Dr David Patton
Most behaviour-change work inside organisations still assumes that crisis is what drives people to change, and builds wellbeing, performance and engagement programmes around pressure. The evidence from people who have actually rebuilt their lives points the other way. What sustains change is a pull toward something better, supported by community, meaning and connection, and that has direct implications for how organisations design culture, support recovery from burnout and respond to people in difficulty.
David Patton is an Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Derby whose research on addiction recovery and human flourishing helps organisations rethink how lasting behavioural change actually happens.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with David Patton
- His research with Professor David Best, published in the Journal of Drug Issues, makes a clean argument that pull factors and turning points, not pain or crisis, drive sustained behavioural change. That reframes how leaders think about wellbeing, resilience and post-crisis recovery.
- He runs New Central Media, the platform behind Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison, a book with a foreword by Dame Carol Black that was accepted as national evidence for a Parliamentary review. That is a working track record of turning research into policy traction.
- His material is built with people who have rebuilt their lives after addiction and incarceration, which gives audiences a level of human authenticity that conventional behaviour-change keynotes cannot match.
- He has presented at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs and works internationally with the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities, so he speaks with the authority of someone whose research is taken seriously by policymakers, not only by academics.
- His framework on connection, collaboration, community and creativity as antidotes to isolation and burnout is directly transferable to corporate culture, employee wellbeing and engagement work.
Biography highlights
- Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Derby, Centre for Applied Social Sciences, Policy, Practice and Research
- PhD, University of Sheffield; Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Founder and Director of New Central Media; lead of Recovery Atlas, a global participatory photovoice archive
- Co-author with Professor David Best of peer-reviewed work on pull factors and turning points in addiction recovery, published in the Journal of Drug Issues
- Editor and contributor to Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison, Women’s Recovery Capital Pathways and Lived Experience Recovery Organisations
- Has presented at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, including a 2023 manifesto on stigma in addiction recovery
- Former Senior Researcher at the University of Cambridge; principal investigator on Home Office, ESRC, NIHR and Big Lottery Fund projects
Biography
The dominant assumption in behaviour-change psychology is that people change when the pain gets bad enough. Research published in the Journal of Drug Issues by David Patton and David Best argues the opposite. Across the life narratives of people in long-term addiction recovery, the consistent driver is not crisis but a pull toward something better: meaning, hope, community, a turning point. That finding moves the conversation about recovery, resilience and wellbeing onto a different footing.
Patton is Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Derby, based in the Centre for Applied Social Sciences, Policy, Practice and Research. His work is built directly with people who have rebuilt their lives after addiction and incarceration, using participatory methods including photovoice and digital storytelling. The international expression of that approach is Recovery Atlas, a global archive linked to recovery communities worldwide.
He also runs New Central Media, the publishing platform behind Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison, Women’s Recovery Capital Pathways and Lived Experience Recovery Organisations. The prison volume, with a foreword by Dame Carol Black, was accepted as national evidence for a Parliamentary review of prison-based recovery. He has presented at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs and works with the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities on projects across Latin America and Africa.
For organisations rethinking employee wellbeing, post-crisis resilience or behavioural change at scale, Patton brings something specific: an evidence base on what actually sustains change in the hardest cases, drawn from people whose lives depended on getting it right. The transfer into corporate culture, talent and engagement strategy is direct.
Key speaking topics
- Pull factors and turning points in behavioural change
- Addiction recovery and the science of human flourishing
- Connection, community and creativity as antidotes to isolation
- Lived experience and participatory research
- Stigma, marginalisation and inclusion
- Drug policy reform and the role of recovery communities
- Wellbeing and resilience after crisis
Ideal for
- CHROs and wellbeing leads designing mental health, recovery and resilience strategy
- Leadership teams in healthcare, criminal justice, social care and the third sector
- Conferences on the future of work, wellbeing, inclusion and human flourishing
- Policy and public sector audiences working on drug policy, prisons and rehabilitation
Audience outcomes
- A research-grounded reframing of what sustains behavioural change, drawn from peer-reviewed work
- Specific language for talking about pull factors, turning points and recovery capital inside an organisation
- Direct insight into how lived experience can be built into research, policy and programme design
- A clearer view of how connection, community and meaning operate as antidotes to burnout and disengagement
- Reference material from Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison and related publications for follow-up
Talks
A talk on what the recovery community has learned about sustaining change, and how those lessons translate into wider society and organisations.
Key takeaways:
- Why connection, community and creativity are practical antidotes to isolation, loneliness and burnout
- How recovery community values can be applied in workplace and policy settings
- A concrete language for designing environments that pull people toward change
A keynote drawing on peer-reviewed research with Professor David Best on what actually motivates lasting behavioural change.
Key takeaways:
- Why the assumption that pain drives change is largely wrong, and what the evidence shows instead
- How turning points and pull factors operate in real recovery journeys
- Implications for wellbeing strategy, post-crisis support and resilience inside organisations
A talk built on analysis of written reflections from incarcerated people, used to ask what a more humane society would look like.
Key takeaways:
- What people who have lost their freedom say about meaning, dignity and human flourishing
- How marginalised voices reshape the questions a society should be asking
- Practical lessons for any organisation thinking seriously about inclusion and human worth