Submitted by acs95 on Wed, 19/03/2025 - 11:40
Name: Jodie Rawles
Research group: Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group
Supervisor: Dr. Isabel Clare
Advisor: Dr. Jillian Craigie (Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London)
Title of your PhD: Supporting the contraceptive decision-making of adults with intellectual disabilities: A socio-legal examination.
Can you give us a short background into what your PhD/MPhil was about?
There are longstanding debates about how people with cognitive or psychosocial disabilities should be supported to make their own decisions in life and have those decisions recognised by the law. Many of these debates take place at an academic, hypothetical level, lacking the integration of empirical data. My PhD sought to address this gap. In my thesis, I use the specific decision-making domain of the contraceptive choices of adults with intellectual disabilities as a vehicle to examine legal debates and tensions in the field of support in decision-making. I achieve this through a mixed methods approach, drawing upon findings from my interviews with 13 men and women with intellectual disabilities, an online survey of 166 family members and professionals, and an analysis of relevant Court of Protection judgments.
How would you sum up your main findings?
I found that ‘information-related support’ (e.g. providing information and taking steps to help the person benefit from that information) was the predominant way that support for contraceptive decision-making was conceptualised and implemented by third parties. This aligns with the way that support for decision-making appears to be conceptualised under the most relevant piece of domestic legislation to this area, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (England and Wales). I use my empirical findings to argue why such an emphasis on the role of information in supporting decision-making has limiting and even harmful implications for practice. I propose that the conceptualisation of support for decision-making associated with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) offers a broader approach to supporting decision-making, which is likely to better meet the support needs of more people with disabilities.
What made you want to do a PhD?
In the few years prior to commencing my PhD, I was becoming increasingly aware of the shocking inequalities still experienced by people with intellectual disabilities in the U.K., and the various ways they are mistreated. This led me to enroll on an MSc in Mental Health Ethics and Law at King’s College London and I really enjoyed learning about some of the legislation relevant to the decision-making rights of people with intellectual disabilities. Studying on this course solidified my desire to further investigate the inequalities experienced by people with intellectual disabilities. I was fortunate enough to find a PhD studentship that enabled me to do this, where I could combine my newfound interest in mental health law with my knowledge of psychological research methods.
What was your best day during your PhD?
The day of my Viva was a very special day for me, as it is for many people. However, another day that really stands out is the cold, dark, November day, when I put together the first full draft of my thesis, Table of Contents, Appendices, and all. It was an amazing feeling to realise that, after all those years of hard work, I have something that I could submit. It was a brilliant motivator to get those final tweaks completed.
What was your worst day during your PhD?
I vividly remember a day in my third year when I received some feedback on my ‘interview study’ Chapter. This Chapter was the most important to me as it contained the voices of people with intellectual disabilities themselves and I’d worked particularly hard on it. I was advised (quite rightly) to make some significant structural changes and in my depleted state I burst into tears. I felt like I would be writing my thesis forever. However, after many pensive walks, mindmapping, and writing and rewriting drafts, I identified the connectors between my work and landed on the central argument I wished to make. From this point on, writing came a lot easier, but it was a painful journey to get there!
Do you have any words of advice to future PhD/MPhil students in Psychiatry?
For me, doing a PhD pushed me to develop academically and intellectually in a way that I had not experienced before. While this process is enriching and stimulating, it is undeniably uncomfortable at times. I’d encourage people to remind themselves that doing a PhD is a marathon, not a sprint. Your mental and physical health form your foundation. Apply your determination, stay open and curious to feedback and critique, but remember that sometimes, you just need a break.
What do you hope to do next?
The highlight of my PhD was conducting interviews with people with intellectual disabilities and I am now working on developing more experience of working with people face-to-face in clinical settings. I am also working on disseminating the findings of my PhD to different audiences.