Advisors
Professor Belinda Lennox
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, Oxford Health NHS FT
Belinda is a clinical academic psychiatrist, undertaking research in the causes and treatments for psychotic illnesses and leading the delivery of early intervention in psychosis services locally and nationally.
She trained in medicine at University of Nottingham and in adult psychiatry in Oxford, Nottingham and Cambridge. She is a consultant psychiatrist in the early intervention in psychosis service in Oxfordshire.
Her research focus is on identifying causes of psychosis, and undertaking trials of new treatments, with a particular focus on the possible autoimmune cause of psychosis. She also does research into models of care for improving outcomes for those with a first episode of psychosis. She has led Cochrane reviews of early intervention in psychosis services, and applied health research projects focussed on improving physical healthcare for those with psychosis. She led research to demonstrate the clinical and cost effectiveness of EIP services in England. She was clinical lead for EIP for NHS South for several years 2014-2021, and was a member of the NICE Early Psychosis Quality Standard Expert Reference Group that developed the Access and Waiting Times Standards for EIP in 2015-2016.
In other roles she is the Head of Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, Vice chair of the Psychopharmacology Committee, Royal College Psychiatrists, Associate Editor for the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, and a panel member of the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, Medical Research Council.
Stephen McGowan RMN, MSc
NHS England Regional Clinical Lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis (North East and North West)
Stephen (Moggie) McGowan is a mental health nurse who has worked as a clinical lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis for over 25 years. He has held regional and national leadership roles and has led the IRIS Early Intervention in Psychosis Network, a group of mental health experts who have supported the promotion of EIP since the 1990s. IRIS published the first best practice toolkit for Early Intervention in Psychosis, which was the basis of the original DH Policy Implementation Guide for EIP and remains the foundation of UK policy for first episode psychosis.
He is an outspoken advocate of evidence-based practice, model fidelity and meaningful outcome measurement and has contributed chapters to numerous publications and supported the development of the WHO International Early Psychosis Declaration. He co-authored the Centre for Mental Health’s guide to Early Intervention, ‘A Window of Opportunity’ and was a member of the NICE Early Psychosis Quality Standard expert reference group that developed the Access and Waiting Times Standards for EIP in 2015-2016. He remains a member of the expert reference group that has updated national commissioning guidelines for EIP and ARMS (NHSE, 2023). He has published guidance for Suicide Risk Management in Early Intervention and is the coordinating investigator for a research study examining the link between fidelity and outcomes in EIP teams in the UK and Canada.
Currently, he works as an NHS England regional clinical lead for EIP in the North East and the North West, providing clinical and organisational expertise and supporting healthcare systems to improve services for people with first episode psychosis. He chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) EIP Advisory Group and Accreditation Committee, supporting them to establish national quality standards for EIP (CCQI, 2025).
Chris Kinsella
Chris is the National Patient Advisor to the NCAP Implementation Group, bringing lived experience of psychosis and recovery together with professional experience across NHS Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) services, counselling practice, and national advisory roles.
He has been involved in establishing and delivering peer support within EIP services, including co-creating and leading a service-user storytelling group and producing a published resource, In Our Own Words: Personal Experiences of Psychosis and Recovery. Working alongside service users and clinicians, the group created a booklet that services now use to help people engage earlier in care and to support more open and meaningful conversations with professionals.
Alongside this work, Chris has contributed to service development and improvement activity through one-to-one support, outreach and communications, referral pathway development, and participation in service planning, governance, and quality improvement discussions. He has shared learning from lived-experience-led approaches through conference speaking and webinars, including for NHS England improvement audiences, and has participated in local and national advisory and procurement panels.
Within the NCAP Implementation Group, Chris helps ensure that audit findings and recommendations are considered through the lens of lived experience. His focus is on how implementation activity is understood and experienced in practice, supporting attention to trust, clarity, equity and human impact alongside measurable improvement.