Associates

Christine Hewitt

Christine has a mental health background spanning many years. She was a member of the Mental Health Act Commission for nine years and is now a Lord Chancellor's Visitor and a Member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. Christine is also a Visiting Lecturer at the School of Healthcare in the University of Leeds.

Kamlesh Chahal

Kamlesh is the senior solicitor at the Leeds Law Centre. She is a President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and a Chair in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal. She is also an asssessor for the Law Society's mental health panel.

Catherine Grimshaw

Catherine qualified as a solicitor in 1980 and currently works as a sole practitioner, specialising in mental health law and training for mental health professionals. For the last 8 years she has acted as Consultant Solicitor to Fieldings Porter Solicitors in Bolton, representing service users both informal and subject to compulsion, particularly where there are issues concerning their capacity to make decisions and their legal rights. Catherine was a legal member of the Mental Health Act Commission from 1995 to 2002. She also writes regularly on mental health matters for a range of journals including Psychiatric Care, Community Care and MIND’s bi-monthly magazine.

David Hewitt

David is a solicitor and partner in Hempsons Solicitors, specialising in health litigation and mental health law. He is a visiting fellow at the School of Law, Northumbria University. He has written many published articles on the subject of mental health law.

Dora Jonathan-Withers

Dora trained as a psychologist. Her early career was spent in NHS practice followed by conversion to management. She has wide experience of the voluntary sector and co-wrote and published 'The Voluntary Sector - Mental Health Service Provision for a Multi-cultural Society' in 1999. She set up the first Registered Mental Nursing Home for women with severe and enduring mental health problems. Dora was the lead for Mental Capacity Act implementation with CSIP, West Midlands. Currently Dora works as an independent psychological consultant and trainer in mental health and as a locum manager.

Malgorzata Kmita

Malgorzata is a psychiatric social worker, who has worked in the Transcultural Unit in Bradford . She is active in the European Mental Health Movement. She is currently involved in training and independent lecturing and has delivered many conference presentations on issues of empowerment, human rights, ethics and values, women and the role of service users and carers in the delivery of services.

Robert Robinson

Robert is a solicitor specialising in mental health law, an MHRT President and a former member of the Mental Health Act Commission. He has wide experience of training Section 12 approved doctors, ASWs and mental health lawyers. He also has written many published articles on mental health law.

Leslie Sharpe

Leslie is the Lead Officer for CPA and the Mental Health Act in Hampshire. He was a founder member and chair of the Care Programme Approach Association and is keen to modernise the CPA to be an active force in Mental Health Service developments.

Ricki Westbury

Ricki is profoundly Deaf from birth and uses BSL as his first language. He works as a self employed trainer on Deaf and Disability issues. His company also provides and BSL interpreting service as well as sign language training and Disability Access Audits.

Pat Sands

Pat is a BSL Interpreter and trainer. Trained at University of Leeds MA Interpretation and Translation Studies. BSL and Leeds Metropolitan University in Law. Pat specialises in training on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Atul Ramanuj

Atual is Head of the M-four Translations, Manchester City Council's Translations and Interpretation service. M-four Translations is one of the largest public sector managed service within Europe . Atul regularly organises training for the interpreters and the users of the interpreters. Atul is a visiting lecturer at the University of Manchester , the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Salford . He has experience of over 18 years in the field of translations and interpretation. He works with other local authorities and organisation, promoting the development of translations and interpreting. Atul is keen in promoting the profession by recognising the contribution made by the interpreters in a variety of languages. Recently he published a resource pack named “ Championing Communication: Promoting a better understanding of languages and cultural diversity”