Research centre to launch new clinical focused seminar series

The Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health will hold its first Clinical Spotlight seminar in June 2022.

The Wolfson Centre, an interdisciplinary research centre focused on improving young people’s mental health, will hold the first talk in a new bi-annual series next month.

Clinical Spotlight is aimed at practitioners working in the field of child and adolescent mental health. This seminar series will include talks from world-renowned clinical academics and provide the most relevant information for clinical practitioners who work closely with young people.

Dr Olga Eyre, a clinical research fellow at the Wolfson Centre, said: “We are thrilled to be launching our Clinical Spotlight series in a few weeks. We have wide-ranging expertise in the Centre, with researchers working across developmental and clinical psychiatry, psychology, epidemiology, genetics, social sciences and neuroscience.

“Given the breadth of our work and our strong collaborative connections with clinical experts around the UK and internationally, we wanted to create a series that could draw on this expertise and offer practical advice and information to those working in the field of child and adolescent mental health.”

Professor Anita Thapar, a clinician-scientist who leads the Wolfson Centre’s genetics research workstream, added: “We hope this series will be useful and accessible for clinical colleagues. We know how difficult it is in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) with increased demand, waiting lists and greater clinical complexities."

The first speaker in the series will be Dr Dasha Nicholls, a Reader in Child Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist from Imperial College London.

Dr Eyre concluded: “We are looking forward to welcoming Dr Dasha Nicholls, a national expert on eating disorders, whose talk will focus on understanding the pandemic-related rise in eating disorders.

“The increase in eating disorders, particularly in young people, is concerning, and Dasha’s expertise would be very widely welcomed. 

“I’d like to encourage anyone working in CAMHS, as well as practitioners who work closely with young people, to join us for what I am sure will be an incredibly useful and relevant talk on an important topic.”

The first Clinical Spotlight will be held virtually on Wednesday 15 June at 2 pm. The talk will last an hour, including a Q&A session with the guest speaker. The next talk in the series will be held later this year.

Register online now for Wolfson Centre Clinical Spotlight - Understanding the pandemic related rise in eating disorders