Jakov developed the Bochum SALUS project together with Matthé and directs the research group, coordinating and supervising all subprojects. As a psychiatrist and clinical ethicist, he brings clinical experience and psychiatric and ethical expertise to the research group. He is involved in designing and carrying out quantitative and qualitative empirical studies as well as in analyzing the data and interpreting the results.

Jakov studied medicine and philosophy in Mainz, Bern and Bochum and was a visiting scholar at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. He coordinates the working group “Ethics in Psychiatry” at the Academy for Ethics in Medicine (AEM) and is a member of the commission “Ethics and Law” of the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) and the institutional review board of the medical faculty of the Ruhr University Bochum.

His research interests include coercion in psychiatry, psychiatric advance directives, competence to consent, and ethical aspects of research with persons under involuntary commitment.

Matthé developed and co-directs the Bochum SALUS project together with Jakov. Being trained as a philosopher, his primary task within the SALUS project is to analyze and clarify current debates about coercion in psychiatry from a conceptual and ethical perspective and to identify empirical assumptions in those debates for further empirical research. In addition, he is involved in designing and carrying out various empirical bioethics studies as well as in analyzing the data and interpreting the results.

Matthé received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam and was a visiting scholar amongst others at UC Berkeley, the University of Tokyo and the National Institutes of Health. Alongside his BA and MA studies at the University of Amsterdam, he worked as an auxiliary nurse in a rehabilitation center.

His research interests include competence to consent, coercion in psychiatry, research ethics, mental health law and psychiatric advance directives.

Esther Braun is a researcher at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the Ruhr University Bochum and has been part of the SALUS group since October 2020.

Esther studied medicine in Frankfurt and Mainz with clinical rotations in Israel, Ecuador and Colombia. In parallel, she studied Comparative Literature, History and Philosophy of Science (B.A.) and Philosophy (M.A.) in Frankfurt. She is currently studying for an MSt in Practical Ethics at Oxford University part-time. Next to her license as a physician in Germany, she completed the US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). She was awarded the Mildred-Scheel Scholarship by the German Cancer Aid during her research project in experimental oncology for her medical dissertation.

Her research interests include concepts of well-being in a psychiatric context and psychiatric advance directives.

Simone is working as a PhD candidate in the SALUS project and assists Jakov Gather with the administration of the SALUS research group. As a psychologist she brings along expertise in quantitative (and qualitative) empirical research, therefore she is primarily involved in the conceptualization, conduction and especially statistical analysis and interpretation of various studies within the SALUS project. Furthermore, she contributes to conceptual debates on coercion in psychiatry from a psychological point of view.

Simone has studied at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg and the Ruhr University Bochum where she received a MSc in clinical psychology and a MA in criminology and police science. Currently, she is working on her PhD in psychology.Since school and alongside her studies she has worked in several (mental) health contexts, such as inpatient and outpatient care for persons with (mental) disabilities.

Her research interests mainly include staff attitudes and decision-making processes towards the use of, the role of police in coercion against (mentally ill) people, mental health law and police law, treatment concepts in psychiatry (esp. open-door policies) and the prevalence and conditions of coercive measures.

Mirjam works as a postdoc in the Ethics of Psychiatry working group at the LWL University Hospital for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine Bochum and has been part of the research group SALUS since January 2021.

Mirjam studied medicine at the University of Hamburg with visits abroad in France, Australia and Sri Lanka. In parallel, she studied Philosophy and French Literature at the University of Hamburg before completing a master’s in Philosophy of Medicine and Psychiatry at King's College London. Her academic performance in her master's program was recognized with the Simon Dally Book Award. Her medical dissertation in Psychiatry at the UKE was awarded the Hedwig Wallis Dissertation Prize in Psychosocial Medicine.

In addition to coercion in psychiatry, her research interests include feminist theory with a focus on intersectionality, participatory research, and social epistemology.

Marleen works in the SALUS project as an MD student. In collaboration with other SALUS team members, she will carry out focus groups with service users, mental health professionals and other stakeholders on the opportunities and risks of self-binding directives.

Marleen studies medicine at the Ruhr University Bochum. She developed an interest in medical ethical questions in the course of her studies and internships and gained insight in another health care system and broadened her perspective on medical ethical issues during an exchange stay at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

Anne-Sophie Gaillard works as a research assistant at the SALUS project since April 2021, primarily within the subprojects on ethical challenges in forensic psychiatry and on advance care planning.

Anne-Sophie studied Philosophy-Neuroscience-Cognition (B.A.) at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and is currently enrolled in the master’s program Medicine-Ethics-Law (M.mel.) at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Between her studies, she worked as a research assistant for the clinical ethics committee at the University Hospital Magdeburg. During her bachelor’s studies, she has developed an interest in questions of medical ethics which she has pursued in various internships. Currently, her interests lie in the fields of advance care planning and the justification of coercion in psychiatry.

Christin Hempeler is a researcher at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the Ruhr University Bochum. Previously, she has already been part of the SALUS project as a student assistant since July 2019.

Christin studied medicine at the Hannover Medical School. In parallel, she studied philosophy and political science at Leibniz University in Hanover and is currently still completing this degree. As part of this, she completed a semester abroad at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.

Her current research interests include the conceptualization and ethical justification of (informal) coercion and psychological pressure as well as intersectionality in the context of psychiatry. 

Lea Philipsen works as a research assistant at the SALUS project since June 2021. Lea completed her bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a minor in German literature at the University of Hamburg and is currently finishing a master’s degree in Politics, Economics and Philosophy, in Hamburg as well. Within her master’s program she focusses on feminist concerns, especially on epistemic injustice as well as ethical and economic questions of care work. Lea’s term paper on epistemic injustice was awarded the Society of Women in Philosophy-Termpaper-Prize, awarded by the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Hamburg. Within the SALUS Group she works primarily on the topics of intersectionality and epistemic injustice of service users in mental healthcare.

Sarah works as a postdoc on the SALUS project. She is primarily responsible for designing and carrying out the qualitative subproject on the use of treatment pressures in psychiatry. Within the SALUS project, she offers consultation for the design and analysis of qualitative studies.

Sarah received a PhD in sociology from the University of Bielefeld. She was an associate at the New Delhi Institute of Social Sciences and spent several months in India and the Philippines for field research. Before joining the SALUS research group, she was as lecturer and as researcher at the social sciences department of the Ruhr University Bochum. Alongside her master’s studies in sociology and literature, she worked as a student assistant in a residential home for persons with mental disorders and epilepsy.

Her research interests include qualitative methodology, research ethics, socio and legal studies, psychiatric advance directives, and coercion in psychiatry.

Fee Roth works in the SALUS project primarily in the area of qualitative-empirical data processing and evaluation. Her research interest in psychiatric issues and the associated ethical challenges is based on her former work at the local clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry.

Fee Roth studies social science (master) at the Ruhr University in Bochum.

Anna works as a research assistant in the SALUS project in Bochum and supports the team members in carrying out empirical studies and data analysis as well as preparing publications. She also assumes administrative and organizational tasks.

Anna holds a Diploma in Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Bonn. During her studies, she spent six months at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. She is a trained EX-IN peer support worker and brings her experience as a peer scientist to the SALUS team. Alongside her work in the SALUS project, she studies medicine at the Ruhr University of Bochum.

Her interests include peer support work, participatory research, coercion in psychiatry and psychiatric advance directives.