I am a Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist in South London and Maudsley NHSFT and a Visiting Researcher in the Section of Women’s Mental Health, IOPPN. I joined the Section of Women’s Mental Health in 2014 as a senior clinical researcher. My areas of expertise include psychiatric epidemiology, domestic violence and perinatal mental health.

 

I hold a medical degree from Oxford University, an MSc in Epidemiology from LSHTM and a PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from UCL. I have taught on undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses in KCL.

 

I have been awarded an MRC Population Health Scientist Fellowship, an NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Council (BRC) Career Development Grant, a King’s Health Partnership Rosenberg Foundation award and a South London Health Improvement Network (HIN) award.

Research interests

My main areas of research are:

• Violence and mental health (and in particular domestic and sexual violence against people with mental illness)
• Perinatal mental illness
• Psychotropic use in pregnancy and postnatally (including research on antidepressants for PND, Patient Decision Aids and data linkage research)
• Perinatal morbidity and mortality among women with mental illness (including suicide in the perinatal period)
• COVID-19 and mental health in the perinatal period

Teaching

• I teach on the BSc in Women’s Health in KCL and on the MRCPsych course in SLAM NHSFT.

• I regularly lecture on national perinatal mental health courses (e.g. Tavistock and Winchester courses).

Expertise and Public Engagement

• I co-authored the RCPsych College Report on Perinatal Mental Health Services (due for publication in Spring/Summer 2021)

• My PhD research findings had a high impact on policy and research (e.g. the CMO’s Public Mental Health Report), as recognised by the MRC’s 2015/16 'Investing for Impact' report.

• I am the academic secretary for the RCPsych Faculty of Perinatal Psychiatry. 

Research Groups

• I am a visiting researcher in the Section of Women’s Mental Health.

• I am a member of the RCPsych Research & COVID working group.

• I am the academic secretary for the Faculty of Perinatal Psychiatry.