Medico-Legal Assessment
I am a Consultant in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry which is a specific sub-speciality of Psychiatry. I completed my training and passed the membership exam in General Psychiatry before developing my special interest in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
I am a Fellow of the Royal College as well as a college appraiser for consultant appointments in psychiatry across Britain.
As a Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, I work closely with families and professionals providing services to families including Adult Mental Health Services and Social Services. My involvement with families has allowed me to retain my expertise in the assessment of adult patients.
I continue to be up-to-date with the adult literature in terms of adult psychiatric conditions and their treatment. Adult mental health issues, concerns about alcohol and substance misuse, exposure to domestic violence and related trauma and abuse have a large impact on family functioning. Indeed, I am often involved in providing support to adoptive and foster families at the point of family breakdown where the issues related to the identified child’s earliest exposure to adverse parental health concerns within the biological family of origin.
I have undertaken a number of specific assessments on adults who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood as well as preparing reports in relation to adults who have experienced emotional and physical abuse in childhood. In many cases adults who have experienced one form of abuse have been at risk of experiencing the full range of emotional, physical and sexual abuse during childhood. Unfortunately adults who have experienced abuse in childhood are vulnerable to forming adult intimate relationships with partners who have a similar history of involvement with abuse, both as victims and as perpetrators of abuse.
My daily involvement through both NHS, private clinical and medico-legal work brings me into contact with families who experience a cycle of intra-generational abuse. I therefore am confident that I have the appropriate experience to work with adults who have been subject to abuse in childhood. Much of my work, both as an NHS Consultant on a day-to-day clinical basis and my work as a medico-legal expert, requires regular involvement in the field of both assessment and treatment of the impact of abuse on children, young people and adults. I have expertise in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of PTSD and related conditions such as Reactive Adjustment Disorder.
I am an established medico-legal expert regularly preparing reports on both adult and child clients.
