Primary Care and Community Mental Health
In addition to my role as Plymouth-based Deputy Director for PenARC and Theme Lead for the Complex Care theme, I am also a Professor of Primary Care Research, General Practitioner and researcher with a particular interest in Primary Care Mental Health. I have been a part-time researcher since 1995. My specific areas of expertise and interest include shared care for long-term mental illness, treatment of depression and offender health care. I also have extensive experience of service development, management, policy development and teaching. I have been involved in projects related to access, commissioning, inter-professional working and implementation of evidence-based practice; becoming experienced with a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies relevant to health services research. I have developed a particular interest in developing and field testing theoretical models (programme theory). This is of particular relevance for the development and evaluation of both innovative interventions and programmes for translating evidence into practice. Building on the IAPT evaluation, I plan to develop the exploitation of the large PCT-based data warehouses to help evaluate the success of their commissioning programmes.