Forensic Mental Health - Staff Profiles

	Professor Philip Mitchell MBBS, MD, FRANZCP, FRCPsych Philip Mitchell is Professor and Head of the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales; Convenor of Brain Sciences UNSW; Chair of the NSW Mental Health Priority Taskforce; Consultant Psychiatrist, Black Dog Institute, Sydney; Guest Professor, Shanghai Jaitong University; and Board Member of the Anika Foundation. His research and clinical interests are in bipolar disorder and depression, with a particular focus on the molecular genetics of bipolar disorder, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for depression, and the pharmacological and psychological treatment of bipolar disorder and depression. Professor Mitchell has published (in conjunction with colleagues) over 350 papers or chapters on these topics and is a member of an NHMRC-funded Program Grant on depression and bipolar disorder. He is an assistant editor of the ‘Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry’ and also serves on the editorial boards of ‘Psychiatric Genetics’, ‘CNS Drugs’, ‘Current Therapeutic Research’ and ‘Medicine Today’. In 2002 Professor Mitchell was awarded the Senior Research Award of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. In 2004, he received the Founders Medal of the Australasian Society for Psychiatry Research. Professor Mitchell also serves on the NSW Health Care Advisory Council and the NSW Mental Health Implementation Taskforce.
	Dr Stephen Allnutt Dr Allnutt trained in Psychiatry at McMaster University in Canada and in Forensic Psychiatry in Ottawa, Canada. He has held a number of positions including Deputy Director of Mason Clinic (Auckland, NZ) and Clinical director of Long Bay Hospital (Sydney, Australia). He is currently Clinical Director of the NSW Community forensic Mental Health Services. Dr Allnutt has a ministerial appointment with the Sentinel Events-Homicide Subcommittee. He is the recipient of awards from the American Journal of Forensic Services and a NSW Premiers Gold Award for work with the NSW Court Liaison Service. In addition to be a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Dr Allnutt is a well received speaker and has presented and published papers both locally and internationally on forensic topics. He has a scientific interests in the bizarre, the deviant and the dangerous.
	Associate Professor John Basson Associate Professor Basson has worked in Forensic and General Mental Health Management in Scotland, England and Australia. He has run services in prisons, high security hospitals, medium and low secure units. He has provided evidence in courts at all levels and was involved in community Forensic services in Scotland and South London. Associate Professor Basson has published in the areas of Psychiatric Intensive Care, HepB and HIV in prison setting, comparisons of mental illness in the community and in prison, the treatment of nonmetastatic pain and illicit drug testing in high security hospitals. He has recently immigrated to Australia and in addition to working part-time for Justice Health as Statewide Director of Mental Health, he is seconded part-time as Chief Psychiatrist of NSW.
	Dr Jacqueline Canessa BMed, FRANZCP Dr Canessa is employed as a staff specialist psychiatrist for Justice Health. She completed her advanced training in Forensic Psychiatry and obtained her Fellowship in late 2004. She is currently undertaking further training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. For the last one and a half years she has worked for adolescent Health. This involved the assessment and management of juvenile offenders with mental health and drug and alcohol issues in custodial and community settings.
	Ms Michelle Eason Michelle Eason registered as a nurse in 1996 after completing a Bachelor of Nursing degree. She has worked in Forensic Mental Health for over 8 years. Michelle completed a Masters in Nursing (Mental Health) in 2001 and is currently the Clinical Nurse Consultant, Mental Health at Long Bay Prison Hospital. She has worked with several Universities and the College of Nursing in developing, reviewing and assessing courses in Mental Health.
	Dr Andrew Ellis Dr Ellis is a Consultant forensic Psychiatrist working with the NSW Justice Health Community Forensic Mental Health Service. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and secretary of the College’s NSW Section of Forensic Psychiatry. Dr Ellis has previously held posts in London as the National Health Service International Fellow in forensic Psychiatry and the NSW Justice Health Statewide court Liaison Service as Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist.
	Dr Claire Gaskin MBBS, MARCPsych (UK), FRANZCP Dr Gaskin is Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Clinical Director Adolescent Mental Health, Justic Health. Dr Gaskin qualified in medicine from St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1991 with merit in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. After obtaining Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1998, she became the first Specialist Registrar to complete Advanced Training in both Child and Adolescent and Forensic Psychiatry at the Maudsley hospital, London. Dr Gaskin has worked as a consultant in specialist adolescent forensic services in the UK since 2003, care to young people in secure inpatient adolescent units, custodial and secure facilities and the community. She took up her current position with Justice Health in May 2006 and has a statewide remit to enhance the mental health care to young offenders in NSW. She has been actively involved in the development of Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry as a committee member of the Adolescent forensic Professional Network and the Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatry in the UK and has collaborated on projects to enhance provision of mental health care to the young offender population, including collaborating on the production of a World Health Organisation Manual to aid the management of mental health disorders in the prison setting, co-writing the chapter on Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity disorders. Dr Gaskin has lectured widely to multidisciplinary audiences and presented internationally at relevant conferences.
	Professor David Greenberg MB, ChB, FFPsych (SA), MMed (Psych), Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry, FRCPC (Canada), FRANZCP Professor David Greenberg is a formally trained Forensic Psychiatrist. He holds two full professional appointments. He is a Clinical Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at University of Western Australia and Professor of Psychiatry, Conjoint appointment at University of New South Wales. He is the past Chair and Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Western Australia. Professor Greenberg has been practising medicine for 27 years. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1979 and obtained his Psychiatry Fellowship from the College of Medicine in 1988. He completed a Masters degree in Psychiatry in 1990 and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1992. Professor Greenberg undertook full time formal university forensic psychiatry fellowship training in Canada for an additional year in 1990/91. Professor Greenberg is Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). He was the Associate Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in Canada at University of Ottawa. In 1999 Professor Greenberg was appointed as the Statewide Director of the State Forensic Mental Health Services for Western Australia Health Department. In January 2002, he was recruited by NSW Health to establish the Court Liaison Service in NSW. He is currently has also worked part-time as the Clinical Director of the NSW Court and Community Liaison Service, which operates in 17 courts statewide. Professor Greenberg is a nationally and internationally recognised expert in Forensic Psychiatry. He is the recipient of distinguished awards from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He has authored over 50 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and read over 100 peer reviewed papers at national and international conferences. He is the past chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Forensic Psychiatry Section, WA Branch. He currently acts as a consultant to the Federal RANZCP and NSW Health on forensic psychiatry matters. Professor Greenberg specialises in the psychiatric aspects of civil, criminal and family court matters. Professor Greenberg has testified in thousands of cases at the Local, District and Supreme Court. He is an international acclaimed expert on sex offenders, risk management and sexual violence.
	Associate Professor Dan Howard SC Dan Howard SC is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong, where he is Director of the National Prosecutions Program run by the Law faculty’s Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention. The Centre delivers postgraduate courses including the LLM (Prosecutions) to local and overseas students. Dan has been practising law for over 30 years. He is a Senior Counsel at the New South Wales Bar, and was a Crown Prosecutor with the Office of the DPP for fifteen years, where he ran the program of continuing professional development for the NSW Crown Prosecutors. He has prosecuted in many notable trials; he was junior counsel in the prosecution of the “Backpackers” trial (R v Milat) and in 2007 conducted the prosecution on Norfolk Island (R v McNeill) relating to the murder of Janelle Patton. He has also appeared in many criminal appeal cases, including a number that have involved points of law relating to mental health issues. Dan has been engaged in many cases involving psychiatric issues including fitness to plead, and defences of mental illness and substantial impairment. He is the co- author, with forensic psychiatrist Bruce Westmore, of the textbook Crime and Mental Health Law in New South Wales (Lexis Nexis 2005), Dan has also written several articles and given many lectures on crime related topics and on psychiatry and the law. He was a member of the Attorney General’s inter-departmental committee that recommended numerous improvements made in recent years to the Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act, and has been consulted in relation to the review currently being undertaken in respect of that legislation.
	Dr Elizabeth Kaziro - Project Manager MFMHP Dr Kaziro received a PhD from the Dept of Social Work, Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. In addition she holds qualifications in Behavioural Sciences from Macquarie University and a GradDip Adult Education from UTS. Dr Kaziro has taught in Behavioural Sciences in Medicine in the former undergraduate medical program at the University of Sydney and was a Student Counsellor for 10 years at the University of Sydney. She has also worked for the UNSW Australian Graduate School of Management as a researcher and trainer in the Development Program for Managers. Dr Kaziro has a strong administrative and liaison background, her most recent position being Senior Liaison Officer with the Office of the Protective Commissioner, NSW Attorney-General’s Department. Additional ongoing interests include Youth Justice Conferencing for NSW Dept of Juvenile Justice and the undertaking of a Master of Rehabilitation Counselling at the University of Sydney.
	Dr Jeremy O'Dea Dr O’Dea is a consultant Forensic Psychiatrist based in Paddington with appointments as a visiting Psychiatrist to Justice Health for the past 10 years. Following completion of his general psychiatric training in Australia, Dr O’Dea spent 3 years in the United Kingdom in the early 1990’s training in the subspecialty of forensic Psychiatry. On return to Australia he took up the position as the Principal Forensic Psychiatrist for the Health Department of Western Australia prior to his current clinical practice in New South Wales. He has a strong treatment emphasis in his practice in Forensic Psychiatry with a particular interest in the assessment, treatment and management of patients diagnosed with paraphilias and sex offenders.
	Mr Colman O’Driscoll Mr Colman O’Driscoll trained as a Psychiatric Nurse in St Patrick’s hospital, Dublin and holds a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of Dublin, Trinity College. He moved to Sydney in 2003 and started working in forensic Mental Health with Justice Health (then Corrections Health Service). Mr O’Driscoll now works with Justice Health as a Clinical Nurse Consultant (Mental Health) and holds a Conjoint Lecturer’s appointment with the school of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales. He has wide ranging experience in the NSW Forensic Mental Health system, including the provision of comprehensive Psychiatric Reports to NSW Local Courts. Research interests include the assessment and management of risk of violence and suicide in custody. In 2005/2006 he led a research team examining suicide in NSW prisons over a ten year period.
	Dr Anthony Samuels MBBCh, MCrim, FRANZCP Dr Anthony Samuels has been recently appointed as Clinical Director of the new 135 bed Maximum Security Forensic Hospital which is being built adjacent to Long Bay Gaol. His current role is Medical Superintendent of the existing Long Bay Prison Hospital and Director of Registrar training. He also works as a Forensic Psychiatrist in private practice. Dr Samuels is currently Senior Conjoint Lecturer in Psychiatry at UNSW and has authored numerous publications in the areas of General and Forensic Psychiatry. Current areas of research include risk, prison suicide and psychopathy. Dr Samuels obtained his basic medical qualifications at The University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He completed his Psychiatric Specialist training in Auckland NZ and has been a Fellow of the RANZCP since 1991. In addition he has completed a Masters of Criminology through the University of Sydney.
	Dr Barbara Sinclair BDS, M Pharm, MB ChB, FRANZCP Initially educated at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, Dr Sinclar first qualified in Dentistry with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery. She subsequently completed a Master of Pharmacology at the University of Otago and then followed with a medical degree. Dr Sinclair’s Psychiatry training was in Dunedin followed by two years rural and remote psychiatry. Her training in Psychiatry was completed at The Prince of Wales Hospital and with Justice Health in Sydney. As a Staff Specialist with Justice Health, Dr Sinclair worked with inpatient forensic care at the Long Bay Hospital Complex and Outpatient Services in outlying prisons in remote areas with some juvenile work. Most recently, she was the Staff Specialist for the Statewide Community and Court Liaison Service. In addition, Dr Sinclair has a part-time private psychiatry and addiction practice. She is currently completing a Fellowship of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine of the RACP. Her interests are specifically in addiction medicine, medico-legal/ forensic and general psychiatry.
	Mr Michael Sterry BA, BJuris, LLB Mr Sterry is employed as the Forensic Legal Advisor to Justice Health. He has held the position of Deputy President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and prior to that was the Director of the Legal Branch of the Department of Health. He holds the degrees of BA, B. Juris, LLB from the University of New South Wales. For the last 31 years he has been practicing as a lawyer including 2 years in private practice and 2 years in the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office drafting legislation. For the last 27 years he has been continuously involved in various ways with the Mental Health Legislation (including providing legal advice in relation to the drafting of the 1990 legislation) and the practice of law in that area. He has for the past 10 years also been a voluntary Director of a large Non Government Organisation involved with providing residential facilities for persons suffering from mental illness.