After graduating in Social Sciences (Sociology and Social Policy) from the Polytechnic of Central London in 1984, I undertook an M.Sc in Sociology as Applied to Medicine at Bedford College, University of London. I then gained employment as a research officer in the Legal Department of National Mind, exploring the implementation of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act where I became interested in a broad range of mental health issues including civil commiment, coercion, drug treatments and user involvement. During that time I undertook a part-time Phd at the University of Nottingham exploring notions of profesional dominance applied to policing and psychiatry. Between 1985-90 I was a a… member and then Chair of a Community Health Council in South London. I worked for a while as a free lance and contract researcher for the National Youth Burea and undertook part-time tutoring at various London Universities and medical schools until I was appointed to a full time sociology lecturing post at the Roehampton Institute University in 1989. I taught medical sociology, research methods and underook research exploring users experiences of psychiatric services. In 1994 I moved to the North West and joined the University of Manchester, the School of Primary Care and the National Primary Care Research & Development Centre. In 2001 I was promoted to my present position as Professor of the Sociology of Health Care. I was elected an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences in 2009 and in 2010 was appointed an NIHR Senior Investigator.
David Pilgrim is Professor of Health and Social Policy, Department of Sociology,nbsp;Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool, UK. After trainingnbsp;and working as a clinical psychologist he completed a PhD examining psychotherapynbsp;in the organisational setting of the British NHS. He then went on thenbsp;complete a Master's in sociology. He has worked at the boundary between clinicalnbsp;psychology and medical sociology for the past twenty years and has produced overnbsp;60 articles in peer-reviewed journals, based upon his research into mental healthnbsp;policy and practice. His years working in the British NHS provided him withnbsp;extensive everyday experience of… the theoretical and policy aspects of mentalnbsp;health expressed in practical settings. One his books, A Sociology of Mental Healthnbsp;and Illness (3rd edition, Open University Press, 2005), co-authored with Annenbsp;Rogers, won the British Medical Association's medical book of the year award fornbsp;2006. Currently he is writing a book on critical realism and mental healthnbsp;(Routledge, 2014) and is co-editing (with John Hall) a book on the history ofnbsp;British clinical psychology for the British Psychological Society. This will commemoratenbsp;the fiftieth anniversary in 2015 of the establishment in the latter of thenbsp;Division of Clinical Psychology.