Dr Ruth Ohlsen

Biography

Ruth Ohlsen first trained as a general nurse and then as a psychiatric nurse in Australia, working in acute psychiatry, and becoming a clinical nurse specialist in mood disorders at the Black Dog Institute in Sydney. When she emigrated to England, Dr Ohlsen worked in South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, managing the Maudsley clozapine clinic, the atypical antipsychotic clinic and the Southwark first episode psychosis team.

She worked as a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience where she gained her PhD in biosciences, developing interventions for patients with antipsychotic induced weight gain, and exploring the genetics involved in this phenomenon. She moved to the Mental Health Nursing Department in 2012 and completed her PGCAPHE. She is a lecturer in nurse education, specialising in severe mental illness, health behaviour change, pharmacology and research methodology. She is the Programme Lead for the BSc (Hons) in Mental Health Nursing.

Research profile