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07 February 2019

Professor of Mental Health Nursing joins King's

Alan Simpson's research aims to improve the delivery and experience of mental health nursing and mental healthcare.

Professor Alan Simpson
Professor Alan Simpson

Alan Simpson has been appointed Professor of Mental Health Nursing. This Professorship is a new joint position between the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC), the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) and South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, as part of a shared vision to deliver world-leading mental health nursing through outstanding research, education and clinical expertise. Professor Simpson will be in post from early February 2019. 

As Professor of Mental Health Nursing, Alan will be responsible for developing and leading a sustained programme of externally funded world-leading research, directly relevant to transforming mental health care through mental health nursing. He will also develop and deliver educational programmes in topics related to mental health nursing and contribute to teaching and play a leading role in developing clinical academic careers for mental health nurses.

Alan joins King’s from City, University of London, where he led the Centre for Mental Health Research, which investigates how best to deliver and improve mental health care and mental health nursing.

I am very excited about joining King’s College London and look forward to working alongside leading researchers, academics, and health service staff, service users and carers to develop and lead high quality research with the aim of improving the delivery and experience of mental health nursing and mental healthcare. I will build on my research of the last 20 years while looking for new ideas and opportunities for collaboration. I can’t wait to get started.

Alan Simpson, Professor of Mental Health Nursing

He recently completed two cross-national studies investigating the facilitators and barriers to delivering recovery-focused care planning and coordination in community and inpatient mental health settings in England and Wales. He was also a co-investigator on the successful SafeWards trial in which he facilitated collaboration with service users and carers throughout the five year study.

Alan is a registered mental health nurse researcher and has previously worked in the NHS in Sussex and Somerset and at the Universities of Sussex and Brighton and St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London.

Professor Norman, Executive Dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care said: ‘I am delighted Alan will be joining our Faculty in this collaborative appointment with the IoPPN and SLaM. Alan’s combined clinical and academic expertise is a great addition to our Faculty, where we believe there is a specialist role for the mental health nurse, educator and researcher to deliver quality care for patients and their families.’

Professor Craig Morgan, Head of the Health Services & Population Research Department at IoPPN, said: 'We are delighted to welcome Alan to King’s and SLaM. Alan is the foremost mental health nursing academic in the UK, with an outstanding track record of research, education, and leadership in the field. He will help to re-establish King’s as a world-class clinical-academic setting for research in mental health nursing.'