Adoption, Allocation and Advisory Committee (3As)
Applications for MHRN support are considered by an Adoption, Allocation and Advisory Committee (3As) that meets every six weeks.
The committee members check if a research proposal is in line with national mental health policy, and that it is free from major ethical and design flaws. They also consider whether the MHRN hubs are able to offer the support each project needs in the context of demands made by studies that are already running on the Network.
Committee members (listed below) consider all applications in confidence.
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham
Professor David Challis
Professor Tom Craig
Debbie Mayes
Dr Jesus Perez
Professor Rob Poole
Professor Joe Reilly
Dr Julie Repper
Dr Diana Rose
Professor George Szmukler
Professor Peter Tyrer
Professor Til Wykes (chair)
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham
Carolyn Chew-Graham is professor of primary care at the University of Manchester and a GP Principal in a small practice in central Manchester. She is the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Clinical Champion for Mental Health, and co-chair of the Forum for Primary Care Mental Health, a partnership between the RCGP and Royal College of Psychiatrists that aims to influence policy, develop educational materials for GPs and improve the care of people with mental health problems.
Her research focuses on the doctor-patient relationship. She has carried out research about GPs’ attitudes to their work, particularly in the care of patients with distress, chronic illness and multiple symptoms, patients with mental health problems and older people, and research about the interface between primary and secondary care. She develops and tests new interventions for people with mental health symptoms in primary care and is currently co-investigator on a Programme grant that seeks to increase equity of access to high quality primary care mental health services for hard-to-reach groups, including older people.
She was a member of the Guideline Development Group for the updated NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) Anxiety Guideline and was a GP clinical advisor for the NICE-led Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) process.
Professor David Challis
David Challis is a professor of community care research and director of the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Manchester.
Professor Tom Craig
Tom Craig is professor of community and social psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. He is also a consultant psychiatrist, working for services run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is the lead for the MHRN South London and South East Hub.
Debbie Mayes
Debbie Mayes works as a service user researcher at Lancaster University where she specialises in research into bipolar disorder. Debbie has had bipolar disorder for the last 30 years. In the past she has worked at the Institute of Psychiatry and the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
Dr Jesus Perez
Dr Jesus Perez was trained in psychiatry at Salamanca General Hospital, University of Salamanca, Spain. He finished his training programme at Bellevue General Hospital and New York University, USA. During this period, Dr Perez concluded his PhD in epistemology of psychiatry. He is hub lead for the MHRN East Anglia Hub.
He has focused his professional career and interests on two main topics: phenomenology and early intervention in psychosis (epidemiology, pharmacological research and service development). He is consultant psychiatrist in the award-winning CAMEO Early Intervention in Psychosis Service (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust – in partnership with the University of Cambridge) and senior researcher for the McLean First-episodes International Project at McLean Hospital (a division of Massachussets General Hospital and Harvard University, USA).
Professor Rob Poole
Rob Poole is a social psychiatrist who was an NHS consultant for 28 years before taking an academic post in 2009. He trained at St George’s Hospital, London and in Oxford. From 1988 to 2004, he worked in a deprived part of central Liverpool. He was closely involved in developing services such as the Criminal Justice Liaison Team and the Homeless Outreach Team. In 2004 he moved to a clinical post in rural North East Wales. His current clinical role is in liaison psychiatry.
He sits on a variety of committees. He is a member of the executive committee of the Mental Health Research Network Cymru, and he is the clinical lead for mental health for the Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee. His research interests include substance misuse (especially alcohol and the relationship between substance misuse and mental illness), the care of people with intractable mental illness, prescribing practice in psychiatry, the nature of the relationship between social inequality and severe mental illness, and the relationship between mental illness and creativity.
Professor Joe Reilly
Joe Reilly is professor of mental health at Durham University, and clinical director for research and development at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. He is deputy hub lead for the MHRN North East Hub.
He also works as a consultant psychiatrist in an early intervention in psychosis team. His research interests are the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs, and the treatment of personality disorder. He is an investigator on three MHRN-supported studies – OASIS (Observational assessment of safety in Seroquel), PEPS (Psychoeducation and problem-solving in personality disorder trial) and ADVANCE (Evaluation of new psychiatric hospital implementation). He takes a keen interest in supporting and encouraging clinicians to embed research in their everyday work.
Dr Julie Repper
Julie Repper is currently recovery lead in Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, associate professor of recovery and social inclusion at the University of Nottingham, recovery consultant for the NHS Confederation/Centre for Mental Health and director of two service user-led voluntary sector groups.
Julie has worked in mental health services for 30 years and has used them intermittently for 31 years. She works collaboratively with people who have experience of both using services and of caring for a family member or friend to develop innovative training, research and service developments to facilitate recovery. She is currently leading the development of peer support workers’ training and employment in local services, including carer peers. Julie is chair of FACTOR, the MHRN network for family and friends, and a member of the MHRN’s Service Users in Research. She is co-author (with Rachel Perkins) of Social Inclusion and Recovery: A Model for Mental Health Practice (2003, Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall).
Dr Diana Rose
Diana Rose is a social scientist and has also been treated by mental health services all her adult life. She is co-director of the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and senior lecturer in user-led research. Both the research team and the title are unique globally.
All SURE’s work aims to put the voice of the service user into the research agenda in mental health. SURE has carried out work on consumers’ perspectives on electro-convulsive therapy (ECT); continuity of care; young people’s views of mental health in primary care, patient’s views and retrospective views of detention and compulsion. The ECT study influenced National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
Diana has spoken widely at national and international events to promote the work of SURE and the importance of examining the direct experience of service users. The unit also receives visits from groups from across the UK and the world who wish to learn more about, and emulate, the novel methodologies and topics that have been developed.
Diana is currently co-chair of the NICE Guideline Development Group on Patient Experience in Adult Mental Health Services.
Professor George Szmukler
George Szmukler is a professor of psychiatry and society at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is an MHRN associate director (with special responsibility for service user and carer involvement in research) and a member of the MHRN Executive Committee.
He is a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology (BIOS Centre) at the London School of Economics and is also co-director (with Professor Brian Salter) of the King’s College London Health and Society Centre.
He was previously dean at the Institute of Psychiatry (2001-2006), and prior to that, medical director of the Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust.
His major research interests include ethical and legal aspects of psychiatry – especially mental health law reform and research on methods aimed at reducing the use of coercion in the treatment of patients with mental disorders – and service users as collaborators and co-investigators in research. In the past, his work has focused on health services research and research about eating disorders.
Professor Peter Tyrer
Peter Tyrer is the head of the Centre for Mental Health at Imperial College and honorary consultant at Central North West London Foundation NHS Trust. He is lead for the MHRN North London Hub.
He has worked in community psychiatry, assertive outreach and rehabilitation for 22 years.
His main research interests are in the classification and treatment of common mental disorders and personality disorder, with a particular interest in psychological and environmental management of these conditions. He is editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry and chair of the Personality Disorder Section of the World Psychiatric Association. He is currently involved with the World Health Organisation in its revision of the International Classification of Diseases.
Professor Til Wykes (chair)
Til Wykes is professor of clinical psychology and rehabilitation and vice dean for research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. She is director of the Mental Health Research Network and she edits the Journal of Mental Health.
She has been involved in research on rehabilitation and recovery for people with severe mental illness for many years, developing services, and developing and evaluating innovative psychological treatments. Her current research mainly concentrates on how to improve thinking difficulties so people can take advantage of opportunities for recovery, and how to increase therapeutic activities in acute mental health services.
She founded and is now co-director of the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) at the Institute of Psychiatry, which encourages consumers of mental health services to become more involved in research. The unit is the first in the UK to concentrate on including the service user perspective by employing people who have experience of using mental health services.
She is also a consultant clinical psychologist working on an intensive care ward at the Maudsley Hospital in south London.
page last updated 15 November 2011