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Researching Mediation of Medical Treatment Disputes
February 15, 2023
Dr Jaime Lindsey, currently Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex (soon to be Associate Professor of Law at the University of Reading) is leading this research project to enable in-depth analysis of the use of mediation to resolve medical treatment disputes.
Funded by an ESRC New Investigator Grant, the core aim of the research is to understand whether and, if so, the extent to which, mediation can and should be viewed as a form of therapeutic justice in medical treatment disputes. The research will develop a model of therapeutic justice which will then be tested and refined through the collection and analysis of original empirical data.
The study is now recruiting participants for this exciting research project. We would like to hear from mediators, healthcare professionals, patients and family members who have been involved in the mediation of medical treatment disputes. This will include disagreements that arise between patients, health professionals and family members regarding the provision of health and care to the patient. Within our study, we include disputes concerning adult and child patients.
This research will consider whether there are any therapeutic, or healing, benefits of using mediation to resolve disputes that arise in the medical context, as well as consider the ways in which mediation could become more therapeutic as an intervention. Building on our existing research on mediation in the Court of Protection, our aim is to collect much-needed empirical data on the use of mediation in medical treatment cases, to improve understanding of mediation’s use in this challenging area. As well as interviews with mediation participants, the research will involve observing medical treatment mediations and a questionnaire of those involved in the observed mediations. The research is expected to be complete by September 2024.
The anonymised findings will inform academic, policy and practitioner debates and will be used in publications. If you would like to take part or want to know more, please contact Dr Jaime Lindsey, Principal Investigator of this ESRC-funded research at j.t.lindsey@essex.ac.uk and/or via Twitter.
