Dr. Jeanette Henderson (1953–2019) was an author, academic, radio broadcaster, policy maker, social worker and
Tribunal Specialist Lay Judge in the field of mental health.
Early life
Jeanette Henderson grew up in
County Durham
County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
.
Education
In 1993 she completed a Diploma in Social Work (DipSW) qualification at the
University of Sunderland
The University of Sunderland is a public research university located in Sunderland in the North East of England. Its predecessor, Sunderland Technical College, was established as a municipal training college in 1901. It gained university status ...
as a mature student. In parallel with the DipSW course, she also studied for a BA at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
, achieving a first class degree in 1994. While studying at the University of Sunderland Jeanette Henderson achieved the relatively rare feat of writing and publishing an academic article in a highly-ranked, international peer-reviewed journal whilst still an undergraduate.
Career in social work and higher education
She qualified as an
Approved Social Worker In the United Kingdom, an approved social worker was a mental health
Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-be ...
under the UK’s Mental Health Act, serving in this role with Durham County Council from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, after several years training social workers and working as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, she joined the Open University where she remained until 2007. At the Open University, she chaired the development and production of a new course, K272 Challenging Ideas in Mental Health, and contributed to the development of K225 Diverse Perspectives on Mental Health, and K303 Managing Care. In 2004 she gained her doctorate at the Open University: her PhD thesis was entitled “Constructions, meanings and experiences of ‘care’ in mental health”. She co-edited two books and authored fifteen journal articles and book chapters on the management and practice of mental health care, with a particular focus on the connections between mental health and family relationships. Both the books achieved a very broad international reach, as have a significant number of the articles. Her expertise in the field of mental health was formally recognised in her appointment by the
Lord Chancellor’s Office as a Specialist Lay Judge for the
Mental Health Review Tribunal (Northern Region) where she served from 2003 to 2010.
Social and public engagement
Jeanette Henderson also made a significant contribution to the wider public understanding of mental health issues both in the UK and overseas. In 2001 and 2002, she presented two series of programmes “Health in Mind” on the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
based in India and the UK, exploring mental health issues around the world in their glocal societal contexts. Her understanding of mental health as a global issue also found expression in more direct and practical activities. For instance, in 2008 she spent five months working in
Bhutan
Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...
with the
Ministry of Health, advising on the development of its first mental health policies and assisting in the publication of the country’s mental health service framework.
Personal
Jeanette Henderson was married to
David Sadler (academic geographer and senior university leader, 1960) and had a son from an earlier marriage, David Mlynski (1976), an industrial and product designer.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Jennifer
1953 births
2019 deaths
Mental health activists
English social workers
BBC radio presenters
English academics
English women academics
People from County Durham (before 1974)
Alumni of the University of Sunderland
Alumni of the Open University