The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Winter Business Meeting
Will be held on Friday 22nd February 2013 at 13.30 hours, at the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, and will be chaired by the President, Professor Sue Bailey.
Agenda
1. To approve the minutes of the previous Winter Business Meeting held on Friday
17th February 2012 at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
2. Obituary
3. Election of Honorary Fellows
Nominations for Honorary Fellowship:
Dr Denise Coia
Dr Denise Cola graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1976. After
training in psychiatry she was appointed to a Consultant post in Glasgow and
quickly established herself as a first rate clinician who within a short space of time
had a national reputation for clinical excellence. In the early days of community
based psychiatric services in Scotland she was a key player in the development of
these services in South Glasgow. She demonstrated an early capacity for
innovative practice best highlighted by her involvement in a number of projects in
the area of Art & Mental Illness, and psychoeducational approaches to
schizophrenia, several of which led to publications.
She also championed women’s health issues and was an important contributor to
the policy group in Greater Glasgow which took forward this agenda. As her career
progressed whilst continuing in an active clinical role her contributions widened at
a local, national and finally international level.
She was the principal advisor to Greater Glasgow Health Board for 8 years and was
a major contributor to a number of important service developments. Her
contribution there led to her appointment as Principal Medical Officer for Mental
Health in the Scottish Government, a post she carried out to a high standard.
Amongst her major achievements were co -authoring the Scottish Mental Health
Delivery Plan in 2006, setting up the Scottish Dementia network and setting up
the standardised systems for benchmarking mental health services across Scotland.
She has also contributed to many UK mental health policy developments notably
during her tenure as RCPsych Vice President. She has served on the UK National
Confidential Enquiry Steering group, and chaired its Scottish sub-group, and was
a member of the New Ways of Working Steering Group.
During the last few years she has become increasingly active at an
international level and is Scottish lead on an international collaborative project
looking at common agreed clinical outcome measures.
Dr Coia has occupied every major office in RCPsych in Scotland culminating in her
tenure as Chair from 2001-2005, during which time she also served on the
Scottish Academy of Royal Colleges. She has served on numerous RCPsych
committees, including Council and the Court of Electors, and was Vice President
from 2005-2010.
Much more could be said about Dr Cola's contribution to psychiatry. She has been
an enthusiastic teacher of undergraduates and postgraduates. She has acted as an
undergraduate examiner in Glasgow and was an RCPsych examiner for 13 years.
She has been and continues to be a clinical assessor and a clinical advisor for the
GMC.
Professor Sir Neil Douglas
Sir Neil Douglas is an internationally known physician and in his role as
Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges his support for psychiatry
and mental health has contributed significantly to high profile of
psychiatry within the medical profession in the UK. He is Professor of
Respiratory & Sleep Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and an
Honorary Consultant Physician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He
has championed the provision of clinical services for sleep apnoea in the
UK and has published over 200 original papers, 2 books and 300 chapters
and reviews on sleep and breathing and is an international authority on
the causation, consequences and treatment of sleep apnoea. Previous
roles included President of the British Sleep Society and Secretary of the
British Thoracic Society.
Sir Neil was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from
2004-10, the longest serving President of that College for 250 years, when
his major focus was on training. For 5 years he was the Education and
Training Lead for the UK Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC). In
2007 he chaired a Review Group to manage the crisis in the Medical
Training Application System (MTAS) at the request of the then Secretary
of State for Health in England, Patricia Hewitt. Sir Neil has recently demitted
as the Chair of the UK Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. In this role he
championed psychiatry and was a significant influence in the development
of the Academy Report on Abortion and Mental Health, the relationship
between physical and mental health and professionalism. As Training Lead
at the Academy he ensured that Psychiatry was part of the curriculum for
Foundation Training. In Sir Neil Douglas psychiatry has a very good
champion and a very good friend. In honouring Sir Neil with the highest
honour the College can bestow, the College will also be honouring a friend
and true champion of psychiatry in the medical profession.
Dr Clare Gerada
Dr Clare Gerada is an outstanding medical leader. She is Chair of the Royal
College of General Practitioners and in that role has played a major
influential role in health and social care policy. Dr Gerada, with the support
of the majority of doctors in the country led a detailed critique of the
Government draft Health and Social Care Bill which, although it eventually
passed, reflected significant changes made as the result of concerns raised
by Dr Gerada.
Dr Gerada's work in the clinical domain has been outstanding and influential
and she has been at the forefront of integration of addictions healthcare
and broader mental healthcare, spearheading the establishment of a sizeable
cadre of general practitioners with comparable shared commitment. This
has been particularly effective through the establishment and operation of
the Certificate/Diploma training scheme in addictions run by the Royal
College of General Practitioners, which was developed and delivered in its
early years by Dr Gerada, and continues to be steered significantly by her.
Dr Gerada's work on improving standards of care extends beyond the
primary care domain and includes substantial contribution to the
addiction/mental health and primary care interface. She made major
contributions to both the 1998 and 2007 expert working groups
developing the "Guidelines of good clinical practice" (popularly known as
the Department of Health 'Orange Guidelines'). As an additional indication
of the high esteem in which she is held she was invited to chairthe NICE
Guideline Development Group on detoxification which produced its report
in 2007.
Dr Gerada's policy contributions have been major over the years and
include her work during the late 1990s and early 2000s as part-time
senior medical officer for addictions in the Department of Health, during
which time she contributed much to fostering the development of shared
care practices between addiction specialists within mental health and their
primary care colleagues.
Dr Gerada has always been an outstanding clinician, and her recent
leadership of the new service for addicted healthcare professionals owes
much of its success to her own dedication and commitment. Her attention
to service users and carers can also be seen in her inclusion of service users
as students within the training at the RCGP, where their status as "experts
by experience" was acknowledged.
In the field of medical education and training standards Dr Gerada has
persuaded the Medical Education and Programme Board of the need for a
four year training programme for general practitioners, bringing it more
in line with other areas of specialist training. This move is likely to
enhance the skills and experience of general practitioners in this country.
Dr Gerada has been a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists since
1988 following her training at the Maudsley Hospital. She was elected to
Fellowship in 2012. She has been a valued friend and influential
supporter of psychiatry throughout her career. She is an outstanding and
courageous medical leader.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot
Michael Gideon Marmot was born in London, England and moved to
Australia as a child where he was brought up, graduating in Medicine
from the University of Sydney in 1968. He had an interest in public
health from the start of his medical career being awarded an MPH in
1972 and a PhD in 1975 from the University of California, Berkeley. His
groundbreaking doctoral research linked the changing diets of Japanese
people, associated with acculturation, migrating from Japan, to Hawaii,
and California and their increasing risk of coronary heart disease. His
interest in social inequalities and health was sparked by, among others,
Geoffrey Rose at the London School of Hygiene in studies of the first
Whitehall Study. In this study he demonstrated a very marked social
gradient in mortality within the UK civil service. This concern with
social, and thus health inequalities, was the very productive theme that
has been central to his research career.
He became Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University
College London in 1985 where he initiated the well-known Whitehall II
Study to try to explain the gradient in disease in civil servants,
examining, in particular, the role of personal social support and work
characteristics. Although the study primarily examined coronary heart
disease, mental health was also considered as an important health
outcome. He led a very exciting and innovative department at UCL which was
hometo a number of prestigious studies, including the 'Health Survey for
England'. The focus of much of his research has been coronary heart disease but
he has not neglected mental health. He has highlighted the important role of
social inequalities in both physical and mental health, has raised the profile of
investigation of health inequalities on a global scale and, importantly, has
acknowledged the role of social factors in disease that apply to both physical and
mental illnesses. He has also carried out influential studies on risks of
cardiovascular disease and diabetes amongst immigrants from the Indian subcontinent finding the relationship with metabolic syndrome and insulin
resistance. He has been at the forefront of linking psychosocial factors, such as
low control at work, to illness. He has applied many of the research findings
from the Whitehall II study to the massive social changes in the former
communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
He became Director of a new International Centre for Health and
Society with the aim of better understanding the upstream
determinants of social inequalities in health in 1994. This expanded
his investigation of health inequalities globally. He has been a
member of the Royal Commission on environmental pollution as well
as many other influential government committees, particularly those
on alcohol and healthy diets. His research has always been outward
looking and internationally focussed and he has been a member of
many prestigious international networks examining inequalities in
health. He was chair of the WHO Commission on social determinants
of health from 2005-2008. He leads the English Longitudinal Study
(ELSA) and chairs the Department of Health scientific reference group
on tackling health inequalities. In 2000 he was knighted by Her
Majesty the Queen for services to epidemiology and understanding
health inequalities.
He also served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the Independent Enquiry
into Inequalities in Health chaired by Sir Donald Acheson, the former UK
Chief Medical Officer which reported in 1998. In 2008 he was asked to chair
a review of health inequalities in England to inform policy making to address
health inequalities. The review was announced at the launch of the
Commission on Social Determinants of Health report 'Closing the gap in a
generation' and reported in a highly influential report 'Fair Society, Healthy
Lives'. The recommendations in this report on giving children a good start in
life, on empowerment in work, on high quality jobs, social justice and
wellbeing are all as relevant to promoting good mental health, as to
promoting good physical health.
Recently on retirement from the headship of Department of Epidemiology and
Public Health at UCL Sir Michael has established a new Institute of Health
Equity planning to increase action on health equity through understanding
the social determinants of health by influencing global, national and local
policies, advising on learning from practice, on building the evidence base and
developing capacity. He writes and talks eloquently and he has raised the
profile of social factors and disease in a way that has illuminated both
research on physical but also mental illness and has led directly into practical
recommendations for policy to improve public health both nationally and
globally.
Professor Rutger Jan van der Gaag
Professor Rutger Jan van der Gaag is a truly exceptional psychiatrist and an
inspirational leader who has achieved tremendous things for psychiatry in the
Netherlands and Europe. Under his leadership his organisation was responsible
for getting the Dutch government to change its policy on parity of esteem for
psychiatric disorders.
He is Professor of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Radboud
University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, where he is medical manager of
"Karakter" University Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Director
of Training.
His topics of research In developmental psychopathology include: -Autism
Spectrum Disorders- ADHD, Infant psychiatry, -Depression in children and
adolescents; - Forensic and Substance related problems in adolescence especially
dual diagnosis, and persistence of early developmental disorders in adulthood
(early detection, neurobiology and neuropsychology; classification and comorbidity).
He has published over a hundred articles and book chapters on these topics.
He serves on a number of committees on youth (mental) health and editorial
boards, boards of Schools for Special Needs and Youth Care Organizations and as
advisor, amongst others to Autism Associations through Europe and worldwide.
Rutger Jan van der Gaag is the President of the Netherlands Psychiatric
Association (2008-2013). He was asked by his fellow peers to extend his term
of office and stay on to see the policy changes through. As President of the
Association he led the charge on the Netherlands government when they
introduced variation in charges for psychiatric patients. As his role was critical
in getting the government to change its views and as recognition of his
leadership, he was invited and appointed to chair the Royal College of Medicine
( Dutch equivalent of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges) the first ever
psychiatrist to take this on.
He has been a great and truly exceptional supporter of our College in Europe
and has been a leader of the federation of association of psychiatric
organisations under the aegis of the European Psychiatric Association.
In honouring Professor van der Gaag the College will be honouring a truly
exceptional leader who has contributed hugely in the field of policy making
in the field of psychiatry.