Winter Conference 2020

Professor John Ashton has 13 years’ experience as Regional Director of Public health for the North West of England and 6 years in Cumbria and  was elected President of the Faculty of Public Health of the UK., Royal College of Physicians (2013-2016). More recently he has worked with Maggi Morris as a Senior Public Advisers to Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council and the survivors and the bereaved of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Prof Ashton has also been Senior Advisor to the Mersey Police and Crime Commissioner, the former Minister for Northern Ireland, Jane Kennedy. He holds Professorial Chairs at a number of Universities Schools of Public Health and has written many peer reviewed scientific papers and academic books. His recent published books are ‘Practicing Public Health – An Eyewitness Account, Oxford University Press December 2019 and Blinded By Corona, Gibson Square Press October 2020.

Dr Diamuid Boyle is a Senior Registrar with Limerick Mental Health Services and a contributor to the college special interest group on evolutionary psychiatry. He has a degree in engineering and interests in digital health transformation, virtual reality technology and evolutionary psychiatry.

Dr Peter Buckley, MD, became the Dean of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in 2017. A psychiatrist and expert in schizophrenia, Dr. Buckley is also a Professor of Psychiatry. He is also Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs for the VCU Health System. Dr. Buckley serves as a member of the Administrative Board of the Council of Deans (COD) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and also chairs the COD Fellowship Program. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and served as Chair of the PanAmerican Division. Dr Buckley is former Chair of the NIMH Interventions Committee for Disorders Related to Schizophrenia, Late Life, or Personality, and regularly serves as Chair for various special emphasis panels. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Congress of Schizophrenia Research. Dr. Buckley has published 500 original articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He is senior author of a postgraduate textbook of psychiatry. Dr. Buckley has also authored or edited 16 books on schizophrenia and related topics. He is Editor of the journal Clinical Schizophrenia & Related Psychoses and was the inaugural Editor of the Journal of Dual Diagnosis. Dr. Buckley’s research predominantly focuses on the neurobiology and treatment of schizophrenia, including current studies on the genetics of schizophrenia and on the psychopharmacology of schizophrenia. Dr Buckely is the recipient of many awards, such as the American Psychiatric Association Administrative Psychiatric Award; the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for Mental Illness and the Distinguished Service Award, to name but a few. He has been continuously acknowledged since 2002 in “The Best Doctors in America.”

Dr William Flannery is President of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. From 2013 to 2017, he was chair of the Postgraduate Training Committee. He is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions Psychiatry, having previously worked in the Midlands and is now based at the Mater and the National Drug Treatment Centre Hospital in Dublin.

Dr Hugh Garavan, Ph. D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont. He received his PhD in Cognitive Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Cornell University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. He was an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin prior to his move to Vermont in 2011. His research uses structural and functional neuroimaging to study cognitive control and reward processes with a particular interest in how functional changes in these systems may contribute to addiction and related mental health issues. In addition to studying current abusers of numerous drugs, he has researched the importance of cognitive control systems for successful drug abstinence. His primary research focus of the last few years has been adolescent neurodevelopment including risk factors for psychopathology and drug use. He is a co-investigator on the IMAGEN project, a longitudinal neuroimaging-genetic study of over 2,000 teens in Europe (https://imagen-europe.com). He is a site PI and Associate Director of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, a longitudinal neuroimaging-genetic study of over 11,000 children in the USA (https://abcdstudy.org). He is PI on a T32 that trains pre- and postdoctoral fellows in the application of complex systems methodologies to large neuroimaging datasets (http://vermontcomplexsystems.org/education/complexbrain/) and is co-founder of the ENIGMA-Addiction working group which is a data pooling endeavour that combines neuroimaging data from thousands of substance users from around the world (http://enigmaaddiction.com). Dr Garavan has published 300 papers in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and addiction.

Professor Brendan Kelly, FRCPsych FRCPI is Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital. Professor Kelly has authored and co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers and 300 non-peer-reviewed papers, as well as a number of book chapters and books. His most recent books are Coping With Coronavirus: How to Stay Calm and Protect Your Mental Health – A Psychological Toolkit (Merrion Press) and, with Dr Muiris Houston, Psychiatrist in the Chair: The Official Biography of Anthony Clare (Merrion Press).

Dr Niamh McCarthy (MCPsychI, MRCPsych, MRCPI) is in her penultimate year of Higher Specialist Training. She is dual training in Psychiatry of Later Life and General Adult Psychiatry. She also completed Basic Specialty Training in General Medicine and has a Diploma in Clinical Leadership from the Institute of Leadership, RCSI. She has a particular interest in leadership and training. She is a past Lead NCHD for Mental Health, and current member of the Trainee Committee of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. She places great value in cross-specialty co-operation, and is chair of the Trainee Committee of the Forum of Postgraduate Medical Training Bodies. Her increasing concern about planetary health, and its links with human health worldwide, led her to become a member of Irish Doctors for the Environment and the Global Health Strategic Working Group of the Forum. Additionally, she co-founded and co-chairs the Subgroup on Incorporating Global Health Education into Postgraduate Medical Training Programmes.

Professor Henry O’Connell is Consultant Psychiatrist with Laois-Offaly Mental Health Service and Associate Clinical Professor with the University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical School. His academic interests include medical education, delirium detection and evolutionary psychiatry.

Dr Dennis Ougrin graduated from a medical school in Ukraine in 1998 and came to England to undertake his post-graduate training. He completed his higher training in child and adolescent psychiatry at Guy’s and Maudsley and is currently a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist leading Enhanced Treatment Service at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Ougrin is also a Reader in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Global Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. Dr Ougrin leads a programme of information exchange between the UK and Ukraine. His main professional interests include prevention of Borderline Personality Disorder and effective interventions for self-harm in young people. Dr Ougrin is the author of Therapeutic Assessment, a novel model of assessment for young people with self-harm. He also developed and tested an Intensive Community Care Service model for young people with severe psychiatric disorders called ‘Supported Discharge Service’. The model was evaluated in the first randomised controlled trial of any intensive community care service for young people in the UK. The results of the trial informed the development of intensive community care services in the UK and internationally. Dr Ougrin has expertise in conducting randomised controlled trials in the fields of psychological therapy and mental health service models. Dr Ougrin also works on developing a modular psychotherapeutic intervention for self-harm and on understanding the pathophysiology of self-harm in young people.

Dr Mara Petrut is a BST 2 trainee in UL deanery and a contributor to the college special interest group on evolutionary psychiatry. She has postgraduate experience in neurology and is interested in psychosomatic medicine and areas adjacent to evolutionary psychiatry as genetics, human development and neuropsychiatry.

Hoi Ching Ben Wong is a recent MSc graduate in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). He has a strong research interest in emergency presentations and community treatment alternatives for children and young people who self-harm.