Jeanette Henderson

Jeanette Henderson grew up in County Durham. ^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, she completed a Diploma in Social Work (DipSW) at the University of Sunderland. In 1994, she received a first class BA degree from the Open University. While a student at the University of Sunderland, Jeanette Henderson wrote and published an article in a peer-reviewed journal.^[1]

She qualified as an Approved Social Worker under the UK's Mental Health Act, serving in this role with Durham County Council from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, after several years training social workers and working as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, she joined the Open University where she remained until 2007. At the Open University, she chaired the development and production of a new course, K272 Challenging Ideas in Mental Health,^[2] and contributed to the development of K225 Diverse Perspectives on Mental Health,^[3] and K303 Managing Care.^[4] In 2004 she gained her doctorate at the Open University: her PhD thesis was entitled “Constructions, meanings and experiences of ‘care’ in mental health”.^[5] She co-edited two books and authored fifteen journal articles and book chapters on the management and practice of mental health care, with a particular focus on the connections between mental health and family relationships. Both the books achieved a very broad international reach,^[6][7] as have a significant number of the articles. Her expertise in the field of mental health was formally recognised in her appointment by the Lord Chancellor's Office as a Specialist Lay Judge for the Mental Health Review Tribunal (Northern Region) where she served from 2003 to 2010.^{[citation needed]}