DoLS/LPS Conference 23 March 2021

PROGRAMME

Maintaining Human Rights in Care Homes During a Pandemic

Dr Oliver Lewis, Barrister ( Doughty Street) and Edge Trainer

Observing the Court of Protection during a Pandemic

Professor Celia Kitzinger, Open Justice Project

DoLS Case Law Update

Aasya F Mughal (Chair)

Medication as a form of restraint

Petrina Douglas-Hall, Mental Health Pharmacist

Liberty Protection Safeguards.... are we nearly there yet?

Steven Richards, Edge Director

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES (In order of appearance) 

Dr Oliver Lewis

Oliver is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers where he practices in the Court of Protection and related public law matters with respect to people with disabilities or mental health issues. Before returning to the bar in 2017 he was executive director of Validity, an international human rights charity based in Budapest that advances the rights of people with mental; health issues or learning disabilities worldwide.

Oliver is also part-time Professor of Law and Social Justice at the School of Law, University of Leeds where he teaches on the LLB and LLM modules on disability law and leads the LLM module on global human rights advocacy and coordinates the international disability law clinic. He is a trustee of the Avon and Bristol Law Centre.

He has a law degree from LSE, an MA in Medical Ethics and Law from King’s College London and a PhD from the University of Leiden. Oliver has written extensively on international human rights law and disability, including a book published in 2007, “Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Oliver tweets at @DrOliverLewis

Prof. Celia Kitzinger

Celia Kitzinger is a scholar-activist with a background in academic Psychology and a 40-year academic career behind her. Her most recent scholarly publications (mostly ‘open access’) can be downloaded here. Celia’s involvement in issues relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 derives from and continues to be inspired by her family experience, since her sister Polly’s devastating brain injury in 2009 (click here). She is co-founder, with her sister, Professor Jenny Kitzinger, of the Coma and Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre.  She also co-founded, with her wife, Professor Sue Wilkinson, Advance Decisions Assistance, a charity that provides information and support for people wishing to ensure that their decisions not to receive particular treatments have legal force and/or to make their end of life wishes known in a format with a legal standing in best interests decision-making. The charity also offers speakers for conferences, provides bespoke training for health and social care professionals, and supports families and clinicians once a person has lost capacity and the validity, applicability and implementation of their advance decision is under consideration.

For the last decade Celia has been working as a researcher and advocate in relation to serious medical treatment decisions made on behalf of people who cannot make those decisions for themselves. This has included providing informal support for family members through best interests decision-making meetings and Court of Protection hearings concerning withdrawal of life- sustaining treatments (including, in particular, feeding tubes). She has attended and written about many such hearings – including the first ever all-remote hearing in the Court of Protection in March 2020 (click here). She contributes to many professional working parties, including the British Medical Association core editorial group that produced the national guidance on clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, the Royal College of Physicians guidelines development group for national guidelines on prolonged disorders of consciousness and (currently) the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death. She tweets as @kitzingercelia

Aasya F Mughal

Aasya is a barrister and director of Edge Training & Consultancy Ltd. She was called to the Bar in 2003 and has provided legal representation for individuals and businesses in civil litigation cases and for patients in appeals against their detention under the Mental Health Act. Aasya also gained considerable experience as an in-patient advocate working with detained patients on a number of mental health wards and also appeared before the Court of Protection in this role.

Aasya has volunteered for the human rights organisation Liberty providing legal information and advice to the public on human rights law and also volunteers her time to deliver training to families on the Mental Capacity Act through Edge. Most recently, she has been providing guidance to charities and members of the House of Lords on the Liberty Protection Safeguards including the drafting of amendments to the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill (now Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019).

She is co-author of a smartphone App, three books and four wall charts on the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards used by local authorities, hospitals, advocacy groups, universities and lawyers. These books are highly reviewed on Amazon.

Petrina Douglas-Hall

Petrina is a mental health pharmacist and manages the National Centre for Psychiatric Medicines Information Service at the Maudsley Hospital in London. Her current clinical caseload involves work on a specialist care unit where older adults are treated who have severe challenging behaviours due to dementia or a mental illness plus working as an independent prescriber in a children’s ADHD clinic. Petrina has also worked as a pharmacist in the past for HM Prison Service. Petrina is a Mental Health Act Reviewer for the Care Quality Commission, a role she has had for the past 20 years including under the late Mental Health Act Commission. Petrina is a Honorary Clinical Lecturer at King’s College London. She has authored clinical papers in peer reviewed journals on subjects ranging from reasons for clozapine discontinuation to as required medication for severely mentally ill people. Petrina is a contributor to The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry.

Petrina is married with children and cares for a son with severe learning disability and autism.

Steven Richards

Steven Richards is a Director of Edge training and consultancy and has worked in the mental health field for over 20 years, both for the NHS and voluntary sector. He has been an in-patient advocate for Mind and as an advocate Steven represented directly before the Court of Protection. Steven is a Mental Health Act Reviewer with the Care Quality Commission, reviewing the care and treatment of people detained under the Act. He has also worked with the CQC as a specialist advisor on the Mental Capacity Act and DoLS.Steven delivers training on the Mental Capacity Act and Mental Health Act across England and Wales to health and social care professionals. He has experience of training a wide variety of services on the MCA including local authorities, CCGs, NHS Trusts, the police, hospices and prison health services. Steven has spoken at a series of Health Education England conferences on the MCA at the end of life and most recently has delivered training on the proposed Liberty Protection Safeguards to members of the House of Lords.Steven is co-author of three books:

· Working with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – 3rdedition (ISBN: 978-0-9552349-5-8)

· Working with the Mental Health Act – 3rdedition (ISBN: 978-0-9552349-4-1)

· Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Handbook – 1stedition (ISBN: 978-0-9931324-0-7)

He also co-authors several wall charts on the Acts and an App on the Mental Capacity Act