Geoff Page - Biography

	Contact Details
	Email: gwp24@cam.ac.uk

I entered Cambridge’s MPhil in Criminological Research in 2007 with a thesis that focusing on two Drug Intervention Programme (DIP) teams’ responses to women, and people with histories of mental disorder. I was awarded Proxime Accessit (joint second place) for my performance in the MPhil, and my thesis acted as a pilot for my PhD. My PhD uses a predominantly qualitative methodology to look at several DIP teams’ responses to particularly complex or vulnerable drug using offenders, both in long-term case management, and during periods of acute crisis. At the time of writing, I have completed 8 months of participant observation in three sites, brief visits to a further six sites, and just over 50 interviews predominantly with DIP workers and mental health professionals.

My professional interest in complex, vulnerable or disordered drug users began with voluntary work in drug-focused organisations starting in 2004, running alongside a BSc in Criminology and Behavioural Sciences at Huddersfield University. My dissertation focused on patterns of service delivery for highly complex drug users, and the challenges posed by the convergence of abusive relationships and extreme emotional distress or mental disorder - particularly traumatic stress.

After graduating with first class honours, I began two years of professional practice as an Addictions Counsellor delivering group sessions and one-to-one counselling. The work was on one of Bradford’s more deprived estates, with a caseload consisting largely of criminal justice referrals. My time there raised a profound interest in the role of DIP, and how workers sought to understand, negotiate and establish professional relationships both with multiple other agencies, and with their clients. Directly associated with this was an interest in organisational boundaries – how organisations and workers manage anxiety, gatekeep their borders, and establish organisational culture and identity.

I am also currently a Research Assistant for Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe in a mixed-methods evaluation of two Integrated Offender Management pilot sites.

Research Interests

• Case managing non-statutory offenders
• Third-sector involvement in criminal justice
• The Drug Interventions Programme
• Integrated Offender Management
• Multi-agency initiatives
• Organisational psychoanalysis
• Substance misuse
• Mental disorder in criminal justice
• Dual diagnosis
• Women offenders