The School of Health Sciences at The University of Nottingham and The Institute of Mental Health are delighted to announce that Professor Mike Slade has been appointed as Professor of Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion.

The joint appointment between Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Nottingham will consolidate recovery as a leading aspect of mental health services and research activity in Nottingham.

Recovery is where people are supported in recognising their potential and developing the self-management skills needed to deal with the mental health challenges they experience, so they can achieve the things they want to in life.

Mental health systems are being transformed locally, nationally and internationally in order to focus on recovery. Nottingham has been at the forefront of this transformation, by leading new approaches such as Recovery Colleges within the Trust and playing a lead role in the national Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change (ImROC) Programme.

Professor Slade has pioneered research in recovery. He is currently Professor of Health Services Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, and is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in South London. His research includes recovery and outcome focused mental health services and service user involvement, which has been highly influential. He has also made a key contribution to research on needs assessments and residential alternatives to inpatient services, and developing measures. He has written over 250 academic articles and nine books and his free booklets include Making Recovery a Reality (2008), 100 Ways to Support Recovery (2013) and REFOCUS: Promoting recovery in community mental health services (2014) and are all downloadable at researchintorecovery.com

Professor Slade commented on his appointment: “I am delighted to have been appointed to a position that I am so passionate about and can’t wait to get started. I value inter-disciplinary scientific research, so I look forward to connecting with academic colleagues from across the University and I hope to develop positive and mutually-beneficial working relationships with clinicians and managers, service users, carers, and the broader community beyond the traditional limits of the mental health system. I believe that drawing on the expertise of people spanning a range of perspectives is the foundation of innovation – ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together’.

“I have happy memories of living in the Midlands in my first decade after leaving home so I hope to settle in to Nottingham life with my wife and daughters very soon!”

Important questions are emerging, such as ‘How can people be supported to live a life ‘beyond’ illness?’ and ‘How can the mental health system promote hopefulness and resilience in people using services, and in their carers?’ These are questions which innovative and methodologically robust scientific research can address and will be a priority for Professor Slade once he starts in October 2015.

Professor Patrick Callaghan, Head of the School of Health Sciences said: “The school is delighted that Mike is coming to Nottingham. He will add to a burgeoning portfolio of research and service development and will make Nottingham the prime European centre for recovery and social inclusion research”. Professor Martin Orrell, Director of the Institute of Mental Health added: “We are very lucky to have Mike joining us and I’m confident that with his clinical and academic knowledge and expertise, he will drive forward the recovery agenda within Nottingham and beyond. He will harness our existing strengths to develop a centre of excellence in recovery research and will develop and guide an evidence base that can be embedded into clinical practice. We very much look forward to welcoming him to the Institute.”

The Institute works closely with the Centre for Mental Health in London, a national mental health charity that acts as a bridge between the worlds of research, policy and service provision.

Professor Sean Duggan, Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health said: “Our work to support mental health services to become more recovery-oriented has been informed by Mike Slade’s ground-breaking research. The Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change programme has helped services across the UK and beyond to change the way they work and focus on supporting each person on their own recovery journey. We look forward to working with the Institute in the future to keep pushing the boundaries of what is thought possible and what can be achieved in practice.”

The Institute also supports the work of mental health charity, MQ: Transforming Mental Health and Cynthia Joyce, Chief Executive commented: “’Congratulations to Professor Slade and the Institute of Mental Health on this exciting development. The Institute is a leading light in the development of interdisciplinary, outcomes-focused research, and this appointment further enhances their innovative approach.’

The academic priority of the post will be to lead a programme of research with a demonstrable impact on individual wellbeing and quality of care of people accessing mental health services. The clinical priority will be to develop the evidence base for a recovery agenda which is integrated across physical and mental health services within the Trust.

The Institute of Mental Health and The University of Nottingham are dedicated to applied mental health research that makes a difference to people’s lives.