Pride 2023: Celebrating Rainbow/LGBTQ+ families in psychiatry
Free Members’ Webinar
Thursday 8 June 2023
Overview of this webinar
The path to parenthood as a person who identifies as LGBTQ+ is not always simple, and balancing this with a career as a doctor adds an additional layer of complexity. During this webinar we hear from our speakers about some of the beautiful rainbow families that exist in our community.
Programme
- Introduction from Chair, Josep Vilanova
- Máire Cooney's talk (pre-recorded)
- Alan Mackenzie's talk
- Q&A between Alan Mackenzie and Josep Vilanova
Speakers
Alan Mackenzie
Alan is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist working in Glasgow. Alan is an executive member of the Rainbow SIG at the RCPsych and also a member of the Scottish Workforce and Careers Committee (SWCC) at RCPsych in Scotland. Alan is also an advisor to the Mental Health Directorate at the Scottish Government, with a particular focus on workforce.
He has interests in medical education, workforce recruitment and retention and combatting stigma associated with mental illness. Outside of work, Alan is kept busy by his 8-year-old twins but still finds time to enjoy running, cycling and singing.
"During psychiatry training, my husband and I adopted 3-year-old twins. I will talk about how I managed to balance psychiatry training with the adoption process. I will talk about some of the challenges and my thoughts on how these could be overcome. I will also talk about how being a father has made me a better clinician and made me re-evaluate my work/life balance."
Máire Cooney
Máire is a Consultant Rehabilitation Psychiatrist working in Lanarkshire. She is an executive member and past chair of the Rainbow SIG at the RCPsych. She is a medical member of the Mental Health Tribunal Service and a Designated Medical Practitioner with the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland.
"In 2005 my partner and I had a civil partnership. Shortly after we began the process of becoming adoptive parents and adopted our two boys the following year. We added many rabbits, rats, cats, and dogs to the family over the years, and are all still muddling along well enough. I will talk about the experience of being assessed and evaluated as a potential adoptive parent and new mother and the stress of presenting myself as fully in control both at home and at work."