Christine Dean
Encyclopedia
Professor Christine Dean BA. MD. FRCPsych is a London
psychiatrist
currently consulting at the Priory Hospital Roehampton, the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM), The Helen Bamber
Foundation, in her private practice and as a medical member of the Mental Health Review Tribunals, Ministry of Justice (England and Wales).
Dean was born in Crewe
, Cheshire
in 1939 and attended Crewe
County Grammar School and won a State Scholarship to study medicine
at Edinburgh University and after qualifying practised general medicine and general practice in the West Midlands
. She completed an Open University
Degree specialising in the History of Art
before training in Psychiatry
in Edinburgh
.
In 1979 Dean joined the Medical Research Council Epidemiology
Unit in Edinburgh under the directorship of Norman Kreitman and conducted collaborative research on the epidemiology of depression which involved interviewing a random sample of the female population in Edinburgh. The findings were that women who were working class
, unemployed and divorced, separated or widowed had more than ten times the rate of depression and anxiety
compared with women who were middle class
, married or single and employed.
Shortly after this Dean became a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh under Professor Robert Kendell who was Head of Department. She conducted research with Professor Kendell on post-natal depression and puerperal psychosis and found that women who were having their first baby, those who had a caesarean section
and those who were unmarried were more likely to develop puerperal psychosis following childbirth.
At this time Dean collaborated with Sir Patrick Forrest (Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh University) in the first random controlled study to compare the psychological effects of mastectomy
, for breast cancer
, compared with mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction
. The study demonstrated the psychological and practical benefits of immediate breast reconstruction and this is now routinely offered to women requiring mastectomy.
In 1982 Dean took up a consultant psychiatrist post in Manchester
and with Francis Creed, established one of the first day hospitals to provide an alternative to hospital admissions for people with acute mental health
problems. Whilst in Manchester she was appointed as one of the first medical Unit General Managers in the UK, following the Griffiths Report (1983), and managed the mental health services, the community services and the dental hospital at Central Manchester Health Authority. During this time Dean set up an Arts project for patients, START. The project resulted in some of the works produced by the patients being displayed in Manchester City Art Gallery.
Another innovative project by Dean, whilst she was in Manchester, was the establishment of a peripatetic
day service with professionals visiting different community health centres and providing therapeutic activities and groups near to the clients’ homes.
Dean conducted research in Manchester with Lynne Webster and Professor Neil Kessell evaluating the recently introduced Mental Health Act 1983
to examine whether the new act was more protective of patients’ civil liberties than the previous Mental Health Act 1959.
Dean moved to Birmingham
in 1987 to take up a post as Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham
. She was also a consultant psychiatrist responsible for the deprived inner city area of Sparkbrook
which has a very large south Asian population. She found that the psychiatric hospital services did not meet the needs of this population, especially the needs of Asian women. As a result she set up a home treatment service, which was the first in the UK, as an alternative to hospital admission for people who had acute mental health problems.
Dean subsequently conducted research comparing the home treatment service with the standard hospital in-patient service and found that patients and their relatives preferred the home treatment service and that the outcome from the clinical point of view was the same in both groups; this was true of patients from non-Asian backgrounds as well as Asian backgrounds. Home treatment/crisis resolution services have since been adopted nationwide in the UK and are recommended in the NHS
National Service Framework (1999) and the Mental Health Policy Implementation Guide (2001).
In 1990 Dean was asked to be a consultant with the Centre for Mental Health Service Development at Kings College London. This organisation assisted NHS trust
s throughout the UK to set up community services to enable them to provide alternatives to the large mental hospitals. Once alternatives were developed, these institutions were scaled down and closed as a result. Dean then became a director of the International Mental Health Network which was an organisation that linked together people in the UK and elsewhere in the world who were endeavouring to set up high quality community services. The International Mental Health Network also advised mental health services in Australia
, New Zealand
, the Czech Republic
, England
and Scotland
who were setting up community services.
In 1998 Dean was appointed as Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Director of Mental Health Services at Wolverhampton
Mental Health Trust. During her years in Wolverhampton she established two new Home Treatment / Crisis Resolution services, an Early Intervention in Psychosis Service (for people aged 16 to 28) and an Assertive Outreach service for people with long-term mental health problems.
In 2003 CDean spent a year in Adelaide
, South Australia
as a Director of a mental health service there and contributed to the development of community services.
Dean moved to London in 2004 where she was a consultant with the West London Mental Health Trust. She was a consultant responsible for clients of two new Home Treatment/ Crisis Resolution teams in West London and then for a newly established Assertive Outreach service.
Dean is currently employed by the Ministry of Justice, as medical member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal which hears the cases of people who are appealing against their detention under a section of the Mental Health Act 1983. She also worked as a consultant for the Helen Bamber Foundation which assist people who are victims of human rights
abuse, seeing people who have mental health problems. Dean has maintained her interest in the arts and is a consultant psychiatrist to the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine. This organisation is for performing artists who have medical problems of any kind, including mental health problems.
Dean is currently a Visiting Consultant at the Priory Hospital Roehampton and has a private practice in central London.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
currently consulting at the Priory Hospital Roehampton, the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM), The Helen Bamber
Helen Bamber
Helen Bamber OBE , is a psychotherapist who worked with Holocaust survivors in Germany after the concentration camps were liberated in 1945. In 1947, she returned to Britain and continued her work, helping to establish Amnesty International and later co-founding the Medical Foundation for Care of...
Foundation, in her private practice and as a medical member of the Mental Health Review Tribunals, Ministry of Justice (England and Wales).
Dean was born in Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
in 1939 and attended Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
County Grammar School and won a State Scholarship to study medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at Edinburgh University and after qualifying practised general medicine and general practice in the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
. She completed an Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
Degree specialising in the History of Art
History of art
The History of art refers to visual art which may be defined as any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview...
before training in Psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
In 1979 Dean joined the Medical Research Council Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
Unit in Edinburgh under the directorship of Norman Kreitman and conducted collaborative research on the epidemiology of depression which involved interviewing a random sample of the female population in Edinburgh. The findings were that women who were working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
, unemployed and divorced, separated or widowed had more than ten times the rate of depression and anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
compared with women who were middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, married or single and employed.
Shortly after this Dean became a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh under Professor Robert Kendell who was Head of Department. She conducted research with Professor Kendell on post-natal depression and puerperal psychosis and found that women who were having their first baby, those who had a caesarean section
Caesarean section
A Caesarean section, is a surgical procedure in which one or more incisions are made through a mother's abdomen and uterus to deliver one or more babies, or, rarely, to remove a dead fetus...
and those who were unmarried were more likely to develop puerperal psychosis following childbirth.
At this time Dean collaborated with Sir Patrick Forrest (Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh University) in the first random controlled study to compare the psychological effects of mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
, for breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, compared with mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction
Breast reconstruction
Breast reconstruction is the rebuilding of a breast, usually in women. It involves using autologous tissue or prosthetic material to construct a natural-looking breast. Often this includes the reformation of a natural-looking areola and nipple...
. The study demonstrated the psychological and practical benefits of immediate breast reconstruction and this is now routinely offered to women requiring mastectomy.
In 1982 Dean took up a consultant psychiatrist post in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and with Francis Creed, established one of the first day hospitals to provide an alternative to hospital admissions for people with acute mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
problems. Whilst in Manchester she was appointed as one of the first medical Unit General Managers in the UK, following the Griffiths Report (1983), and managed the mental health services, the community services and the dental hospital at Central Manchester Health Authority. During this time Dean set up an Arts project for patients, START. The project resulted in some of the works produced by the patients being displayed in Manchester City Art Gallery.
Another innovative project by Dean, whilst she was in Manchester, was the establishment of a peripatetic
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
day service with professionals visiting different community health centres and providing therapeutic activities and groups near to the clients’ homes.
Dean conducted research in Manchester with Lynne Webster and Professor Neil Kessell evaluating the recently introduced Mental Health Act 1983
Mental Health Act 1983
The Mental Health Act 1983 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which applies to people in England and Wales. It covers the reception, care and treatment of mentally disordered persons, the management of their property and other related matters...
to examine whether the new act was more protective of patients’ civil liberties than the previous Mental Health Act 1959.
Dean moved to Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
in 1987 to take up a post as Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
. She was also a consultant psychiatrist responsible for the deprived inner city area of Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.-Etymology:...
which has a very large south Asian population. She found that the psychiatric hospital services did not meet the needs of this population, especially the needs of Asian women. As a result she set up a home treatment service, which was the first in the UK, as an alternative to hospital admission for people who had acute mental health problems.
Dean subsequently conducted research comparing the home treatment service with the standard hospital in-patient service and found that patients and their relatives preferred the home treatment service and that the outcome from the clinical point of view was the same in both groups; this was true of patients from non-Asian backgrounds as well as Asian backgrounds. Home treatment/crisis resolution services have since been adopted nationwide in the UK and are recommended in the NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
National Service Framework (1999) and the Mental Health Policy Implementation Guide (2001).
In 1990 Dean was asked to be a consultant with the Centre for Mental Health Service Development at Kings College London. This organisation assisted NHS trust
NHS Trust
A National Health Service trust provides services on behalf of the National Health Service in England and NHS Wales.The trusts are not trusts in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. Each trust is headed by a board consisting of executive and non-executive directors, and is...
s throughout the UK to set up community services to enable them to provide alternatives to the large mental hospitals. Once alternatives were developed, these institutions were scaled down and closed as a result. Dean then became a director of the International Mental Health Network which was an organisation that linked together people in the UK and elsewhere in the world who were endeavouring to set up high quality community services. The International Mental Health Network also advised mental health services in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
who were setting up community services.
In 1998 Dean was appointed as Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Director of Mental Health Services at Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
Mental Health Trust. During her years in Wolverhampton she established two new Home Treatment / Crisis Resolution services, an Early Intervention in Psychosis Service (for people aged 16 to 28) and an Assertive Outreach service for people with long-term mental health problems.
In 2003 CDean spent a year in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
as a Director of a mental health service there and contributed to the development of community services.
Dean moved to London in 2004 where she was a consultant with the West London Mental Health Trust. She was a consultant responsible for clients of two new Home Treatment/ Crisis Resolution teams in West London and then for a newly established Assertive Outreach service.
Dean is currently employed by the Ministry of Justice, as medical member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal which hears the cases of people who are appealing against their detention under a section of the Mental Health Act 1983. She also worked as a consultant for the Helen Bamber Foundation which assist people who are victims of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuse, seeing people who have mental health problems. Dean has maintained her interest in the arts and is a consultant psychiatrist to the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine. This organisation is for performing artists who have medical problems of any kind, including mental health problems.
Dean is currently a Visiting Consultant at the Priory Hospital Roehampton and has a private practice in central London.