“I had skills to offer; I wasn't just a patient”

We are delighted to announce Marilyn Ruttley as the winner of the Original Article category for the 2025 Elly Jansen Award.

Marilyn is a senior caseworker with expertise in attachment, trauma, and therapeutic communities, and is also an expert-by-experience speaker.

Her article, "I had skills to offer; I wasn't just a patient", examines the educational activities and aspirations of former patients at a therapeutic community in England. Through personal experiences, interviews, and focus group discussions with four former patients, Marilyn suggests that involving people with lived experience in research can improve confidence and skill development and act as both an educational and psychosocial intervention alongside traditional therapeutic approaches.

"I was personally really excited to read the winning article of the 2025 Elly Jansen Award. There's too much in the article to do it justice here, but if I can take one phrase, it would be from the title: 'I'm not just a patient.' This captures so much of what Elly Jansen held to be important, and what we at CHT believe is important in therapeutic communities (TC) and psychologically informed environments (PIE): every 'patient' is an integral part of creating, containing, sustaining and (in this article's case) evaluating the service." Dr Peter Cockersell, Chair of the Elly Jansen Award Committee

The award will be presented at the 46th Annual TCTC Conference taking place on 7-10 September.

During the conference, Marilyn will present on her article, and we will also announce the dates for the 2026 Elly Jansen Awards.