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REPORTS

Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Professorship of Community Psychiatry

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Department of Psychiatry is already widely recognized as having international standing in several principal areas, including the cognitive, neuropsychological, endocrinological, and genetic aspects of affective disorders, the epidemiology of psychosis and dementia, cognitive neuroscience, including neuroimaging, and developmental disorders such as autism and learning disability. Although recent developments in the Department have leant towards the neurosciences, the increasingly important role of community psychiatry requires support to maintain a balanced breadth of research in the Department and to build on potential collaborative strengths. Community psychiatry deals with epidemiology, social factors in causation and outcome, service evaluation, social approaches to treatment, and public health aspects of psychiatry. The importance of community psychiatry as a major area of the Department's research is reflected in its involvement in its significant research programmes with the Medical Research Council, the National Health Service, the Wellcome Trust, and other medical charities: this aspect of the Department's work is further enhanced by its close collaboration with the Institute of Public Health, the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, the Department of Anatomy, the Department of Experimental Psychology, the MRC Biostatistics Unit, and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.

2. It is expected that the requirement for the teaching of psychiatry, especially community psychiatry, will continue to grow for all phases of the clinical medical course. With its close links with Addenbrooke's Hospital, the Department of Psychiatry also plays an important role in postgraduate and professional training of junior psychiatrists, including research supervision, the organization of specialist registrar training programmes, and responsibility for regional post-graduate courses.

3. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine have informed the General Board that, as part of the research, teaching, and training strategy of the Clinical School, there is a need for a new senior appointment in the Department of Psychiatry to lead and develop this work in community psychiatry. Within East Anglia there is a major opportunity to link studies of epidemiology and service development in districts comprising a mix of small cities and relatively isolated surrounding rural areas; the phenomena of rural populations and rural services have not been well studied in the UK. Accordingly, the North West Anglia Healthcare Trust, which is responsible for psychiatric services in Peterborough, has approached the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine with a proposal for funding a new Professorship with a focus in community psychiatric services in and around Peterborough; the foundations of this work have already been established during the last year. The Peterborough NHS Hospital already accepts clinical students from Cambridge in other specialisms and this opportunity to attach additional students would be welcome both in the Department of Psychiatry and the Clinical School. The Professor would be expected to undertake research within one or more fields related to social and community psychiatry, and to play a leading role in the teaching programme for clinical medical students in adult psychiatry within an area which is expected to cover the whole of Cambridge and Peterborough.

4. The General Board have accepted the case made by the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine for a Professorship of Community Psychiatry. The North West Anglian Healthcare Trust has agreed to provide recurrent funding, in conjunction with the Cambridgeshire Health Authority, to meet the full costs of the Professorship, at Consultant level, for a single tenure. Funds will also be made available to support a University Lectureship, or an NHS Consultant, with duties in the Department of Psychiatry, together with full support costs. Should the NHS financial support cease prematurely, the cost of the office would be met by the Faculty Board from within their existing resources, ahead of any new developments or the filling of vacant offices. The General Board are assured that suitable accommodation for the Professor is available and that the necessary support and facilities can be provided within the Department of Psychiatry. The Board are satisfied that an appointment at this level will be likely to attract a strong field of candidates. Both the North West Anglia Healthcare and Addenbrooke's NHS Trusts have agreed to award honorary clinical contracts at Consultant level to the Professor, and to provide him or her with access to wards, clinics, community mental health services, and a supporting team for clinical work.

5. The General Board accordingly propose that a Professorship of Community Psychiatry should be established in the University for one tenure from 1 January 2002 and assigned to the Department of Psychiatry. They have agreed to concur in the view of the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine that the election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature should be limited to persons whose work falls within the field of community or social psychiatry.

6. The General Board recommend:

That a Professorship of Community Psychiatry be established for one tenure from 1 January 2002, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Psychiatry.

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Cambridge University Reporter, 23 January 2002
Copyright © 2001 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.