Sonia Johnson—helping shape mental health policy

Abstract

Sonia Johnson's interest in helping people has always extended beyond clinical medicine. At the end of her preclinical undergraduate years at the University of Cambridge, she studied social and political sciences and sometimes struggled to see a future in medicine. “However, I loved studying political philosophy and social psychology, and I hoped to take these subjects further somehow in my career,” says Johnson, now director of England's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Policy Research Unit (PRU).