Towards a Commemoration of Matt Simpson

22 Jan

With contributions from John Mitchell, Jill Hemmington, Rob Manchester, Valerie Walsh and Louise Blakley.

John: The sudden death of Matt Simpson has been a profound shock to many in the AMHP community across the country.

Matt was AMHP programme lead for Bournemouth University. He was also my predecessor as AMHP manager for Wiltshire Council, where he continued to act as duty AMHP, Friday after Friday, until two weeks or so ago. Even then, it was characteristic of Matt that he had been considerate enough to warn the current manager, Blair Percival, that he would not be able to attend that day.

Matt’s work, on what it means, legally and ethically, to ‘consider the patient’s case’ under s13(1) MHA, was far more than a PhD and the BJSW article listed at the bottom of this blog. It was rooted in many relationships in which much was achieved with quiet thought and few words. However, in withstanding pressure to detain people, particularly those whom he knew well, Matt could be passionate and persistent.

This determination to recognize and resist demands for detention, especially when driven by dysfunctional service responses rather than individual need, motivated Matt to examine the fundamentals of AMHP practice, and how we organize AMHP services to consider referrals in the first place.

Matt recognized the problems that can arise from the fact that “AMHP services are usually structured in a way that relies upon the swift transition from referral to an assessment interview with doctors (or diverting away from this) because AMHP duty systems often rely on workflow that can be started and completed by the same AMHP, usually the same day” (Simpson 2024). He introduced changes to his own service that allowed greater time in responding to referrals, and which provided greater clarity and support for staff. This established a culture which could genuinely start from a presumption of non-detention until proven otherwise.

As well as taking greater time to consider MHA referrals, Matt was amongst those, myself included, that regularly took s13(1) MHA decisions not to detain without involving doctors, often in situations where this was far from accepted practice. In response to the use of s5(2), for example. Even when you realize that “MHA assessment” is legally undefined, and that, aside from s136, there are few constraints on the way we ‘consider the patient’s case’, this takes experience, and courage. You must recognize that there are situations when the presence of doctors, however esteemed, is unnecessary and a risk for the person being assessed. More than this, you must ceaselessly advocate for this vision of the AMHP role and protect others from duress. Here, as in many other things, Matt rose to the challenge.

However, besides articulating a different vision of AMHP practice, Matt was invested in his task of educating and mentoring future AMHPs, and found time to support many on that journey, empathetic to doubts and sharing enthusiasms. He also undertook many workshops on s13(1) MHA issues with AMHP workforces using his favoured method of appreciative inquiry. Matt aspired to unify practice, education, and academic work in his approach.

In his usual swift but sensitive way, Robert Lewis communicated Matt’s passing to the AMHP Leads Network:

“Matt will be familiar to many colleagues in this forum for setting up the new Section 13 Community of Interest and his excellent training sessions and presentations on the subject. Matt was also a keen supporter of dialogical approaches and seeking to ensure that anti-racist practice had its rightful place in our considerations.

On a personal note, I am so saddened to hear this news and to lose Matt from our corner of the world. Matt was always a respectful and amenable colleague who I had the privilege to work with a lot over the last year. He will be greatly missed. I am sure I speak for all of us in wanting to extend our thoughts to his family, loved ones and colleagues at this time.

Both myself and John Mitchell, who also worked closely with Matt, are happy to take any direct contact from yourselves if you would like to talk about Matt or any implications connected to this incredibly sad news”.

A number of colleagues, Robert and myself included, will be working hard to ensure that Matt’s legacy to AMHP thought and practice is further developed, and would welcome contacts and suggestions. It is good to see the ideas of commemorating Matt and his work coming from Jill and Christina in the Leads Network.

Matt was full of life and health. Indeed, he took great care to be fit and healthy. It was something of a surprise to find myself downing a few pints with him on the eve of our joint presentation to the Yorkshire AMHP conference last July. He was relaxed and expansive, optimistic about our work and the AMHP cause, despite all the familiar difficulties. Only his partner and young daughter counted for more.

In recent months I would speak to Matt several times a week, refining ideas and discussing new projects and partnerships. His presence, thoughtfulness and kindness could make him seem even more alive. I took his existence for granted.

I was present in one of the Wiltshire AMHP offices a week last Friday. I no longer work there but wanted to be with colleagues at that moment. As the duty meeting began on Teams I said a few words, none of which I now remember.

Only on the way home did these lines of Philip Larkin come to memory:

The first day after a death, the new absence

Is always the same: we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind

While there is still time.

Jill: Matt’s work had started to resonate with all his colleagues in the AMHP world. Plans were underway to embed his ideas within national workshops to look at practice developments and improvements. The next National AMHP Leads Conference was being planned around him presenting his work and facilitating workshops to look at how to take the conversations back to local areas. He had a national reach. His enthusiasm was contagious. His gentle, warm, engaging style was effective. People wanted to work alongside him and share his ideas. Now it is with profound sadness that this planning continues – his work will carry on, but it is now in the form of a tribute. His legacy will continue through conversations and reference to his research and ideas – but it is a keenly felt loss to his colleagues that we will have these conversations without him. We thank him for his work, his dedication and his engaging ways and will carry on his plans and aspirations in his name.

Rob: Ours was one of those professional collaborations which formed in the Covid-19 pandemic and Matt was becoming an important ally across a number of different projects and initiatives, yet we didn’t actually meet in person until December last year – just six weeks or so ago. Those six weeks strangely seem a lifetime away now.

I stepped into one of the smaller rooms of the rather grand 19th Century Larkbeare House and there he was, sat amongst a small group of AMHPs from Devon, Torbay and Plymouth services. He greeted me warmly and we laughed that we both had legs and were 3D. I looked for his PowerPoint, his laptop and notes, plus other training resources and props – but the walls were bare and so was the table in front of him except for a travel coffee cup. I suspect he would have liked to have removed the tables too. For Matt was here to have a conversation with us, to start a dialogue. A full day’s workshop on s13(1) and AMHP referral decision-making delivered in the spirit of appreciative inquiry – the methodology by which he had completed his PhD on the same subject.

As an AMHP who has recently started to deliver some training sessions myself, I was immediately struck and totally captivated by his style of teaching. It takes guts to expose yourself, your ideas, your research to a day of dialogue without any slides to direct attention…but crucially it also takes a certain vulnerability too, an ability to tolerate uncertainty about where the conversation will go. Yet Matt had a faith in the process. His commitment to appreciative inquiry showed that he believed strongly that knowledge and organisations are built through relationships and social and cultural interactions. He knew that positive change in practice relies on these things too.

I never got to see him practice as an AMHP but I imagine that his style as a trainer reflected his style as an AMHP – pared back, lower key, warm, conversational – yet getting to the heart of things and taking the time to do so. Leaving the pomp and circumstance at the door, even leaving the law manual at the door to an extent. AMHP work is social, it is relational, it is political. Matt seemed to see the AMHP role in all of these dimensions, in high definition. He had such exciting ideas for the AMHP Courses he was in charge of – the syllabus was going beyond the law to ask more of students. To ask them what sort of AMHP they wanted to be. My last meeting with him was online, the week before he died, to discuss pulling together content on dialogic practice and lived experience of MHA assessments for the upcoming South West course.

I am at a loss to comprehend how someone so full of life, ideas, relationships and plans could so suddenly pass away. My thoughts are centred with his family and friends at this incredibly difficult time. From our community of practice point of view, the crumb of comfort I hold on to in the midst of his absence is that the progressive and timely ideas and approaches he was so instrumental in developing and pioneering are very much here to stay.

Valerie: I was first introduced to Matt four years ago when he started as an AMHP course leader. Over the last seventeen years, I have co-designed and co-facilitated two sessions for the AMHP course as someone who has experienced being detained under the Mental Health Act. Matt wanted to keep these sessions going as he believed this lived experience was invaluable for the student AMHPs

I was nervous of meeting Matt because I do not like change. Within half hour, I felt totally at ease. What struck me about Matt was is he viewed the person as the most important aspect of a Mental Health Act assessment even though the law needs to be complied with. The teaching sessions I did with him were called "The Service User and the Law" and “Ethics".

He always let me take the lead at these sessions and only intervened when aspects of the law needed to be clarified. After the session, I always felt good and I do not doubt that doing this work has had a very important impact on my mental health. When I sat on recruitment panels for the AMHP course, Matt always made me feel my feedback was most important.

I had many wonderful conversations with him. He introduced me to many pieces of work which would benefit from my lived experience.

Matt was a very caring humble man. Even though I have known him for four years, it was only at the last teaching session that I discovered his title was Dr Matthew Simpson. He was always looking out for me and bringing me coffee.

The AMHP community and Service Users have lost a truly remarkable person in Matt. He will be missed so much.

Louise: I first met Matt at an AMHP conference when he presented his PhD proposal on Section 13(1) in the pre-Covid days when face-to-face conferences were the norm. When I saw the title I was unsure of its relevance and thought about how dry it could be to look at referral management and pathways. I was wrong. Through listening to him on that day and in our subsequent conversations, I now see this process of ‘considering the case’ as an essential part of the AMHP role. What we do behind the scenes to reduce detentions and hold up the rights of the service users is vitally important. His recent published research not only explores this role, it also offers practical changes. It is inspirational to read. Matt was an excellent flag bearer, shining a light on this unrecognised role that AMHPs do. I hope even without Matt, the ripples of impact will happen so that phrases like ‘AMHP triage’ and ‘Section 13(1) report’ become commonplace. I will share his work and the editorial board will do likewise through our blogs and events.

Being a researcher can be lonely especially when you are working as a mental health social worker rather than in an academic role. Matt was one of the people who inspired me along this journey. Following a frustrating time writing an article about joining research and practice, I was at the point of giving up. In a crisis of confidence, I emailed Matt - please read if you have time and let me know if I should publish. He wrote back quickly: “I think it's a brilliant article! - my observation would be that I think adding something punchy at the end would be really good”. He then went on to say how busy he was. Despite this workload, I will always remember that he made time to support and encourage me.

Matt was so knowledgeable and widely read. I always came away from our discussions with a new perspective and something new to read. On one occasion I was discussing how if we remove a person's liberty, which subsequently is evidenced to diminish the person’s social and economic situation, then health and social care should offer excellent care and support. He said this reciprocity approach was in the last Mental Health Act review pre-2008 and sent me the report.

Matt was dedicated to centring AMHP practice within the social perspective and rights-based approach. He was developing the AMHP training programme at the University of Bournemouth to be more than just a legal and practical focus. I was privileged to work with him on the teaching and we were developing the service user perspective of the interview from a couple of hours to whole-day teaching. Through all these interactions with Matt, I enjoyed getting to know Matt as a person, sharing with each other our different exercise regimes and mutual interests.

I would encourage all to read Matt’s blog on this site ‘Appreciative Angst’. It is a small reflection of Matt as a person and as AMHP, with its focus on strengths and positivity for AMHP practice. Matt brought this appreciative approach to all he did.

On an individual level, I feel the loss of an insightful, inspiring and supportive colleague in research. As an editorial team, we feel what a huge loss this is to our community of practice, and he leaves a big legacy on AMHP research and practice

Matt wrote, “There are some truly amazing people among the AMHP community carrying out exceptional things in their own areas”. To me and many others, Matt was one of those truly amazing people.

Thank you Matt.

Towards a Commemoration of Matt Simpson

A Matter of Life and Death of the Bill

New Variant AMHPing – reflections on a pandemic.