Sustainability scholars

Sustainability scholars are advanced trainees in psychiatry who use their special interest day each week to work with the RCPsych Sustainability and Planetary Health Committee for a period of one year.

This is a programme aimed at developing high achieving trainees knowledge and skills in leadership and sustainable quality improvement. Scholars get a dedicated study budget for their project and training and mentoring throughout the year.

Meet our Sustainability scholars

Dr Ally Xiang

Dr Ally Xiang is a dual trainee in general adult psychiatry and medical psychotherapy who is deeply passionate about preventative psychiatry, increasing psychotherapeutic approaches in mental health and contributing to sustainability in our practice and wider areas.

She has a particular interest in optimising medication use, understanding psychological roots to the crisis to better inform how to emotionally engage in the work, writing, and educating peers. She is looking forward to developing her work by learning from the Committee during her time as a scholar and beyond.

Dr Natalie Cook

Natalie is an ST6 in general adult psychiatry, currently working with the early intervention in psychosis team (Aspire) in Leeds. Natalie is interested in exploring the intersect between global mental health, public health and planetary health. She hopes to continue working on a literature review to ascertain the mental health needs of ethnic minority groups in Yorkshire and from this consider developing a public health intervention to address this need. She also plans to explore the feasibility of adapting and scaling up this intervention so it can be used in other areas of the UK.

Dr Ching Li

Ching is an ST6 in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Tavistock and Portman, who is currently working in the Fostering and Adoption team there.

She has a background in various modalities of psychotherapy including psychodynamic, systemic family therapy and group analysis. She has an interest in social prescribing and has been working as a clinician at The Hive mental health and wellbeing service in Camden, as one of the supervising clinicians.

During her time as a sustainability scholar she would like to create a green care project for young people, using a synthesis of systemic psychotherapy and permaculture principles. She also hopes to use her psychotherapy background to explore the psychological aspects of climate change in order to contribute to ideas around promoting resilience and engagement with the climate and ecological crisis.