Monday M3: ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’: medical and behavioural conditions affecting communication with police

Invited Speaker, Chief Executive Officer, Lesslie Young, Epilepsy Scotland, will be the keynote speaker for this session:

 

CHAIR: Nick Crofts
Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health, Australia

SPEAKERS:

  1. Lesslie Young,
    Epilepsy Scotland
    Crime Seen?
  2. Joanne MacIsaac,
    Affected Families and Police Homicides, Canada
    *Presentation titles to be advised
  3. Nathan Hughes,
    University of Sheffield, UK
    The discrimination and criminalisation of childhood neurodevelopmental impairment

 

Read more about Lesslie Young below:

A particular interest of Lesslie’s is the inadvertent entry of people with epilepsy into the criminal justice system. Certain seizure activity can result in behaviour of which the individual has neither conscious control nor memory, but which can be perceived to be criminal in nature. The repercussions of this can and often do have a hugely detrimental impact on their life and their seizure management. Lesslie has developed a close working relationship with the Judicial Studies Institute, COPFS and Police Scotland.

Her interest and passion for improving the life of people with epilepsy comes from personal experience. She has a daughter who has epilepsy and learning disabilities so she has felt the impact of how a diagnosis of epilepsy impacts the person, their family and their community.

Lesslie joined Epilepsy Scotland’s training department in 2006 and was appointed Chief Executive in January 2009. During her tenure Lesslie has introduced a new business model affording the opportunity for the private, public and third sectors to work together to provide a service for people with epilepsy in an area where none existed. This model can be replicated geographically and in respect of other long term conditions. The introduction of this model resulted in her nomination for Third Sector Director of the Year by the Institute of Directors.

Lesslie is a long-standing member of the Institute of Directors and was invited to join the first West of Scotland Vistage Group for Chief Executives in 2014. She also sits on the Criminal Justice Disability Advisory Group and for the last three years has presented regularly to Procurators Fiscal. Lesslie also sits as a Non-Executive Director on the Executive Board of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

Lesslie qualified as a general nurse in 1976 and a midwife in 1978 and worked for ten years as Charge Nurse in gynaecology. Subsequently she led the introduction of quality assurance systems and performance indicators to hospitals in the public sector in Scotland and then in the private sector in England.

On returning to Scotland Lesslie set up a charity providing a home-based teaching system to children with learning disabilities and their families whilst also working as a partner in a home care business and an occupational health consultancy.