Diana Rose 1950–2026

Diana Rose, pioneer in the mental health user and survivor movement, died on 30th May 2026 after a long period of ill-health.

There will be a half-day celebration of Diana’s life on the afternoon of Saturday 26 September in central London. If you would like to attend, and for further details, please email nikolas.rose@orange.fr. 

Tributes

Excerpt of tribute from Ayurdhi Dhar at Mad in America

‘… It was her personal experience as a patient, a survivor, an academic, an activist, and a researcher that made her intolerant of superfluous lip-service. She spoke against the co-option of service-user-led research, recovery movement, and of peer-support work—all of which had potential before they were mainstreamed. That’s what I liked so much about her—her refusal to accept half-baked solutions, knowing they often do more harm than good. Her activism had saved her life, she told me while remembering how it was another asylum patient, not the attendant nurse, who informed her that her restlessness was caused by haloperidol. Maybe she felt she owed other service-users the same honesty, and the same regard.’

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A Tribute to Distinguished Professor Diana Rose, School of Sociology, Australian National University:

‘It is with great sadness that the College of Arts and Social Sciences and the School of Sociology announce the passing of Distinguished Honorary Professor Diana Rose on 30 May 2026.

Diana has been a much-valued colleague and contributor to the ANU since joining in July 2021. Described by those who knew her well as a “force of nature”, she was a leading scholar and activist in the sociological study of mental health service user involvement….  Her last book, Mad Knowledges and User-Led Research, was published in 2022 by Palgrave, to great acclaim.

Diana’s work was informed by her own experience as both a researcher and user/survivor of adult mental health services. She conceptualised the importance of academic and operational knowledge production by people normally excluded from such activity by their “madness”, moving well beyond more orthodox models of “Patient and Public Involvement” in research. Drawing on critical theory, she sought to move away from the excessive individualisation that characterises the psy-disciplines and to introduce more sociological concepts such as structural violence, hostile environments and social suffering into the field. She fought for epistemic justice for those whose perceptions and experiences were excluded on the grounds that they lacked reason and credibility.’

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In memory of Professor Diana Rose, pioneer of user led research, IoPPN, Kings College London

‘Diana was the first Professor in User-Led Research in the world and was Director of the IoPPN’s Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) for many years. A social scientist and mental health service user, she pioneered user-led research, including the development of a model for peer evaluation of local services which has been used widely in the UK as well as in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Bosnia & Herzegovina.’

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Cathy Campbell, Emeritus Professor of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science

I got to the LSE Social Psychology after [Diana] had finished her doctorate, but came across her there indirectly in many ways, over the years we sometimes exchanged Facebook messages, and encountered one another in bits and pieces of work I did on the periphery of her research area.

She came across to  me as a towering intellect with such a strong and steely personal presence – both intellectually and personally – something that (certainly from my perspective) never wavered through what appeared to be a yo-yo from precarious health to severe illness and back again. She will certainly never be forgotten by those she knew personally and professionally.

And her courageous research work and writing opened so many doors for new ways of being and seeing mental health and power, both in relation to her own experiences and her personal research. When my child was small, and he asked why we were here, I always said that the greatest achievement in life was to leave the world in a better place than it would have been had he not existed. Diana, through her selfless dedication and fearlessness and courage in combining her own personal experience and intellect to highlight the gruesome politics of mental health, is indeed such a person.

Mike Crawford, Professor of Mental Health Research, Imperial College London

Diana was amazing and I consider it a privilege to have known her. As well as her expertise in analysis and critical thinking she was an expert in spotting insincerity, obfuscation, and flannel, of which there is sadly too much in healthcare.  

Her ability and willingness to call this out and at the same time be an effective leader and collaborator made her very special. 

I enjoyed working with her and will miss her. Diana did so much to advance mental health in the UK and beyond and was a pioneer in the advancement of lived experience in the development, delivery and evaluation of mental health services.

Cristian Montenegro, Senior Lecturer in Critical Global Health, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Kings College London

Having met Diana, the many conversations we had, the attempts at writing things, the bits of work I did for Eurika under her guidance… I cherish all this so much. I was lucky that many of the teachers that were close to me at the LSE knew her well and valued her work and were able to introduce her to me, back in 2011. As a migrant non-English speaker I was getting used to the at times shallow politeness of academic conversations, something different from by background in Chile. The depth, the honesty, the dark humour, all the ideas, the intensity of Diana… it was incredible, and I wanted more and therefore I decided to do a PhD on survivor activism. She had a massive impact on my thinking and commitment.

Daniela Ravelli, researcher on Brazilian psychiatric reform at University of São Paulo, Brazil 

I was deeply saddened to hear about Diana’s passing. She has been an immense influence on my work and thinking. The combination of her intellectual rigor, political commitment, and radical imagination has left a profound mark on the Psychiatric Reform movement in Brazil. Her ideas and contributions will continue to resonate and inspire generations to come. 

Piers Gooding, Associate Professor, Law School, La Trobe University, Melbourne Australia:

Since we heard the news in Melbourne, the conversations we’ve had also show me how much Diana influenced others, from legal scholars, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and most of all in the user/survivor movement, and particularly among those who have managed to break through into scholarship. I have no doubt whatsoever that her efforts in her own small part of the world have hugely improved the lot of so many (hard to put a number on it – millions, countless?) people internationally. Certainly, the effects of her work are felt deeply in Melbourne, and all around Australia and New Zealand, though I’ve seen her influence across the world.

Emeritus Professor Bernadette McSherry,  Melbourne Law School, Australia

I remember first meeting Diana in London many moons ago and being struck by her grace and how carefully she probed my rather naive acceptance of the practices of the psy professions. …. Her legacy will live on here in Australia and in so many places around the world.

If you would like to leave a tribute to Diana, please send it to nikolas.rose@orange.fr.