Disability, Mental Health and the Ethics of Vulnerability

21 Feb 2019

This half-day seminar explores the concept of vulnerability in the contexts of mental health and disability-related research.

Specifically, the seminar addresses the following questions:

• How is vulnerability defined and understood in disability and mental health research contexts?
• What practices lead to the construction of some research participants as vulnerable in those contexts?
• How are institutional approaches to determining vulnerability e.g. ethics committees, posing challenges in research contexts, both to researchers and participants?

Research Papers:  

Dr Konstantina (Dina) Poursanidou (Survivor Researcher Network/National Survivor User Network, UK) 'Whose vulnerability? Methodological, ethical and political struggles in doing service user-led critical ethnographic research on violence in inpatient mental health care'.

Nicola Maxwell and Dr Claire Edwards (School of Applied Social Studies, UCC) 'Reframing ‘vulnerable’ identities: persons with disabilities and negotiating un/safety'.

Dr Katherine Furman (Department of Philosophy, UCC) 'Trust, Vulnerability and Research'.

Prof Mary Donnelly (School of Law, UCC) 'Vulnerability: Implications in Research Regulation'.