Dr Hanna Pickard has been awarded a Wellcome Trust Society & Ethics Small Grant, for the project ‘Responsibility without Blame: E-learning for Mental Health and Allied Professionals and the General Public’.

As well as being an academic philosopher at UoB, Dr Pickard also works as a clinician within a specialist service for people with personality disorder and complex needs. As a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow (2010-2015), she developed an in-person training module based on her own research in philosophy, mental health, and criminal justice theory and practice. The training offered a conceptual toolkit for mental health and prison staff to reflect their own work experience and practice.

The aim of the one-year project (awarded £13,250) is to translate this in-person training into a free, online e-learning module for use by mental health and allied professionals and the general public. Although highly successful with trainees, the in-person training was limited in reach; this project will enable access to anyone, anywhere.

Dr Pickard will be working closely with three mental health partners who will act as advisors and test the online training. The project started on 1 September 2016.