Free Members' Webinar: Disability Awareness month - Beyond the clinic - why psychiatrists need support too

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18Dec

Live and on-demand

Timings 4.00pm - 5.00pm
Location Virtual event, Online
CPD 1 hour, subject to peer group approval
Free£0
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Free Members' Webinar: Disability Awareness month - Beyond the clinic - why psychiatrists need support too

Event Information

A 2025 BMA survey found over half of disabled and neurodivergent doctors have considered leaving the profession, with 73% not receiving reasonable adjustments. An estimated 1 in 10 doctors may be neurodivergent, yet many work in systems that fail to recognise or support their needs. This loss of skilled clinicians costs the NHS millions annually through turnover, burnout/sickness absence, undermining workforce sustainability & equity.

In this webinar, Dr Amrit Sachar, Joint Presidential Lead for Equity and Equality will be joined by the College's ADHD Champion, Dr Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick and Dr Su Sukumaran, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, to share personal and professional insights, and offer practical strategies as set out in the recently published Providing Reasonable Adjustments guidance, to build psychologically safe, flexible, and equitable work environments.

Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick, MD(Uni Würzburg) PhD(Uni Leipzig) works for the Government of Jersey as consultant psychiatrist & lead clinician for adult neurodevelopmental pathways. He is a member of the Neuroinclusive Jersey Strategy implementation group and the Jersey Disability & Inclusion Advisory Group. From 2017-21 he was the lead clinician for the North London NHS Foundation Trust Adult ADHD Service in North London. From 2003-17 he was based in Cambridge, where he developed the Adult ADHD Service for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT). From 2013-15 he was Hub lead for the Mental Health Research Network (MHRN), East Anglia hub, and Mental Health lead for the NHS Clinical Research Network: Eastern (Division 4). He led an adult ADHD research group at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, where he continues to be affiliated as Visiting Researcher and Life Member of Clare Hall. He teaches and lectures at universities and mental health trusts in the UK, the Channel Islands and worldwide.
In 2024, Ulrich was appointed as (inaugural) ADHD Champion by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and sits on their Psychopharmacology Committee and on the Executive committee of the Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry Special Interest Group (NDPSIG). As media spokesperson on ADHD he has been interviewed on radio (BBC Radio 4 PM, Radio 5 Drive), by newspapers (Financial Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Times) and magazines (BBC Music, Enable, Good Housekeeping, New Scientist). He is a founding executive committee member (since 2008) and former president (2019-21) of the UK Adult ADHD Network (www.UKAAN.org). He has contributed to NICE guidance and NHS England guidance & policy on ADHD. He is a regular speaker at national training events and international scientific conferences. He has published more than 160 book chapters, papers & policy documents (127 on PubMed, >8000 citations, Google/WoS h-index 61/47).
Ulrich comes from and married into another neurodiverse family. In his free time, he enjoys family and outdoor activities, plays the viola in several orchestras (Camerata Jersey, JCC orchestra, Jersey Symphony Orchestra) and investigates the link between neurodivergence and musical creativity.

Dr Su Sukumaran is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. I am a dedicated child psychiatrist who has worked in several London Trusts and the independent sector. I helped set up one of the first neurodevelopmental teams in a community CAMHS, drawing on the expertise and creativity of a diverse multidisciplinary team, and the backing of pioneering women managers. I led my current team through several turbulent years of exceptional demand and scrutiny on the service. We came together as a team to communicate concerns about risks to patients and staff, and thus create positive change in the service. This cohesion has enabled us to survive the challenges of COVID over the past year. I believe that resilience, flexibility and communication skills, and building good relationships and trust are key to success as a doctor.

Dr Amrit Sachar has been a liaison psychiatry consultant and worked in West London NHS Trust since 2005, where she is a Freedom to Speak Up Champion and is leading the organisation’s work on Medical Workforce Race Equality Standards (MWRES). She has been one of the Liaison Psychiatry Faculty Equality Champions and worked on the College’s Tackling Racism in The Workplace Guidance, 2023. She is excited about taking this work to the next level in the role of Joint Presidential Lead for Equality and Equity.

Amrit’s main clinical interests are around integration of mental and social health care into physical health care delivery. She has collaborated with national charities like Diabetes UK and Kidney Care UK, to develop guidance for this in diabetes and renal care. She is particularly interested in addressing the care gaps for people with intersectional protected characteristics, a history of trauma or diagnoses of implicit exclusion, like personality disorder and substance misuse.

Amrit is a Health Foundation Generation Q Fellow, having completed a Masters in Quality Improvement Leadership at Ashridge Business School (now Hult) and was awarded RCPsych Psychiatrist of the Year for London in 2023.

Please read our event terms and conditions before registering.

This event will take place on Zoom. You will need to register using the button above and will then be sent a link to join the webinar. You must have access to a reliable Wi-Fi network and a PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone.

This event will be recorded and made available to watch on-demand after the live webinar.

For further information, please contact:

Email: catherine.ayres@rcpsych.ac.uk

Contact Name: Catherine Ayres

Contact number: 0208 618 4139

Event Location

Location: Virtual event, Online