The Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Candidate Pack 02 Page 4 The Division
Page 5 The Team
Page 6 The Wolfson Centre
Page 9 Cardiff University
Page 11 Welcome to Wales
Page 12 Cardiff, the city
Page 16 Additional information
Page 17 The Role
Page 18 Clinical Service information
03 The Division
The Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health sits in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences (DPMCN) and MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics in Cardiff University’s School of Medicine.
2nd in the UK
The Division was ranked 2nd in the UK for Psychiatry and Neuroscience, in the most recent Research Excellence Framework.
World-leading team
The Division includes a world leading section of child and adolescent psychiatry, headed by Professor Anita Thapar.
Award-winning research
We won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for outstanding transformative insights into causes, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
04 The Team
The Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health will be led by an exceptional inter-disciplinary team made up of specialists in:
• Developmental Psychopathology and Psychiatry. • Neuropsychiatric Genetics. • Youth Anxiety and Depression. • Neuroscience and Mental Health. • Social science, Complex Interventions, Public Health ‘Big Data’.
Professor Frances Rice Professor Stephan Collishaw Professor Anita Thapar
Professor Simon Murphy Professor Graham Moore Professor Ann John
Professor Jeremy Hall Professor Michael Owen
05 The Wolfson Centre in Wales
The Wolfson Foundation has funded a major new research centre in youth mental health based at Cardiff University, complementing existing world- leading mental health and neuroscience research.
The Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health will be a dedicated interdisciplinary research centre focused on adolescent mental health. The £10 million Centre funded by the Wolfson Foundation opened in late 2020. The funding was awarded through a national competition across universities.
The Centre utilises the unique datasets in Wales enabling data to be captured from every NHS patient and every secondary school in Wales. Data includes mental health and social data on all secondary school pupils across the nation (approximately 120,000 pupils complete a survey every two years) and consent to digitally record linkage to NHS and Education records. The Secure Anonymised Information Databank (SAIL) includes household, social, educational and health record data and covers > 95% of primary care practices.
We will also capitalise on our internal data sets to answer questions about youth mental health including those of the National Centre for Mental Health. The Centre involves international collaborations with leading experts including in the U.S.A., Canada, Norway, Denmark, and New Zealand, as well as partnerships with Welsh Government, NHS and schools, and the third sector.
06 Our research will:
Track individuals from birth to adulthood to better understand how anxiety and depression develop. Use causal methods to identify environmental risks and utilise genetics to examine stratification. Develop and evaluate a new inter-generational psychological intervention for preventing adolescent depression. Examine how schools can promote better mental health in young people. Use health data uniquely available in Wales to better understand long-term outcomes for young people with anxiety and depression.
Training the next generation of scientists in youth mental health:
Develop a cadre of clinical and non-clinical Wolfson Future Leader Postdoctoral Fellows and Ph.D. students. Build state-of-the-art interdisciplinary expertise in youth mental health research. Focus on critical quantitative methods and skills - longitudinal modelling, quasi-experimental methods, causal inference. Integration of scientific discovery, intervention development and practical implementation. Adolescent mental health summer schools for youth mental health practitioners and scientists. International collaboration and research exchange.
07 Achieving transformational change in the way we understand the challenges of adolescent mental health and interventions that offer practical help to young people. Within the outstanding environment at Cardiff, we offer:
The involvement of young people and the professionals who work with them, at the heart of the programme. Unparalleled scale of data about adolescent anxiety and depression. Extraordinary track-ability of whole nation data, including potential for life course, indefinite longitudinal study of hundreds of thousands of individuals. Rich, long standing partnerships across Wales which help us unlock data potential and then synthesise findings into practise and policy. An outstanding international scientific advisory board, which will ensure global reach of our research and policy findings. Leadership by an outstanding team of highly-regarded Cardiff academics. Strong collaboration with Swansea University’s data science team creating a pan-Wales programme of research.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Team
08 Why Cardiff University?
Research excellence
Cardiff is in the top tier of Britain’s research universities and is a member of the prestigious Russell Group. We are ranked second nationally for research impact and in the top 5 universities for research excellence in the UK.
7 Queen's Anniversary Prizes We’ve been awarded seven Queen’s Anniversary Prizes, which recognise world- class excellence in UK Higher Education. We’re also home to a large cohort of distinguished staff, including 2 Nobel Prize winners and 13 Royal Society Fellows.
Top 10
Cardiff is recognised as one of the top 10 most beautiful universities in the UK (Times Higher Education 2018).
09 10 Croeso, welcome to Wales Croeso is Welsh for ‘welcome’, and you’ll feel it everywhere you go in Wales.
Welcome to a country of breathtaking natural beauty, where every day a new experience awaits. Around every corner, a hidden gem: colourful fishing villages and cosy inns, mountain vistas and cliff-top trails, sandy bays and bustling cities.
Here you can discover 640 castles; more than any other country in Europe. This is the land of magic and myth, of princes and dragons. A land that has created writers and poets, musicians and athletes, architects and engineers, scientists and philanthropists.
A land that has inspired generations to achieve their dreams.
This magical land is our home – and your home too.
11 Cardiff, a capital city Dynamic. Friendly. Affordable.
Cardiff is a thriving and attractive city which is widely recognised as an outstanding place in which to live, work and study. Cardiff caters to all, offering everything from the excitement of the city to the peace and tranquillity of the nearby coast and countryside.
Contemporary, welcoming and easy to get around, the Welsh capital is a city with character, heritage and ambition. Cardiff combines all the advantages of a compact, friendly and affordable location with the cultural and recreational facilities of a modern capital city.
12 Cardiff has been the capital of Wales since 1955 and it has been growing swiftly into its new role.
A number of big developments, including the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), Millennium Centre on the Cardiff Bay waterfront and a huge city centre sports stadium, give the city a feel of an international capital with the added benefit of it being small and easy to get around. Innovation Campus
14 Cardiff
Cardiff provides a huge variety of places to live and visit, whether it's close to the city centre, a short distance away from campus or in surrounding coastal or countryside areas.
There are plenty of great residential areas both in the centre, such as Roath, Pontcanna and Canton, as well as a little further out in Penarth. There are also great state schools corresponding to each of these areas.
Cardiff is a city which prides itself on celebrating arts and culture.
The development of the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay acts as the flagship theatre of the city, but there are also many others, providing a huge array of performing arts and music. Chapter Arts Centre in Pontcanna has been the long standing local go to for international and arts cinema, as well as theatre and plenty of courses.
If nature is what you are looking for, Cardiff is as little as a twenty minute drive away from beautiful countryside, mountains and coastal sites.
Cardiff also has great connections with other major cities. Bristol is under an hour away by car and London is just a short train journey away.
15 Additional Information The Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health will be based at Cardiff University in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences.
The division is a global leader in mental health research, including in children and young people, and genetics research and is home to the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics. The Division is based in the £30m Hadyn Ellis Building on Cardiff University’s Innovation Campus that hosts research and clinical space.
The major theme of the Wolfson Centre’s work is anxiety and depression in young people. The Wolfson Centre will be launched fully in 2021 and will focus on five scientific areas. Our scientific strategy is to adopt a developmental, longitudinal approach and to bridge the crucial research and clinical disconnect between adolescence and adulthood.
We are now looking to recruit two senior clinical academic positions in adolescent/youth psychiatry and clinical psychology. We are searching for two outstanding clinician-scientists who will develop and lead internationally-leading research in the area of youth mental health, who will advance the profile of the Wolfson Centre, and who will interface with clinical colleagues.
The two posts will sit in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences and the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics in Cardiff University’s School of Medicine.
The Division was ranked second in the UK in Psychiatry and Neuroscience in the most recent Research Excellence Framework, includes a world-leading section of child and adolescent psychiatry headed by Professor Anita Thapar, and won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for outstanding transformative insights into causes, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
16 The Role: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist This position is available at Senior Lecturer, Reader or Professor level depending on experience.
This role requires an outstanding clinical academic to: Carry out internationally leading research relevant to young people’s mental health.
Develop and lead a programme of research aligned to the aims of the Wolfson Centre and Division of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) including (where relevant) collaborating on and contributing to existing programmes of research.
Attract independent, peer-reviewed research grant funding in open competition.
Demonstrate a strong track-record of research publications.
Work closely with internationally distinguished groups in the Centre and demonstrate an effective collaborative work ethic.
Undertake clinical duties commensurate with a clinical academic post at Aneurin Bevan Health Board (Gwent).
Benefits of working in the Centre include: Access to internationally unique data sets including the Schools Health Research Network (school and pupil data across every secondary school in Wales), SAIL, MQ Adolescent Data Platform (primary and secondary health care data, social care and education data down to household level on every individual in Wales) and in-house cohorts of patients and young people at elevated familial risk.
Access to funded PhD studentships as part of the Wolfson Centre.
A clinical fellow post is allocated to Wolfson Centre work streams.
A collegiate, interdisciplinary research team with embedded NHS and government links.
A wide range of collaborative opportunities for research programmes. This includes internationally distinguished groups in the Centre and the Division, in particular, world leading expertise in genetics and mental health along with national and international partners of the Wolfson Centre/Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and NIMH, USA).
Salary: A point on the appropriate scales, commensurate with NHS scales. This is a tenured, ongoing position at Cardiff University.
17 Information about the Service
We have a very exciting and rare opportunity to recruit to a new role of Consultant Academic Psychiatrist jointly hosted between Cardiff University and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) Specialist CAMHS. This is as part of the prestigious Wolfson Centre’s strand that focuses on CAMHS.
ABUHB Specialist CAMHS, is a national leader in the delivery of Mental Health services through its innovative and ambitious principles of ‘right help at first time with No Wrong door’, and being a forerunner in implementing ‘new virtual model for CAMHS consultations’ which has since been rolled out nationally in Wales in 2020 to deliver health care during Covid-19.
Located on the St Cadocs Hospital Site in Newport, South Wales with excellent road networks and free hospital parking, the service supports an extensive array of community child mental health services across Gwent, and is delivered by a multi- disciplinary team which consists of nursing, psychology, allied health professionals and psychiatrists working collaboratively with partners and third party agencies.
The philosophy of the service has always been one of early help / enhanced support, helping children to remain with their families and offering outpatient clinics in a wide variety of settings nearer to their homes and as a result ABUHB Specialist CAMHS works collaboratively with partners via a Single point of Access for Children’s Emotional Well-being. (SPACE-WB) where young people’s emotional mental health needs are discussed and the most appropriate agencies and supports are identified.
This role is an academic role as part of the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health which is a dedicated research centre that focuses on reducing anxiety and depression in young people. The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to clinical work that includes engagement with service users and local professionals in the community, with time for ongoing clinical research and audit of established and innovative therapies. Clinical duties will include outpatient care that is designed around child-centred approach with a commitment to on call for the CAMHS service of 1:7.4 (pro-rata) that is supported by a full complement of emergency liaison duty team.
18 Other opportunities unique to ABUHB CAMHS as a pioneer / breaking new grounds are:
Opportunity to work closely with policy makers and Welsh Government colleagues to influence policy and practice. Wales is a small country and historically we have good long standing relationships with WG colleagues. This often allows smoother translation of research into practice. The WG advisor for CAMHS is one of the consultant psychiatrists in ABUHB CAMHS.
Potential to take forward a number of exciting new 'No Wrong door' developments including contribute to the T4CYP programme and Whole school/system approach alongside colleagues who are actively involved in these work streams. The school in reach pilot work is based in Gwent.
The close links with the WG funded Technology Enabled Care Cymru (TEC) programme and the proposed Grange University Hospital Medi park development.
Prospects of working closely with RCPsych in Wales and getting involved in the college working groups and committees.
For any queries about the post, please contact Dr Mark Griffiths, Clinical Director, on [email protected] or Dr Kavitha Pasunuru, Assistant Divisional Director, on [email protected].
19 Enquiries
For confidential discussions about the post, please contact the Wolfson Centre: [email protected] cardiff.ac.uk
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