Dr. rer. medic.
Alexa Nossek
alexa.nossek@rub.de

Alexa Nossek is a medical ethicist. She studied philosophy and ancient history and received a M.A. from the University of Duisburg-Essen. Alexa obtained her doctorate in medical science at the University of Duisburg-Essen in cooperation with the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum. She worked as a researcher at this institute from 2015 to 2020.

One of her research interests is ethics in psychiatry. Here she focuses on peer support work, recognition between staff and patients, patient autonomy and capacity, coercion and avoidance of coercion, and stigma.

Jona Carlet
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich
jona.carlet@pukzh.ch

Jona studied medicine and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main with visits abroad in Italy, Switzerland, the USA, and South Africa. He is currently in further training to become a specialist in psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatics at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich.

As a research assistant in the SALUS project, he wrote his bachelor’s thesis on wellbeing in the context of serious mental illness as part of SALUS’ subproject on concepts of well-being in a psychiatric context. In addition to this topic area, he continues to be involved in ongoing research projects on intersectionality in psychiatry and ethics consultation in psychiatry.

Jonas' current research interests include concepts of well-being, feminist theories, and topics of intersectionality and participatory research. 

M.D., M.A.
Mirjam Faissner
Researcher
Institute of the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine , Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Mirjam.Faissner(at)charite.de

Mirjam Faissner has joined the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in June 2023. She works on ethical questions in the context of structural discrimination and health, ethics in psychiatry, clinical ethics and public health ethics, combining philosophical analyses with qualitative-empirical research.

From January 2021 to May 2023, Mirjam Faissner worked at the Ruhr University Bochum, first in the Ethics of Psychiatry working group at the LWL University Hospital for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine Bochum, then at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine. At the Ruhr University Bochum, she led the projects INSIST, funded by the BMBF, and INTERSECT, funded by the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr University Bochum. She has been part of the SALUS group 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, she received the 2022 Young Scholar Award for Ethics in Medicine from the Academy for Ethics in Medicine.

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

Dr. iur., LL. M.
Tanja Henking
Professor of Health Law, Medical Law and Criminal Law

Prof. Dr. Tanja Henking, LL.M. (Medical Law), has been a Professor of Health Law, Medical Law and Criminal Law at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt since 2015. She also heads the Institute for Applied Social Sciences there. She was previously the head of the junior research group "Ethics and Law of Modern Medicine" at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum. Her research interests include legal issues at the beginning and end of life, the rights of people with mental illness, with a particular focus on compulsory treatment and coercive measures, and issues of capacity to consent. Numerous publications and lectures on this topic have already resulted from her work. She is also concerned with digitalization and artificial intelligence in the context of medical care and mental illness in particular.

PhD
Laura van Melle
a.vanmelle@amsterdamumc.nl

Laura’s focus within the SALUS project is on self-binding directives in psychiatry. Being affiliated to the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine of the Ruhr University Bochum, to GGZ InGeest mental health care center and to the Department of Ethics, Right and Humanities at the Amsterdam UMC, her aim is to promote collaboration between these institutions in various projects on the reduction in psychiatry.

Laura studied psychology and obtained her PhD on the development, implementation and effect of the High and Intensive Care (HIC) model in Dutch mental health care at the VU University Medical Center in 2021. She is as a coordinator of the coercion reduction programme at GGZ inGeest and is a member of the HIC foundation board to guide further development and implementation of the HIC model.

Her research focus is on interventions and treatment concepts to reduce coercion and integrates (care) ethical perspectives.

Astrid Gieselmann
M.D.
astrid.gieselmann@rub.de

Astrid is a physician and associate researcher in the SALUS project. Astrid studied Medicine (State Examination), as well as Philosophy and History (Bachelor of Arts) at the University of Münster. She also obtained her Ph.D. at the Institute for Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at the University of Münster, focusing on the use of advance directives in psychiatry.

From 2016 to 2020, she worked as a research associate at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine in Bochum. Since 2020, she has been undergoing specialist training to become a board-certified specialist in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, initially at St Joseph Hospital Berlin-Weißensee, and since 2023 at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin.

Her research interests primarily revolve around advance directives in psychiatry and palliative medicine approaches in psychiatry.