Dr Sarah Ball
Since May 2008, I have been working on a project, funded by the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Programme, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies to investigate assisted eating and drinking in the care of people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. The ultimate aim of this study is to inform service development and good practice that goes beyond that of ‘clinical advice’ and addresses issues of partnership and social inclusion. My other research interests include the assessment of dementia in people with Down’s syndrome and others with intellectual disabilities, a topic which formed the basis of my Ph.D. thesis, completed within the LDRG (April 2005).
Dr Elizabeth Fistein
I’m a psychiatrist and I’m interested in the use of involuntary treatment from ethical, legal and clinical perspectives. I studied medicine at Imperial College London, intercalating a BSc. in Neuroscience. I graduated in 1996 and began work as a junior psychiatrist in Manchester in 1998, combining clinical training (on schemes based in Manchester and Cambridge) with academic study in law and ethics. I studied English Law part-time at the College of Law. My dissertation was a comparative analysis of the influence of medical and social models of disability in English and American disability discrimination legislation. I passed the Common Professional Examination and Post-Graduate Diploma in Law in 1999, a few months after the birth of my daughter. After a career break, I studied for my MA in Medical Ethics and Law at 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 returned to clinical psychiatry in 2002 and joined the CIDDRG in 2004, using research time to undertake a comparative analysis of mental health legislation in 32 Commonwealth jurisdictions.
For more information about my project ... My CIDDRG publications and presentations ...
Eva-Maria Hempe
My background is in natural sciences and in 2007 I graduated from the University of Regensburg with a Diplom (Master's) in physics. I started working with the CIDDRG in 2009, while carrying out my Ph.D. in engineering design at the Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge. My Ph.D. forms part of the work of the Adult theme of the NIHR’s CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and much of my empirical work was carried out in local, community-based, specialist clinical services for men and women with intellectual disabilities. I continue to be interested in improving complex health systems and now work with the Adult Theme and its commissioning and provider partners, and others, to support the implementation of research-based design approaches in services for people with intellectual disabilities.
Dr Emma Madden
I joined the CIDDRG in May, 2009. Before this, I was at the University of Ulster at Coleraine, where I completed my Ph.D. In my thesis I used qualitative perspective within a quantitative framework to examine retrospective accounts, and the perceived long-term consequences, of being bullied at school. Before this, I gained an Honours degree in Social Psychology, also from the University of Ulster at Coleraine, and a Diploma in Industrial Studies, awarded following a research placement based in the School of Nursing, University of Ulster at Jordanstown. During this placement, I was involved in several projects relating to people with intellectual disabilities, including investigations of their careers experiences, the prevalence of intellectual disabilities in Northern Ireland, current day service provision, future housing needs, and parental reactions to mainstream education and the statementing process for pupils with special educational needs. I am now working with Professor Tony Holland and Dr Isabel Clare as a Research Associate on the Adult Theme of the NIHR’s CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Dr Adam Wagner
I joined the CIDDRG after completing a Ph.D. in statistics. While I provide support to a number of projects, the main focus of my work lies in providing a range of different types of statistical support and analysis to projects carried out by the Adult Theme of the NIHR CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough. This means that I work across a wide array of projects researching the lives and experiences of people with intellectual disabilities, and those who support them, from carers to practitioners in the local clinical services.
Dr Jessica Wheeler
Research Associate
I graduated in Psychology from the University of Bristol in 2004, and took up a research assistant post with the Cambridge Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Group (CIDDRG), working on a multi-region project exploring the pathways of alleged or convicted offenders with intellectual disabilities. In 2007 I undertook an NIHR PhD Fellowship (Forensic Mental Health R&D Program) at the CIDDRG, under the supervision of Tony Holland and Isabel Clare. My PhD focused on social and environmental aspects of the lives of community-based offenders with intellectual disabilities, using mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches, with an emphasis on integrating criminological, theoretical and empirical work within the field of forensic intellectual disabilities research. I completed my PhD in 2011 and am currently very interested in the structure, governance, availability and quality of community support options; inter-relations within multi-disciplinary service provisions; and, in particular, relational and ethical tensions which arise in the day-to-day provision of 'good', 'safe' and 'appropriate' community-based support for alleged or convicted offenders with intellectual disabilities.
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