Honorary Fellowships and President's medals awarded during Congress

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President medal winners and Honorary Fellows were presented with their awards at a glittering presentation ceremony during RCPsych's International Congress tonight. (Weds)

Our President Prof Wendy Burn handed out the awards, while Femi Oyebode, our psychiatrist of the year in 2017, received an Honorary Fellowship and spoke on behalf of all winners to thank the College for the award.

Each year the President and the nomination committee nominates up to seven medal winners and up to five 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 five newly appointed Honorary Fellows are:

• Prof Cornelius Louis Emanuel Katona – Currently Honorary Professor of Psychiatry of the Elderly at University College London and works as a Consultant Psychiatrist in the NHS in the Kent and Medway Mental Health Partnership Trust. His expertise is in old age psychiatry and in mood disorders. He has extensive expert witness experience in assessing psychiatric consequences of medical negligence and in preparing reports on the mental health of asylum seekers and refugees.

• Prof Saul Levin – Prof. Levin received his medical degree in 1982 from the University Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He completed his residency in psychiatry at the UC Davis Medical Center and worked as a coordinator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since 2013, he has been CEO of the American Psychiatric Association.

• Dame Clare Marx – In 2007 she received a CBE for services to medicine and in 2009 she was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and chaired the Invited Review Mechanism from 2011-14. She was the first woman to be elected as President of the Royal College of Surgeons and is the current Chair of the GMC.

• Prof Femi Oyebode – After studying medicine at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, he came to the UK in 1979, completing his higher training at Newcastle. He is the author of Sims’ Symptoms in the Mind: textbook of descriptive psychopathology. This is the leading English language text on psychopathology. Prof. Femi Oyebode was the Chief Examiner at Royal College of Psychiatrists between 2002-2005 and he received the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
• Prof Sir Graham John Thornicroft – He is a Professor of Community Psychiatry at King’s College London and has championed research that seeks to find evidence-based ways to put innovatory treatments to the test, not only to improve people’s mental health but also to enhance their quality of life.  Prof. Sir Thornicroft was attained a Knighthood for services to Mental Health in 2017.

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

• Prof David Steward Baldwin – He is a Professor of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. He conducts research into the aetiology and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders and leads a tertiary referral service for patients with treatment-resistant affective disorders.

• Ms Hannah Betts – A freelance journalist that has used her established platform, Hannah has helped to break the stigma associated with depression and medicinal treatment.  She has written openly about her experience with depression and how she has managed this through psychotherapy and antidepressants.

• Dr Sarah Caddick – She is a neuroscientist who has held leadership roles in academia and private/public grant-making organisations where she has been responsible for the development, oversight and restructuring of strategic, programmatic and operational activities across a range of scientific disciplines.

• Prof Patrick Corrigan - Prof. Corrigan is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of designing and implementing services for people with serious mental illnesses and their families. Currently, he is principal investigator of the National Consortium for Stigma and Empowerment, a collaboration of investigators and advocates from more than a dozen institutions.

• Mrs Diane Goslar – Diane is involved with several Committees and Groups addressing alcoholism. Working with the College she often gives presentations, has published numerous articles, and has made three podcasts the most recent being on alcohol and stigma. Diane is very active in lobbying Local, National and European politicians on policies regarding alcohol addiction particularly the need for after-care services.

• Dr Trudi Seneviratne – Dr Seneviratne is a adult and perinatal consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She is the lead consultant for their specialist Perinatal service and a lead for children’s safeguarding at the Trust. And has been awarded an Order of the British Empire in the 2019 New Year’s honour list.

• Mrs Ruth Sutherland – Coming from a background in public and voluntary sectors in public health, mental health and in voluntary sector leadership. Ruth was appointed Chief Executive of Samaritans in August 2015. Prior to this, she was CEO of Relate and previously held senior executive leadership roles at Rethink, Alzheimer’s Society and Scope. Ruth is also Co-Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Alliance and was the founding Director of the Community Development and Health Network, a charitable membership network committed to addressing inequalities in health and wellbeing in Northern Ireland.