of health conditions

Areas of Research

The place of personal experience in training and practice.

Laura works with Helen Wood, (trainee) and Sue Holttum to facilitate an action research project which explores personal /professional boundaries. Mental Health professionals bring their own experiences, including those of mental ill health to their training. This project aims to explore what this might mean for trainees, trainers and health providers.

Person to Person

What factors lead to people having a positive experience of using mental health services? Laura is working with Sue Holttum and other staff to explore this question. Mental Health: Person to Person

Other Activities

Referee and member of Editorial Board,  Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Emerald. ISSN : 1755-6228

Publications

  • Lea, L. (2010) 'What's it Like Having a Nervous Breakdown? Can you recover?'  In Stickley, T. and Basset, T (eds). Voices of Experience: Narratives of Mental Health Survivors. Wiley-Blackwell.

  • Waite, J., Basset, T. Lea, L and McMenamin B. (2009) E-learning for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Modules for Mental Health Assessors. Department of Health/Royal College of Psychiatrists. Available from http://www.e-lfh.org.uk/projects/dols/team.html

  • Lea, L. (2008) Providing Service User Centred Care. In Stickley,T and Bassett, T(eds). Learning about mental Health Practice. Wiley-Blackwell.

  • Lea, L. (2006) Acute Solutions and Beyond: Lessons to be Learnt from Service User Involvement. Journal of Mental Health Workforce Development, Vol.1, Issue 2, pp. 34-37.

  • Lea, L. Campbell, P. and Basset, T. (2005) Involving Service Users and Carers in The Ten Essential Shared Capabilities learning pack for mental health practice, NHSU.

  • Lea, L. (2004) Body, Mind, Spirit and Soul. Mental Health Today. September issue, pp.35-37