Dr Kay Wilson1
1Melbourne Law School, Australia
Biography:
Dr Kay Wilson is a legal scholar specializing in mental health, disability and human rights law. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Laws and an Honours Degree in Psychology from Monash University and a PhD in law from the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Mental Health Law: Abolish or Reform? (Oxford University Press, 2021) and is the lead editor of The Future of Mental Health, Disability and Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of Emeritus Professor Bernadette McSherry (Routledge, 2023). She is also published in many prestigious Australian and international peer-reviewed journals in psychology and law.
Abstract:
The social determinants of mental health draw attention to the way in which structural and systemic factors and the daily social and environmental conditions in which people live (like poverty, education, unemployment, work stress, violence, adverse childhood experiences and housing) impact their health, mental health and longevity. Such a preventative and public health-focussed approach stands in contrast to, and arguably challenges the validity of, the dominant individualised biomedical response to mental ill-health and the expertise of mental health professionals. Yet, there indications that psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers are beginning to acknowledge the importance of the social determinants and find ways of incorporating them into policy and practice. Further, the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System and the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Mental Health have emphasised the need to address the social determinants and outcomes beyond the health system. Such a conceptual shift raises a number of important questions about what it means for the role and expertise of psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers in trying to take the wider psychosocial context into account. This paper discusses this changing role both in terms of psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers as advocates and advisers in law and policy development, but also how it may impact practice including social determinants assessments, health-justice partnerships, social prescribing and embracing lived experience. The presenter will discuss her new Public Mental Health Framework encompassing the social determinants, human rights and the social model of disability and how it can be used to prevent mental ill-health and promote well-being.