Charlie Lloyd, Professor of Social Policy and Criminal Justice, School for Business and Society
Charlie has a background in criminology, undertaking research at the University of Cambridge and then the Home Office, focusing on prisons, probation and drugs.
He joined the University of York in 2010 and currently teaches and undertakes research on criminal justice and substance use in the School for Business and Society.
He is Co-Director of the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre – a major, five-year ESRC investment in research into policing and vulnerability.
email: charlie.lloyd@york.ac.uk
Our 60-second interview with Charlie:
What do you do in the field of mental health?
My work has always been closely connected to mental health issues, while not being directly on the topic itself. From early research on suicide in prisons, through sex offences, probation, drugs in prison, policing and drug treatment, mental illness has always been inextricably part of these studies - focusing mainly on drugs and the criminal justice system. Currently, I am co-directing the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre, with a strong focus on mental illness and how this and other vulnerabilities play out in their policing.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
Two things spring to mind: firstly, working with criminal justice agencies, NGOs and people with lived experience on research projects - including interviewing people about their views and experiences. Secondly, those comparatively rare moments when research leads to policy and practice changes that beneficially affect the lives of people caught up in the criminal justice and drug treatment systems.
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Getting funding for research ideas; obtaining the multiple permissions required to undertake research with potentially vulnerable people.
What impact do you hope your work is having- or can potentially have?
I think and hope that our work on drug recovery in (and most importantly after) prison has had an impact. Our recently-initiated ESRC Centre carries great potential to impact on our understanding of the policing of people with mental illness and work with partners to make improvements.
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
Focus more on the present. Easily said.