University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Thomas Hartvigsson

Researcher

Philosophy and Logic
unit
Telephone
+46 31-786 52 29
Mail
thomas.hartvigsson@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
412 55 Göteborg
Room number
C517
Postal address
Box 200
405 30 Göteborg

About Thomas Hartvigsson

I am a researcher in the FORevidence project, which is an interdisciplinary research project with the aim of developing the evidence base for forensic psychiatry. My research in the project concerns ethical questions that arise in forensic psychiatric research and care. One pressing issue concerns the aims for forensic psychiatric care and how they relate to each other. Having a clear idea of what the goals are is a precondition of developing evidence-based care. Another issue concerns how research participants should be recruited. The general rule is that research participants should give free and informed consent. However, in the case of forensic psychiatric patient the matter is complicated by the fact that the patients are in involuntary care and that due to their mental disorder they might lack capacity to consent.

My previous research concerns related topics. My thesis was about the patient’s right to make decisions regarding their own care and their ability to be responsible. I focused on the case of adolescents and forensic psychiatric patients to explore this issue. After my PhD I did a one-year post-doc at the University of Essex where I was part of a research project on the Mental Capacity (England and Wales) Act and the Mental Health (Scotland) Act. As part of that project, I contributed to a guidance on capacity assessments.

Teaching

My current teaching is limited to courses in global health and business at the advanced level as well as research ethics for PhD students at Chalmers. Previously I have taught practical philosophy, ethics of public health and supervised master’s theses in communication.

Public engagement

Since 2022 I am a medical ethics consultant at Region Halland. I have arranged and given several public lectures and made ethical analyses for the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare.