Crime In Mind Seminar “ANTILIBIDINAL MEDICATION – MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF SEXUAL AROUSAL (MMSA) IN THE UK” will be held on Tuesday 7th May 2024, 5-7pm.
This will be a free virtual event via Zoom. Spaces are limited on a first come basis.
To book your space please visit our Ticket Tailor page here.
Professor Don Grubin
Dr. Callum Ross
Professor Belinda Winder
Dr. Rebekah Bourne
Professor Don Grubin
Don Grubin is Emeritus Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Newcastle University and (Hon) Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Trust.
He has many years' experience in the treatment and supervision of men who have committed sexual offences, and also has a longstanding research interest in this area. He helped develop and is a consultant to the NHS England Medical Management of Sexual Arousal (MMSA) programme.In addition he is responsible for the training and supervision of probation and police polygraph examiners who carry out polygraph examinations on individuals convicted of sex offences in the community.
Dr. Callum Ross
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist at Broadmoor High Secure Hospital since 2006. He has extensive experience of providing reports that address a broad range of different needs. He has provided medical input into mental health homicide and serious incident reviews, and has provided numerous reports for HMCTS (including the Court of Appeal), the Parole Board, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He undertakes work in a wide range of clinical areas and is renowned for his specialist knowledge in personality disorder. He has additional experience in all aspects of mental illness, notably in gender dysphoria and in ADHD. He has trained with and is a member of UKAAN (UK Adult ADHD Network).
Dr Ross is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. In that role, he is currently the lead researcher in a national study sponsored by the Forensic Faculty and the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH-UK) which seeks to establish the national practice of anti-libidinal medication prescribing. He presented initial data from this research at the RCPsych International Congress on 12 July 2023. He is also the lead doctor in the Forensic Faculty’s work to assist the Government in their response to the Justice Committee’s report on Imprisonment for Public Protection.
Dr Ross is trained in a large range of psychometric and risk assessment tools, including the HCR20, PCL-R, the IPDE, and the VERA (Violent Extremism Risk Assessment). He is also trained as a therapist in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). He is a trainer in advocacy skills for the First-tier Tribunal with Mental Health Lawyers Association. He has had many peer-reviewed research papers published.
Dr Ross is approved under section 12(2) Mental Health Act 1983. Professor Belinda Winder
Belinda is a Professor of Forensic Psychology. She is Research Director of the Centre of Crime, Offending, Prevention and Engagement (COPE), and part of the Sexual Offences, Crime and Misconduct Research Unit a at Nottingham Trent University. Working with people with lived experience, she seeks to make a difference in the world by designing and undertaking mixed-method research to inform and provide evidence-based practice and policy. Her primary field is sexual offending, but she also has a particular interest in life after prison and the reintegration of people into the community.
Belinda supervises both PhD students and DPsych students, and welcomes applications from people with lived and/or worked experience.
Belinda has previously been a Course Leader and Associate Course Leader for undergraduate courses (BPS accredited degrees in Psychology with Criminology, Psychology with Sociology and Psychology with Sports Science), and postgraduate courses (BPS accredited MSc Forensic Psychology and the DPsych (Forensic) at NTU. Previously, Belinda has worked at St Mary’s Hospital, UCL, Imperial College and the University of Sheffield.
Belinda works with the HMPPS, Ministry of Justice and the NHS and conducts research at a number of prisons across the UK estate and other secure forensic establishments. Belinda specialises in mixed-method research with a strong service-user voice. She leads the national evaluation for the use of medication to manage problematic sexual arousal and also led the evaluation of the Big Lottery funded Circles of Support and Accountability.
Belinda is a co-founder, (and was a trustee, Vice Chair and Head of Research and Evaluation for the Safer Living Foundation), a charity she helped set up in 2014 to conduct (and evaluate) initiatives that help to prevent further victims of sexual crime. The charity’s work has three main aspects: (i) rehabilitating people who have committed sexual offences, thereby reducing the likelihood of them reoffending, (ii) preventing people from committing sexual offences in the first place and (iii) evaluating what we do, and how / if it works.
Belinda received a Butler Trust Certificate for her work in prisoner rehabilitation in 2016, the Robin Corbett Award for Prisoner Rehabilitation in 2015 (as part of the Safer Living Foundation), the Guardian University Award for Social and Community Impact in 2016 (as SOCAMRU) and The Third Sector Charity of the Year in 2019 (as part of the SLF).
Dr. Rebekah Bourne
The prescription of antilibidinal medication to men who have committed sex offences has a long and at times controversial history. In some jurisdictions it can be a mandatory condition of release from prison, in effect making doctors agents of social control. Even outside legal settings international prescribing protocols tend to focus on risk management rather than clinical need. A different approach has been taken in the UK, however, where prescribing is driven by medical considerations, and is on a voluntary basis. The Medical Management of Sexual Arousal (MMSA) programme was introduced in 2014 in order to facilitate the provision of antilibidinal to those who would benefit, and to provide support for doctors in doing so.
This webinar provides an overview of MMSA in the UK. It will be chaired by Professor Don Grubin, who has been involved in the development of MMSA from its start. Professor Belinda Winder will review the limited evidence base for MMSA and describe the steps that are being taken to address this, Dr Callum Ross will present data from an audit of the use of MMSA in both the criminal justice and hospital systems, including its use under the provisions of the Mental Health Act, and Dr Rebekah Bourne will review the principles of MMSA in the context of a large pilot programme running in the southwest.
Speakers:
- Professor Don Grubin – Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Newcastle University.
- Dr. Callum Ross – Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Broadmoor Hospital.
- Professor Belinda Winder – Professor of Forensic Psychology, Nottingham Trent University.
- Dr. Rebekah Bourne – consultant forensic psychiatrist in the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Research can transform lives. We want to support discoveries about what helps people with mental disorder who have been victims of criminal behaviour, or perpetrators of criminal behaviour, and their families, and the clinicians and others who treat them and, indeed, the wider community when its members are in contact with these problems. More effective prevention is the ideal, when this is not possible, we need more effective, evidenced interventions for recovery and restoration of safety.