I am a forensic psychiatrist and an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Division of Forensic Psychiatry. My main research areas are related to the understanding of violence and offending associated with mental disorder, including research into risk assessment, mental health screening, treatment and longer-term outcomes of people who have been found by the court to be Not Criminally Responsible due to mental disorder or who are unfit to stand trial, as well as those who have mental illness and detained in correctional centres.
I graduated from the University of Liverpool (UK) with Bachelor’s degrees in psychology and in medicine. I completed postgraduate medical training in psychiatry in the Maudsley Hospital in London and in Southampton (UK), and completed sub-speciality training in both general and forensic psychiatry in Cardiff (UK) and Auckland, New Zealand. I obtained a Master’s degree in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Doctorate of Philosophy at Cardiff University, UK. I have provided consultation to the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and have led research on the measurement of severity of mental disorder in correctional settings, factors associated with recidivism, and an appraisal of need for inpatient mental health services in provincial jails in Ontario.
My current research includes the investigation of health service utilisation and outcomes among forensic patients and among prisoners by linkage of clinical and ICES data, and the investigation of clinical, social and environmental causes of recidivism among prisoners with mental health problems.