Owen Bowden-Jones

Dr Owen Bowden-Jones is a Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry, overseeing alcohol and drug services in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College in the Division of Brain Science. He trained in general psychiatry before achieving a specialist accreditation in substance misuse.

In 2010, Dr Bowden-Jones founded the Club Drug Clinic http://clubdrugclinic.cnwl.nhs.uk/ the UK’s largest multi-disciplinary service for people using ‘legal highs’ and ‘club drugs’. The service has grown rapidly and now operates from two Central London sites. The clinic has provided a unique opportunity to monitor new trends in drug use and to research innovative approaches to service delivery and treatment. He is currently grant holder for project NEPTUNE, a national expert group developing clinical guidance in the management of club drugs for a range of health settings http://www.health.org.uk/areas-of-work/programmes/shine-twelve/related-projects/central-and-north-west-london-nhs-foundation-trust/

He completed his MSc in Clinical Psychiatric Research at Imperial College and in 2005 was awarded a prestigious Leadership Fellowship from the Health Foundation. Research interests include club drugs, management of co-morbid substance misuse and mental health problems and quality improvement interventions. Dr Bowden-Jones is currently co-recipient of two NIHR grants and has previously been principle investigator on a large quality improvement project investigating the delivery of blood borne virus vaccination and treatment programmes http://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/health-professionals/prevent/

Dr Bowden-Jones is the current Chair of the Faculty of Addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2010-2014). A key part of this role is promoting the work of addiction psychiatry and in doing so he has met regularly with Government ministers, civil servants and other professional groups. Dr Bowden-Jones has given oral evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee review of drug policy, the Inter-ministerial Group on Drugs and several All Parliamentary Party Groups (APPGs).

He has chaired a number of national reports including Joint Commissioning Panel guidance on drug and alcohol services http://www.jcpmh.info/good-services/drug-and-alcohol-services/ , ‘New Trends in addiction’, Royal College of Psychiatrists (in press) and Role of the addiction specialist, Public Health England (in press). Dr Bowden-Jones has also co-authored two important reports on the role of medical professionals in substance misuse http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/publications/collegereports/cr/cr173.aspx and http://www.aomrc.org.uk/publications/statements/doc_view/9496-alcohol-and-drugs-core-medical-competences.html

Other national roles include the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) ketamine working group, National Intelligence Network on the health harms associated with drug use, National Skills Consortium for Substance Misuse, DVLA expert panel on substance use, National Treatment Agency Medication in Recovery expert group, and London Joint Working Group on Hepatitis C.

International roles include executive member of the European Union Federation of Addiction Societies (EUFAS) and ‘Master trainer’ with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), delivering training on psychiatry in East Africa and the Balkans.

Dr Bowden-Jones has presented widely at national and international conferences on topics including club drugs, co-morbid mental health problems, alcohol and drug policy and workforce development. He spoke at this year’s Maudsley debate on legal highs and will be speaking at the Battle of Ideas at the Barbican.

Other activities include collaborations with the Almedia Theatre, British Film Institute and Angelus Foundation charity. He is a founder member of the London Doctors Orchestra, who rehearse each month in the basement of the Charing Cross Hospital.

He is a Trustee and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.