Obituary
| Date | 12 June 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIDOB-05-2017-0005 |
| Published date | 12 June 2017 |
| Pages | 99-100 |
| Author | John L. Taylor |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Learning & intellectual disabilities,Offending behaviour,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Education,Special education/gifted education,Emotional/behavioural disorders |
John L. Taylor
Bill Lindsay was Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Head of Research and Clinical Director in
Scotland for the Danshell Group. He was previously Head of Psychology (Learning Disabilities)
for NHS Tayside and a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at The State Hospital, Carstairs, the high
secure hospital serving Scotland and Northern Ireland. Bill was Professor of Learning Disabilities
and Forensic Psychology at the University of Abertay, Dundee and he held honorary
professorships at Bangor University in Wales, Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, the
University of West of Scotland and Northumbria University in England.
Bill was involved in obtaining over £1 million in research funding and he published over
300 research articlesand book chapters. He also wrote and co-edited several landmarkbooks in
the intellectualdisabilities and forensicfields and he edited and co-edited numerousspecial issues
of academic journals. Bill gave hundreds of keynote addresses, conference presentations and
workshops on cognitive behavioural therapy for, and the assessment and treatment of offending
behaviourby people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.He received numerous awards
in recognition of his contributions to the science and practice of psychology with people with
intellectual disabilities from national and international organisations such as the British
Psychological Society and the National Association for Dually Diagnosed (NADD) in the USA.
Despite his diminutive stature, Bill was a true giant in the intellectual disabilities field. His recent
untimely death was a great shock to me along with countless others. Although I knew Bill a little
from when I trained and worked as clinical psychologist in Scotland in the mid-late 1980s,
we really got to know each other in the late 1990s when we started to talk about how we might
raise the profile of forensic work in the intellectual disabilities field. With characteristic vision and
foresight Bill suggested that because of our respective areas of clinical practice (his community
focus and my more inpatient orientated work) we could join-up our efforts to describe and study
the forensic intellectual disability field in a more comprehensive way. I had been flirting with the
idea of developing a clinical evaluation/research component to my practice but it was Bill who
pushed me into it with the force of his arguments and logic. Of course, he was right and I have
always been grateful to him for his persistence and encouragement in this regard.
From 2000 onwards Bill and I started working together on a number of projects. He advised me
on my doctoral research and supported me in setting up the Forensic Learning Disability Steering
Group of the NHS National Forensic Mental Health R&D Programme to promote Department of
Health research funding and support in the field. Along with a number of colleagues, Bill and I
were closely involved in the Rampton, Northgate and Tayside study on risk and personality
disorder assessment and the Northgate, Cambridge and Abertay Pathways study both of which
DOI 10.1108/JIDOB-05-2017-0005 VOL. 8 NO.2 2017, pp. 99-100, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN2050-8824
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JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR
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Obituary
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