Catherine Polling

Catherine joined King’s in 2009 when she began her Core Training in Psychiatry on the Maudsley Training Programme as an NIHR funded Academic Clinical Fellow. She was awarded a Wellcome training fellowship during which she completed an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). Her PhD project used mixed methods to explore variations in rates of self-harm between different areas and communities in London. She is currently an NIHR funded Clinical Lecturer in General Psychiatry based in the Health Inequalities Research Group within the Department of Psychological Medicine and at the Biomedical Research Centre at the IoPPN

She trained in Medicine at University College London and did her Foundation medical training with South Thames Foundation School including jobs at King’s College Hospital and Southwark Public Health Team. She is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and works clinically in General Adult Psychiatry for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

She has expertise in psychiatric epidemiology, self-harm, health inequalities and the use of mixed methods including multi-level modelling, Bayesian disease mapping techniques, data visualisation using Geographical Information Systems and use of large clinical datasets as well as qualitative data collection using interviews and focus groups and thematic analysis.

She is a member of the Maudsley Cultural Psychiatry Group’s steering group, co-leading work to increase psychiatry trainees’ knowledge and skills about the impact of racism and discrimination on mental health through teaching and reflective practice.

Research interests:

• Mental health inequalities
• Urban mental health
• Self-harm
• Public Mental Health
• Use of routine clinical data
• Disease mapping techniques
• Mixed methods research

Teaching:

• Lecture on ‘The Urban Environment and Mental Health’ for Urban Informatics MSc, Centre for Urban Science and Progress London, Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, KCL
• Lecture on ‘Racism in Mental Health Services’ as part of Maudsley Cultural Psychiatry Group and dissertation supervision for the Mental Health Studies MSc
• Co-lead ‘Managing conflict’ day, IMPARTS Mental Health Skills for Non-Mental Health Professionals course, Department of Psychological Medicine, IoPPN, KCL.

Expertise and public engagement:

• Co-facilitator of course ‘Understanding Self-harm’, SLaM Recovery College
• Member of the Maudsley Cultural Psychiatry Group’s working groups for review of the psychiatry training curriculum (regular groups held with service user, carer and community representatives and with psychiatry trainees).
• Member of SLaM’s Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework pilot Data Workstream.

• Accredited by the Balint Society to lead reflective practice groups for health professionals