Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft

Graham Thornicroft is Professor of Community Psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health and the Centre for Implementation Science, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He is also a Consultant Psychiatrist at South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, working in a community mental health team in Lambeth. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, is a National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator Emeritus, and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College London and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Graham took his undergraduate degree at Cambridge in Social and Political Sciences, studied Medicine at Guy’s Hospital, London and then trained in Psychiatry at the Maudsley and Johns Hopkins Hospitals. He gained an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD at the University of London.

Graham has made significant contributions to the development of mental health policy in England, including chairing the External Reference Group for the National Service Framework for Mental Health, the national mental health plan for England for 1999-2009.

He is also active in global mental health, for example, he chaired the World Health Organisation Guideline Development Group for the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Intervention Guide (1st, 2^nd and 3^rdeditions), a practical support for primary care staff to treat people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders in low and lower middle income countries, which is now used in over 100 countries worldwide. He chaired the External Reference Group for the WHO guidelines on the Management of Physical Health Conditions in adults with severe mental disorders. He has recently chaired the Guideline Development Group for the WHO guidelines on Mental Health at Work.

He is a Board Trustee of United for Global Mental Health, a Board Member for Mental Health and Human Rights (F-GIP), and he chairs the Board of Implemental. His areas of research expertise include: reduction of stigma and discrimination, evaluation of mental health services, and global mental health. Graham has written over 640 peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, and authored or edited over 32 books of which 7 are award winning. In recent years he has been named as among the most Highly Cited Researchers in the world by Clarivate. Graham has appeared in the media including BBC 1, BBC World Service, BBC Today radio programme, and The Economist. Graham received a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Awards in 2017.

Research Interests 

• Global mental health  
• Implementation science 
• Stigma and discrimination 
• Community mental health services

Teaching

• Global mental health 
• Health systems research 
• Stigma and discrimination

Expertise and Public Engagement

• Global Initiative for Psychiatry: Board Chair 
• Implemental (Maudsley International): Board Chair 
• United for Global Mental Health: Trustee 
• WHO Collaborating Centre at IoPPN, KCL: Director 
• Contributions to BBC television and radio, Guardian, Economist