Learning about Intellectual Disabilities and Health

INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD OF THIS WEBSITE

SHEILA HOLLINS (MB, BS, FRC Psych, FRCPCH), the Editor in Chief of this website, is Professor of Psychiatry of Learning Disability in the Division of Mental Health at St. George's, University of London. She was elected President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2005, and is currently Vice President of the Institute of Psychiatry and Disability.
She has numerous publications on intellectual disability and mental health, and is also the editor of the 'Books Beyond Words' series of counselling picture books for people with intellectual disabilities. She is internationally known for her research into the effects of bereavement in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

ELSPETH BRADLEY as psychotherapist, psychiatrist, teacher and researcher has worked with persons with intellectual disabilities over the past 20 years both in Canada (Universities of Toronto and McMaster, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, and at Surrey Place Centre, Toronto), and in the United Kingdom (St Georges Hospital Medical School and Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust). She completed her Psychology degree at Queens University Belfast, Doctorate studies at University College London and Stazionne Zoologica Naples, Medical degree at University College London, Psychiatry training at the Maudsley and Bethlem Royal Hospitals and the Institute of Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy training at the Institute for the Advancement of Self Psychology, Toronto. Her clinical work, teaching and research has been nurtured by an enduring curiosity about the impact of developmental and other life circumstances on behaviour, self experience and self expression.

GEORGE CAPONE, M.D. was born and grew up in Connecticut. He received his medical degree from University of Connecticut in 1983. Completed a Pediatric Residency at Children's Hospital in Cincinnati in 1986 and Clinical Fellowship in Developmental Pediatrics in 1988. He moved to Baltimore and completed a Research Fellowship in Neurobiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1990.
Since 1990 he has been on the medical staff at the Kennedy Krieger Institute where he currently serves as Director of the Down Syndrome Clinic and as Staff Physician to the Neurobehavioral Disorders Unit and the Brain Rehabilitation Program.
He lives in Towson, Maryland with his wife Mary (Geriatric Psychiatrist) and two children, Lauren (15 yrs) and Daniel (7 yrs), two dogs and a cat.

BARRY CARPENTER joined Sunfield as its Chief Executive/ Principal in 1997. He has over 25 years experience in Special Education, having held the leadership roles of Headteacher, Inspector of Schools and Principal Lecturer. In 1992 he established the Centre for Special Education at Westminster College, Oxford, which became a national teaching and research Centre.
Barry has written extensively in the field of special educational needs.
He recently chaired a National Inquiry into the mental health needs of young people with learning disabilities.
Barry is the father of three children, one of whom, Katie, has Down's syndrome.
He was awarded the OBE in 2001, for services to children with special educational needs.

Dr SYLVIA CARPENTER is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Learning Disability in Bristol, UK. Born and brought up in Middle Europe she attended and graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, Austria. Although firmly resident in England (family and work) she has always maintained her interest in medical services in other European countries especially with regards to people with learning disabilities. Sylvia is President of MAMH, the European Association of Intellectual Disability Medicine (originally called MAMH - Medical Aspects of Mental Handicap). She joined MAMH in 1992, editing the Newsletter until 1999, when she set up the website which she still maintains, see www.mamh.net. Sylvia is very keen to ensure that Doctors in those countries where there is no specialist training in Learning Disabilities - especially ex-Eastern European countries - should have easy access to educational material. She is currently repeating a questionnaire survey of specialist Learning Disability health services in 20 European countries, which was first done in 1997.

MARGARET FLYNN is a senior lecturer in the the Department of Mental Health and Learning Disability Nursing, University of Sheffield. She is completing a study of the palliative care of people with learning disabilities; she is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners' Special Interest Group: Learning Disability; a member of the Department of Health's Commissioning Group for the Learning Disability Research Initiative; and an editorial board member of the Journal of Adult Protection.

Professor AMANDA HOWE is Professor of Primary Care at the University of East Anglia, Norwich U.K., where she is a lead member of a new medical school now in its first academic year. She is a GP, and has worked in general practice throughout her career. She also works for the Royal College of General Practitioners, based in London, as the Chair of the Research group, which encourages people who work in primary care to find out about, and do, research. She is very interested in how people can have a more active role in their own health care, and she does this through her research and teaching - including working on topics such as communication between doctors and patients, working with people with learning disabilities, the needs of people with psychological problems, and public involvement in educating doctors and nurses.

Professor MICHAEL KERR is Professor of Learning Disability Psychiatry at the Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities, Cardiff, UK. He qualified at Bristol University and trained as both a general practitioner and a psychiatrist. His research interests are in epilepsy and healthcare delivery to people with learning disabilities.

Professor PATRICIA NOONAN WALSH is NDA Professor of Disability Studies at the National University of Ireland, Dublin. Her current research interests include ageing and the health and quality of life of people with disabilities. Professor Walsh is a Fellow of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID). She is consultant to the Research in Learning Disability Commissioning Group for the Department of Health in the UK. She is principal investigator in a project funded by the European Commission-Directorate G-Public Health to develop a set of health indicators for people with intellectual disabilities.

Dr NEIL ROSS is President of IASSID, the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities, which is an international and interdisciplinary scientific nongovernmental organization with official relations with the World Health Organization. IASSID was founded in l964 and has sponsored eleven World Congresses. It is the first and only world-wide group dedicated to the scientific study of intellectual disability.