Ms Jeanette Copperman

Jeanette initially qualified as a community social worker, working mainly in the voluntary sector, this included working at Waterloo Action Centre in London an open door advice agency advising and supporting groups of local residents including the successful Coin Street Campaign. Jeanette went on to work in a local authority and then in East Anglian Regional Health Authority as a manager with responsibility for advising health authorities on service user and carer involvement. Jeanette set up Southwark Women and Mental Health Forum, a coalition of professionals and service users aiming to improve service provision locally and this led to Jeanette’s involvement in pioneering work on sexual assault within psychiatric settings locally and nationally. Jeanette was a founder member of the National Women and Mental Health Network which influenced the development of the first national DH policy on women and mental health – Mainstreaming Gender in 2003.

Since beginning an academic career Jeanette has developed a research profile on service user and carer involvement, mental health, gender issues, violence, food poverty and on interprofessional working. She also has an interest in adoption, attachment theory and its applications. Jeanette has taught and trained in universities on a range of social work and health programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and also developed postqualifying interprofessional training across health and social work.

At the Open University Jeanette is chair of K271 - The Law and Social Work,  a second level social work law module at the Open University on the social work programme.

Jeanette’s past and current profile nationally includes being

Research Advisor to 'Women Listening to Women; Voices of the Bristol Crisis Service for Women'

Social Work Advisor to the DH national Victims of Violence and Abuse Programme Research

 Advisory group member ‘Connecting People’ mental health research project based at The Institute of Psychiatry, London

Family Work Intern, Families and Schools Together, Middlesex University

Member Guardian Newspaper Panel: ‘Social Work The Next Generation’ September 2009

Safeguarding Advisor to London Ambulance Service on the implementation of 'No Secrets'

Accredited Trainer with the Gender Training Initiative in Special Hospitals Department of Health/ University of Kent

Founder member and coordinating group member of the National Women and Mental Health Network, UK.

Lead evaluator, researching user views of Annex, an innovative Eating Disorders Unit based at the Pathfinder Trust Executive Member

Women’s Lead, Social Perspectives Network Social Perspectives Network lead organiser for National Women and Mental Health Study Day and editor of study day papers available at www.spn.org.uk