From Accountability to Healing: Building Trust Together

Trust is the foundation of every healthy workplace, every effective health service, and every meaningful relationship between institutions and the people they serve. It allows individuals to seek support, share concerns, work collaboratively, and believe that they will be treated with dignity and respect. Yet trust is not automatic. It is built through consistent actions, meaningful accountability, and a willingness to confront harm when it occurs.

In this episode of #NoExcuse, host Guni Dias is joined by Professor Rosalind Searle, an organisational psychologist at the University of Glasgow whose research focuses on trust, ethics, and institutional integrity, and Professor Louise Stone, a clinician, researcher, and advocate whose work examines sexual misconduct and the systems that enable or prevent it.

Together, they explore how trust develops within professional and institutional settings, why abuses of power can remain hidden for so long, and what makes sexual misconduct particularly difficult to recognise, disclose, and address. Drawing on research, professional experience, and lived realities, they discuss how organizational cultures, hierarchies, and social norms can influence both the likelihood of harm and the willingness of individuals to come forward.

The conversation also examines the vital connection between accountability and healing. While accountability is often viewed as a process of investigation and response, the speakers argue that it is also essential to restoring confidence, supporting those affected by harm, and creating environments where people feel safe, respected, and heard. They reflect on the role that leaders, colleagues, institutions, and communities all play in preventing misconduct and fostering cultures of trust.

Ultimately, this episode is a conversation about our shared responsibility to create environments where trust can be given safely, where concerns can be raised without fear, and where justice, dignity, and healing are possible after harm occurs.

Please note: this episode contains discussion of sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and abuse of power. Listener discretion is advised.

#NoExcuse is produced by the World Health Organization. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of WHO.