Learning Disabilities Research Group
Department of Psychiatry
Section of Developmental Psychiatry
University of Cambridge
Douglas House, 18b Trumpington
Road, CAMBRIDGE, CB2 8AH
United Kingdom
Enquiries & Reception:
+44 (0)1223 746124
+44 (0)1223 746100
FAX: +44 (0)1223
746122
Email: Sue Hampton-Matthews
I finished a B.Psych. (Hons.) at Flinders University in Australia in 2006 and started a PhD at the LDRG in 2007. My supervisor is Dr. Howard Ring.
A Difference in Degree or in Kind: The Neurological Changes that Occur During Intervention Programs for People with Autism Spectrum Conditions
Intervention programs such as Mindreading, developed at the University of Cambridge, have shown good efficacy in increasing the ability of people with autism to recognise emotions. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this change are unclear. My project is investigating this, to help to determine if it is a change in degree or in kind. That is, is emotional recognition one continuum on which people with autism improve as a result of intervention, or does the intervention make use of other abilities held by people with autism such that although emotions are recognised, they are recognised in a different way to that used by typically developing people? Answering this question will help improve intervention programs, perhaps making use of the particular abilities of people with autism.
I completed a BA in Geography in 2004 at the University of Cambridge, receiving my MA in 2007. I joined the LDRG in October 2004 to develop a PhD project in the area of mental capacity and intellectual disabilities, and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Studentship in Biomedical Ethics, commencing my PhD research in October 2005. I am supervised by Dr Isabel Clare and Professor Tony Holland.
I am investigating, in the context of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the legal, ethical and practical aspects of substitute decision-making on behalf of adults with intellectual disabilities who lack the mental capacity to make one or more autonomous decisions relating to their health and welfare. The project has two aspects:
1. An examination of the legal and ethical conceptualisation of substitute decision-making in legal, philosophical and policy documents, focusing, in particular, on the development and application of the "best interests" principle in both the common law in England and Wales, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
2. A study of the everyday decisions made, by support workers, on behalf of men and women with intellectual disabilities living in residential social care. This includes decisions about what to eat, how to plan the day, and where and when to go out. Applying a range of qualitative methodologies, I am examining the ways that these carers identify and operationalise the process of making substitute decisions in this setting.
My academic interests lie at the intersection of mental health law, ethics, policy and practice. I am also interested in bioethics more generally, and have been involved in organising the 2nd Annual Postgraduate Conference in Bioethics, ‘Why Bioethics? Our research in context’, held at King’s College, University of Cambridge, 30th-31st July 2007.
Dunn, M.C., Clare, I.C.H., Holland, A.J. and Gunn. M.J. (in press) ‘Constructing and reconstructing ‘best interests’: An interpretative examination of substitute decision-making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005’, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law.
Dunn, M.C., Clare, I.C.H. and Holland, A.J. (in press) ‘Substitute decision-making for adults with intellectual disabilities living in residential care: Learning through experience’, Health Care Analysis.
‘Acting in the ‘best interests’ of men and women who lack decision-making capacity: Critical insights from social care and feminist ethical theory’, Bioethics: Past, Present and Future, University of Birmingham, UK, 24th June 2006.
‘The ‘best interests’ principle and residential social care for adults with intellectual disabilities: Learning through experience’, Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference, University of Kent, UK, 3rd April 2007.
‘The best interests’ principle and residential social care for adults with intellectual disabilities: Towards a relational theory of substitute decision-making’, 30th Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH), University of Padua, Italy, 27th June 2007.
‘The construction of the vulnerable adult in English law’, Senior Seminar given at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy (CSEP), University of Manchester, UK, 21st November 2007.
‘To empower or to protect? Constructing the ‘vulnerable adult’ in English law and public policy’, Invited seminar given at the Ethox Centre, University of Oxford, UK, 27th November 2007.
PhD Student
I studied Medicine, with an intercalated BSc. in Neuroscience, at Imperial College, London. I graduated in 1996 and chose to specialise in Psychiatry. I’ve combined clinical training (on schemes based in Manchester and Cambridge) with an academic interest in Law and Ethics as they relate to Psychiatry. During basic specialist training, I gained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Law (College of Law) and MA in Medical Ethics and Law (King’s College, London). My dissertation considered the issue of preventive detention, against the backdrop of controversial plans to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. I joined the LDRG in 2004, using SpR research time to undertake a study of approaches to the regulation of involuntary treatment used in Commonwealth mental health legislation. I began a full-time PhD here in 2007.
The central purpose of this project is to examine the philosophical and legal principles underpinning the regulation of involuntary psychiatric treatment through policy and legislation, and to investigate the extent to which these principles inform day-to-day practice.
The first part of the project consists of an analysis of the way in which relevant philosophical principles are operationalised into trans-national legal frameworks and policy documents, and the weight accorded to those principles in the mental health legislation of Common Law jurisdictions.
The second part of the project is an examination of the ways in which principles conceptualised in legislation are related to the actual process of making mental health care decisions for (or about) others. Real-life assessments will be observed and analysed using qualitative methodologies, and semi-structured interviews of the participants (professionals and service users) will be used to examine their perspectives.
The project is funded by a Wellcome Trust Studentship in Biomedical Ethics and I am supervised by Professor Anthony Holland and Dr Isabel Clare.
‘A comparison of mental health legislation for involuntary treatments across the Commonwealth’. World Psychiatric Association Thematic Conference, Coercive Treatment in Psychiatry: A comprehensive Review, Dresden, Germany, 6th June 2007.
I graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2005 with a BA in Natural Sciences, specialising in Experimental Psychology. I then worked for six months as a Teaching Assistant with secondary school students with learning support needs. In 2006, I joined the Learning Disabilities Research Group as a Research Assistant, working primarily on two projects evaluating the pilot Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) services. I also worked on an ERP study of semantic processing in people with Asperger’s syndrome, and am currently working on a related project using fMRI.
In the meantime, I developed a PhD project proposal with Dr Isabel Clare and Dr Howard Ring in the area of decision-making capacity in autism spectrum conditions. In 2007, I was awarded the Pinsent-Darwin Studentship in Mental Pathology, and a Domestic Research Studentship (University of Cambridge), to support my studies.
My project is an investigation of the effect of ASCs on decision-making. Under the Mental Capacity Act (England and Wales) 2005, there is a general presumption that adults have the ability (or capacity) to make decisions about their own lives. This presumption is challengeable, however, when an adult has an ‘impairment of, or a disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain’ (Section 2 (1) of the MCA), which compromises his or her ability to understand, retain, or weigh up the relevant information, or communicate a choice (Section 3 (1)).
There is a fragmentary psychological and neurobiological literature suggesting that decision-making may be impaired in people with ASCs, but as yet there have been no studies of decision-making in ASCs in real-life contexts. My project aims to identify what kind of decisions people with ASCs find difficult and why, and also to develop an experimental methodology to examine decision-making capacity in ASCs in more natural settings. Findings will be considered within the current ethical and legal frameworks.
My supervisors are Dr Isabel Clare and Dr Howard Ring (Learning Disabilities Research Group, Department of Developmental Psychiatry). I am jointly funded by the Pinsent-Darwin Studentship in Mental Pathology and a Domestic Research Studentship (both from the University of Cambridge). I am also grateful to the Marmaduke Sheild Fund and the Charles Slater Fund (School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge), and The Health Foundation (Learning Disabilities Research Group, University of Cambridge) for their contributions towards my research costs.
Luke, L., Redley, M., Holland, A.J. and Clare, I.C.H. (2008). Hospital clinicians’ attitudes towards a statutory advocacy service for patients lacking mental capacity: implications for implementation, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 13 (2), 73 – 78.
Luke, L., Clare, I.C.H., Redley, M. and Holland, A.J. (2007). The Mental Capacity Act’s new Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) service: it’s importance for psychologists. Clinical Psychology Forum, 175, 52 – 56.
Redley, M., Luke, L., Keeley, H., Clare, I.C.H. and Holland, A.J. (2006). Mental Capacity Act 2005: evaluation of the pilot Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) service. The Department of Health.
‘Mental Capacity Act 2005: Learning lessons fromthe seven pilot IMCA services’, Disability Studies Conference, University of Lancaster, UK, September 2006.
‘Mental Capacity Act 2005: Evaluation of the pilot IMCA service’, 6th ‘Seattle Club’ Conference on Research in Intellectual Disabilities, Kendal, UK, December 2006.
‘Mental Capacity Act 2005: The Independent Mental Capacity Advocate Service in Health Care Settings’, Nordic Network of Disability Research, Göteborg, Sweden, May 2007.
I trained as a social worker and learning disability nurse, graduating from the University of Hertfordshire in 2002. Subsequently I worked in statutory and voluntary sector services as a social worker and care manager with adults with a range of disabilities and needs, including learning disability, physical and sensory disabilities, early onset dementia and palliative care needs. I am a member of the British Association of Social Workers. During my training and practice I developed an interest in complex care/multiple disability including palliative care and dementia in learning disabilities. I am a member of the National Network for the Palliative Care of People with Learning Disabilities. I am also interested in teaching, training and supporting direct care workers. I have organised training events on palliative care issues and on dementia for direct care workers. I have been involved in social work practice assessing since 2004 and qualified as a practice teacher in October 2007, after studying on the Practice Teaching Award programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Current research/academic interests Food, health and learning disability The private residential care sector Institutional power in the lives of people with learning disabilities today Ethnography/participant observation.
I have been awarded a studentship by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.
I received an MSc in Exercise Physiology from the University of Chichester in September 2006, having previously received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southampton. My MSc research project investigated the short-term power spectral analysis of heart rate variability in patients with recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes. For many years I have worked with children and adolescents with a variety of learning disabilities such as Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. I am currently researching under the supervision of Professor Tony Holland and Dr. Dan Gordon (Anglia Ruskin University) the physical fitness of people with Down’s syndrome and the physiological mechanisms that contribute to this. I am kindly funded by the Down’s Syndrome Association.
I received my first undergraduate Degree in Occupational Therapy from School of Health and Care Professions, T.E.I. of Athens in Greece in 1999. After working with people with intellectual disabilities and autism in various special schools and rehabilitation programmes in Greece I decided to further my studies in the UK and the University of Kent at Canterbury. I received my second bachelor’s degree in Psychology with Clinical Psychology in 2003. I continued with postgraduate studies at the Institute of Psychiatry-King’s College London in Mental Health Studies (Learning Disabilities). My MSc project was funded by Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust (Glaxokline Health care scholar) and investigated Challenging Behaviours on people with autism and the use of TEACCH method.
My research project under the supervision of Professor Tony Holland and Dr. Howard Ring investigates Motor Abilities and Sensory Issues in children & adolescents with Asperger’s syndrome. My phd project is funded by the Hellenic Republic (Greek State Scholarship Foundation).
Presentations
