Awards for members

President’s medal winners and Honorary Fellows were presented with their awards at a presentation ceremony held at the end of the first day of RCPsych's International Congress.

College President, Dr Adrian James handed out a number of prizes including President’s medals and prestigious Honorary Fellowships, as well as as examination, public education and fellowship prizes.

Honorary Fellows

The Honorary Fellowship award is the highest accolade that the College can give members, and is presented to individuals who have demonstrated a distinguished service to humanity in relation to the study, prevention or treatment of mental illness or psychiatry throughout their careers.

The three newly appointed Honorary Fellows are:

• Professor JS Bamrah – Professor Bamrah CBE is a Senior Consultant psychiatrist at the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust. He has previously served on the RCPsych Council, and is now the Chairman of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO). He is an expert speaker, with a regular webcast lecture for UNESCO, and is many times author of both academic and media publications. He has also served on several editorial boards both Nationally and Internationally.
• Professor Stephen Pilling – Having spent much of his career working in the NHS as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Professor Pilling is now the Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) which produces the NICE mental health guidelines. Professor Pilling is the author of several hundred publications on Mental Health. His research interests include Health services, including trials of complex interventions such as crisis intervention teams and implementation studies of health service policy initiatives
• Professor David R Williams – Professor Williams is the Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health and Chair, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Having authored more than 500 scientific papers, his research has enhanced our understanding of the ways in which race, socioeconomic status, stress, racism, health behaviour and religious involvement can affect physical and mental health. He now sits on the board of the NHS Race and Health Observatory.

President’s Medals

The winners of a President’s Medal are as follows:

• Rachel Bannister – A mental health campaigner, Rachel has been involved with the College since 2017 and has been the carer representative on the RCPsych Council since the start of 2020. Rachel continues to ensure the College persists in seeing lived experience as fundamental to progressive change and improvement in the understanding and treatment of those suffering from mental illness.
• Dr Helen Bruce – Dr Bruce is a Consultant in Child and Adolescent psychiatrist at the East London Foundation NHS Trust where she also teaches medical students and doctors at all stages of their training. Her contributions to the Choose Psychiatry campaign in the last few years helped to turn around dwindling recruitment numbers to fill all training posts in psychiatry.
• Dr Claire Hilton – Alongside her career as an old age psychiatrist, Dr Claire Hilton has pursued interests in medical humanities, particularly history, and is the author of two highly regarded books. She holds a PhD in medical history, and her interest in the subject has led her to be the RCPsych lead historian in residence – a position she has held since 2018.
• Dr Sarah Hughes-Martin – As Chief Executive at the Centre for Mental Health, Sarah works with the UK government and high-profile organisations on mental health policy and practice. She is passionate about mental health and believes it’s possible to achieve equality by drawing on the extraordinary evidence we already have about what works and by paying careful attention to people’s lived experience.
• Simon Rose – In his work with the College as patient representative, Simon has made a valued contribution to the recently updated Working Together model, drawing on his own 25 years of experience as a patient receiving both community based and in-patient care. Simon has particular interest in medical education, having spoken at conferences about the benefits of patient involvement in teaching.
• Mark Rowland – As the Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation since 2018, Mark is focusing on building a vibrant organisation with a new strategy, focusing on the prevention in mental health and working with a wide range of organisations to ensure that people across the UK can live mentally healthier lives.
• Mark Winstanley – Under Mark’s guidance as the Chief Executive of the charity Rethink Mental Illness – where he has worked for over 30 years – the charity has helped tens of thousands of people get through crises, live independently and feel they do not have to face mental illness alone. During his time with the charity, Mark has also held a number of public appointments in health, education and criminal justice.

New Fellows

The ceremony came just a week after the College’s latest ceremony to celebrate our newly elected Fellows.

Find out who became newly elected Fellows of the College on 18 June.

Back to our June 2022 eNewsletter.