Rob Poole

I am Professor of Social Psychiatry at Bangor University. I am a former chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales and I received the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

I co-direct the Centre for Mental Health and Society and I am Honorary Consultant in Liaison Psychiatry at Wrexham Maelor Hospital. Prior to becoming a full-time academic, I was an NHS community psychiatrist for 21 years, mostly in inner city Liverpool. I trained at St George’s Hospital, London, and in Oxford.

My clinical and research interests centre on marginalised populations and the social determinants of mental health. I have a long standing interest in substance misuse and its interaction with mental illness.

My current research activities include work on high-dose opioid use in people with chronic pain, suicide and self-harm in south Asia, and improving care and outcomes for people with persistent psychosis.

I have co-authored three books that have been published by Cambridge University Press, one of which is in its second edition.