Become a trustee for FPSA

Neil Hemstock (Chair)

Neil has been involved with our organisation since 1984, when we were known as the Association for the Psychiatric Study of Adolescence. He has served as the Local Secretary and Chair and was elected to the National Executive in 1986.

Since qualifying as a nurse in mental health and learning disability, in 1982, Neil has worked in the Leicestershire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). He was a senior nurse in both community and in-patient settings and is now Lead Nurse for the Families Young People and Children’s Division of Leicestershire Partnership Trust.

Neil is particularly interested in working with psychosis and has completed the Diploma in Medical Health Sciences (Psycho-social interventions) at Sheffield University.

Commenting on his involvement with FPSA, Neil says he is very proud to provide support to improve the care of young people. He looks forward to FPSA’s future with great anticipation and excitement.

Keith Wilshere (Honorary Treasurer)

Keith has been involved with all three iterations of the organisation since 1989, when he joined the South Yorkshire group, serving initially as Treasurer, and then the National Executive, in 1990.

Initially working as a banker and computer systems operator, since qualifying as an occupational therapist in the late 1980’s, Keith has spent various points of his career working in Derby, Kingston on Thames, Richmond, Sheffield, Hull and East Yorkshire, East Sussex, North London, Nottingham and the East Midlands and latterly in the Black Country.

Keith retired from the NHS in 2014 from the position of Deputy Director of Integrated Governance and Trust Lead Allied Healthcare Professional (AHP) due to personal circumstances. Since then he has formed his own company and has gone on the work in health service interim lead clinical and corporate governance roles for acute trusts, ambulance trusts, clinical commissioning groups as well as being a part-time clinician, videographer and musician.

Keith has remained interested in and committed to the FPSA, previously editing both the practice magazine Rapport, for over 13 years, and some of the more recent FPSA Briefings. He has been the Chair of a school governing body and remains proud and dedicated to supporting young people in general and particularly those in the care systems who work with them. 

Dr Alan Cockett (Trustee)

For much of his extensive career, Alan was an in-patient consultant and had a special interest in eating disorders. He is also experienced in CAMHS Tier 3 and had a particular interest in dissociative disorders and self-harm.

Alan is a past editor of the European Journal of Eating Disorders, (now the European Eating Disorders Review) and was a regular attendee at the international European Council on Eating Disorders’ conference . Until recently Alan has been member of the South West Regional Governance Committee of Rethink Mental Illness and has also worked with this charity at national level. He was also a director of the Eating Disorders Association (now called Beat). He has published papers on eating disorders and on self-harm and has presented nationally and internationally on these subjects. He has also had experience in working with the media including program making in his areas of interest.

Alan’s main therapeutic interests are in the field of systemic therapies and he has been involved as a family therapy trainer. His teaching experience includes training medical students, postgraduates in psychiatry and psychology and trainees in nursing and social work.
Alan sees his role as an FPSA trustee as a natural extension of his skills and knowledge. It gives him, he says, an opportunity to help fellow professionals through assessing training opportunities and applications for funding. He also feels that it gives him an opportunity to make some use of his background in academic publishing. 

Paul Mitchell PhD (Trustee)

Paul is a mental health nurse with over thirty years experience in the NHS, primarily within young people’s services in the North West.  For most of his career he has worked with young people within secure services and within offender pathways.  Paul worked as a senior clinician and a service manager while also pursuing a career in research.  He has published and presented research on screening, pathways and interventions for young people in offender pathways; he was awarded his Doctorate in 2009.

Paul worked for three years as Clinical Lead for the National Secure Forensic Mental Health Service for Young People.  He has also worked on two NICE Guideline Development Groups and was also a member of the Department of Health CAMHS Taskforce and the Clinical Reference Group for Secure Services for Young People.

Since leaving the NHS four years ago Paul has worked as an independent consultant, both in the UK and internationally, primarily focussing on pathways and service development.  His main areas of interest are the development of interagency pathways and innovative models of service delivery that actively involve both young people and their carers.

Claire Moran (Trustee)

Claire Moran (Trustee) has specialised in child and adolescent mental health for over a decade. Claire is a Lecturer at the UEA, teaching on graduate and post-graduate courses. She holds a clinical role in the NHS, as a psychotherapist in HM Prisons. Claire also provides private consultancy to external agencies in frontline child and adolescent mental health services. Claire is an active researcher and writer, with a special interest in social inequalities, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and psychoanalytic/ relational theory.

Alia Mumtaz (Trustee)

I have worked in health & social care since 2005, starting as support worker, where I worked with adults with a mental health diagnosis. Since this time, I have mainly worked for social care providers. As part of all my roles, I have worked with adults with a mental health diagnosis who have received mental health services in their adolescence, I have also supported adolescents to transition into adult services. This has led me to have a keen interest in the support children and adolescents receive in these formative years, which can have a significant impact in their adult life.  I am currently Head of Operations for well established health and social care charity based in the northwest, where we support people with a variety of care needs.  This is my first Trustee position and I am delighted to be part of FPSA, to be able to support professionals to gain access to funding for additional training & research, which will improve services for adolescents, which in turn will have a positive impact on adult services and the quality of life individuals with a mental health diagnosis can lead in adulthood.

Janine Smith (Trustee)

Janine Smith has been involved with our organisation for many years, both locally and at a national level, serving as a trustee and a director. She was involved in the strategic development of our transformation from a membership organisation to a grant giving foundation. This led to our successful change to the FPSA in 2011.

Since Janine qualified as a nurse in mental health in 1991, she has worked in Nottingham CAMHS (in-patient/Tier 4) as a senior nurse. She is still with Nottingham CAMHS, working as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the CAMHS Crisis Team.

Janine is particularly interested in adolescents and self-harm, and delivering evidence-based practice interventions. She is keen to explore how systems outside the health arena and multi-agency and inter-agency working can be developed to work in the best interests of young people.

Janine is passionate about her involvement with the FPSA. She is proud to represent the organisation and communicate its aims and objects at national conferences and forums.