I am a Senior Lecturer in social work and currently Programme leader for the BA in Social work at Liverpool Hope University. Prior to this current post I was Director of Mental Health for the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of Salford.  In this post I was responsible for developing post graduate mental health programmes, academic enterprise and research.  In particular, I led a team in the Faculty who developed a Post graduate certificate in BME mental health for Community Development workers and another for Child and Adolescent mental health.  The former was part of a wider remit and involvement with the Government initiative dealing with discrimination on racial grounds in the mental health system in England– Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health, 2005-2010.

Trained as a Psychiatric social worker, my main practice has been with women, children and families. I trained social workers for twelve years at Liverpool John Moores University, including ASWS.  Apart from designing and delivering training on Anti-racist, Anti-oppressive and Cultural competence to a range of practitioners in Health and Social Care I have undertaken therapeutic work with children and young people on issues of ‘race’ and identity. I have presented work on issues of Race and mental health, Cultural competence, and Race and identity at national and international conferences and have written on Anti-oppressive practice in social work texts.

I have just returned from carrying out a small study on the role of the family in recovery from mental distress in Chennai, India. Naturally, all of this work influences and is part of my role as an academic at Liverpool Hope University.