Hannah is a mental health campaigner, activist and entrepreneur who took the post of Design in Mental Health Network CEO in January 2023. Her writing, enterprise  leadership, films and storytelling on the subject of mental health and identity have led to recognition; winning the Stelios Foundation Disabled Entrepreneur Award, featuring on BBC and in the Evening Standard, and being mentioned by the minister for Disabled People in the Houses of Parliament. She has been involved with the Design in Mental Health community since 2008.

Philip Ross joined the DIMHN board in 2013, and was elected as Chair in 2020. He supports DIMHN’s international workstream and was instrumental in the development of the new testing standard, INFORMED CHOICES. Phil’s drive to bring the testing standard to launch was a frustration shared across the industry, of the lack of repeatable and replicable product testing, leading to a scarcity of reliable information as to product performance.

Phil is Co-Founder and Director of Safehinge Primera, a doorset and hardware manufacturer helping architects, estates and clinical staff improve mental health environments by resolving some of the biggest safety issues and barriers to empowering patients. He shares Safehinge Primera’s purpose – to design for good and help protect people through vulnerable times.

Jonathan is a Chartered NHS Director of Estates and Facilities with over 25 years’ experience in the design and delivery of mental health, acute and community services.

He is a firm believer of the importance of the environment for recovery and that safe, robust and secure environments must also be therapeutic and healing.

As part of his role at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Jonathan has responsibility for all hard and soft FM services, sustainability, health and safety and capital development.

Phil is Director of Business Development for Intastop Ltd, having been part of the company for over 20 years. Phil’s vision for the future encompasses a drive to ensure regulations around mental health products continues to be at the forefront of legislation. For Intastop, his aim continues to be delivering exceptional customer service whilst addressing the needs of changing industry and environmental demands through a programme of product enhancement and development.

Beatrice is a Trustee of the Design Council, member of the Government High Street Task force, non exec director at Stockport NHS FT and member of the Department for Levelling up Housing and Communities expert panel. She is a NHS Design champion and as Chair of MerseyCare FT oversaw the building of five new hospitals, based on an innovative user centred approach. Beatrice has an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon.FRIBA) awarded for her work in Design and regeneration.

Cath is an architect and mental health lead for P+HS Architects, with over 20 years’ practical experience in the design and delivery of mental health facilities.

She has a hands-on approach and has delivered a wide range of projects all of which share an ambition to improve mental healthcare provision. Experience includes detailed design and construction expertise relating to Dementia, Acute, Learning Disability, CAMHS, Secure and Specialist services. ‘My passion for designing places that really make a difference keeps me energised every day.’

Steve is Professor of Health and Organizational Psychology at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University. His research interests are around service user experiences of secure mental health care and social remembering within marginalised and excluded groups. He is author of Vital Memory and Affect: Living with a difficult past (with Paula Reavey, 2015, Routledge), Psychology without Foundations: History, philosophy and psychosocial theory (with Paul Stenner, 2009, Sage) and The Social Psychology of Experience: Studies in remembering and forgetting (with David Middleton, 2005, Sage).

Paula Reavey is Professor of Psychology at London South Bank University, research lead and consultant on projects at the Maudsley and Royal Bethlem hospitals and honorary research consultant at St. Andrew’s Healthcare. She has co-edited two volumes, New Feminist Stories of Child Sexual Abuse: Sexual Scripts and Dangerous Dialogues (with Sam Warner, Routledge, 2003) and Memory Matters: Contexts for Understanding Sexual Abuse Recollections (with Janice Haaken, Psychology Press, 2009), and a sole edited volume, Visual Methods in Psychology: Using and Interpreting Images in Qualitative Research (Routledge, 2011 – now in its second edition).

Lianne is a Director in Medical Architecture’s Newcastle upon Tyne studio. A senior architect, Lianne has over 16 years’ specialised experience in the design and planning of healthcare buildings with a particular interest in design for mental health. This expertise has led Lianne to work on a wide range of acute and forensic mental health projects across the UK and in Canada, with a focus on effective stakeholder engagement and leading early project design stages.

Katharine Lazenby is a Project Manager at East London NHS Foundation Trust and an expert by experience. She delivers mental health training to health and social care staff in North East London and is a visiting scholar at London Southbank University, lecturing on subjects including psychologically informed environments. She has spoken at a number of national conferences about her lived experience of mental health treatment and recovery and advocates for coproduction to create excellence in mental healthcare design.