Piers Gooding

Something seemed off in interviews. “We had finally figured it out: we were not hearing lived experience — we were hearing a ChatGPT ‘script,’ prepped to anticipate our questions and deliver just-plausible-enough answers in the voice of someone it imagined we wanted to talk to.”

Chatbots in Disguise

Researchers set out to study how people are using chatbots to manage their mental health, recruiting participants and compensating them for their time. Then realised they were hearing ChatGPT ‘scripts’ in interviews. Researchers beware! datasociety.net/points/chatb...

a smartphone on a table, with the reddit symbol on the phone

“Particularly concerning to me are the comments in that thread where the AIs seem to fall into a pattern of encouraging users to separate from family members who challenge their ideas, and other manipulative instructions…”

Supported Decision-Making and Legal Capacity: Insights from the Nordic-Baltic Seminar - THL

"Supported Decision-Making and Legal Capacity: Insights from the Nordic-Baltic Seminar". Interesting update from Northern European law and policy on legal capacity, including Norway’s Draft Law on Supported Decision-Making.
thl.fi/en/publicati...

Impact of the Concept of “Open Doors” on Coercive Measures - A Pre-/Post- Comparison With the intention of reducing restraints and increasing patient autonomy, the “Open Doors” policy (ODP) is an intensely discussed alternative to the …

combinations of different kinds of coercive measures as well as one-to-one supervision were applied less often. Regarding critical incidences, there were more abscondings, yet their duration was shorter and there were less suicide attempts recorded.' www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New psychiatric coercion study from Western Germany runs a fascinating pre/post comparison of the introduction of an 'open door policy' in one hospital. Findings: 'moderate reduction in coercive measures after the introduction of the ODP... [&] recurrent mechanical restraints...

Should you trust an AI chatbot with your mental health? | CHOICE Millions are using Headspace, Wysa, Youper and other popular therapy chatbots, but can AI replace a professional counsellor?

"Should you trust an AI chatbot with your mental health?" New reporting from @jarniblakkarly.bsky.social at Australia's independent and member-funded consumer news agency
@choiceaustralia.bsky.social, with commentary from
Prof Jeannie Paterson, myself, and others. www.choice.com.au/consumers-an...

"We agreed that forms of coercion will need to continue for the foreseeable future and that maybe it will never be possible to eliminate it ... but... we think we should work towards the eventual elimination of coercive treatment, if at all possible."

and behaviours that, far from being the grateful awkward response to the offer of support are raw wild expressions of grief and pain and anger. We do not always seek out help; sometimes all we feel is pain and pain is rarely something that we can easily deal with."

"I have a terrible feeling that some people think that if people were just nice to us and kind and addressed a few inequalities that face us everything would be ok, but we can enter realms where our reality is not amenable to reason and we can find we have emotions ...

A speech by Graham Morgan MBE, Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, to the 2023 Mental Health and Diversity Law Conference, is now available online, discussing coercion in mental health services. Powerful then, and I'm very glad it's available now. northumbriajournals.co.uk/index.php/ij...

Toward a New Conceptual Framework for Digital Mental Health Technologies: Scoping Review Background: Digital mental health technologies (DMHTs) are becoming more widely available and are seen as having potential to improve the quality of mental health care. However, conversations around t...

Researchers at two major UK health regulators suggest a 'New Conceptual Framework for Digital Mental Health Technologies' in a recent scoping review mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e63484

I was sorry to hear the Chief Editor of the Yearbook, Prof Charles Ngwena, passed away in recent weeks. A brief tribute (one among several) for Prof Ngwena has been posted here: law.ox.ac.uk/content/news...

New (open source) book review from me, of Beverley Clough's 2022 monograph, 'The Spaces Of Mental Capacity Law: Moving Beyond Binaries (Routledge, 2022)' for the 2024 African Disability Rights Yearbook. adry.up.ac.za/book-review-...

Predicting the Risk of Future Terrorism: Lessons for Mental Health Experts from the Benbrika Case Risk assessment is an important component of judicial decision-making in many areas of the law. In Australia, those convicted of terrorist offences may be the subject of continued detention in prison ...

@bernmcsherry.bsky.social and I co-authored this (now open access) column, "Predicting the Risk of Future Terrorism: Lessons for Mental Health Experts from the Benbrika Case". We focus on criticisms of the use of a prominent violent extremism risk assessment tool. www.academia.edu/127012915/Pr...

David Clifford and I raised this in concern in 2021: t.co/edqjIHXI32

"… before any further rollout of video monitoring technology is considered, we believe there needs to be significant research undertaken that is independently accredited and co-produced with patients, their carers and families."

“The Royal College of Psychiatrists and the mental health charity Rethink have also said they want to see the rollout of the technology paused.” t.co/dFRF5QoShj

The Future of Mental Health, Disability and Criminal Law This book brings together contributions from twenty-three world-leading scholars and commentators that address a range of contemporary and pressing international themes in mental health, disability an...

The paperback version of our edited collection (and tribute to @bernmcsherry.bsky.social), 'The Future of Disability, Mental Health and Criminal Law', is now out - and it's on sale!

Info here and get in touch for an extra discount code: www.routledge.com/The-Future-o...

Really thrilled to have had a book published as a tribute to my work. Thanks @ymaker.bsky.social and @pgooding.bsly.social for your hard work on this! #AcademicSky #PsychSciSky #MentalHealth

"... Building on the Compendium Report of good practices in the Council of Europe to promote voluntary measures in mental health services". Shameless self plug but I was pleased to see the Committee reference the 2021 report I was commissioned to write. www.coe.int/en/web/human...

Many in the group have endorsed the 2023 draft Recommendation by the CoE Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) on respect for autonomy in mental healthcare: rm.coe.int/cdbio-2023-1... (notwithstanding the bureaucratese, it's worth a look)

Open letter to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers and Ministers’ Deputies regarding the draft Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention A coalition of civil society organisations and and human rights bodies, including the European Disability Forum, European Network of (Ex)-Users and Survived Patients, Mental Health Europe, European As...

For anyone following progress on the Council of Europe draft Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention (on involuntary psychiatric intervention), a coalition of civil society orgs have published an open letter to the COE Committee of Ministers. www.edf-feph.org/publications...