About Us | AUTP

Who Are AUTP?

The Association of University Teachers in Psychiatry is a registered charity with the singular aim of promoting excellence in undergraduate psychiatric education. Our mission is to promote the highest quality of psychiatric education across all medical schools in the UK. We support teachers in psychiatry from all backgrounds including psychiatrists, GPs, patients, carers, nurses and other allied healthcare professionals.

Mission Statement

The purpose of the Association is to advance for the benefit of the public the study of the teaching of psychiatry, to encourage and promote interest into matters concerned with the teaching of psychiatry and to improve the methods for teaching psychiatry, and in furtherance thereof and as ancillary thereto the Association may:-

(a) exchange information about psychiatric education in medical schools and in other fields of education and training.

(b) organize meetings on topics concerning psychiatric education.

(d) provide information to professional and public bodies about matters concerning psychiatric education.

(e) investigate matters pertinent to psychiatric education and publish reports which may be in the professional and public interest.

(f) foster and promote research into psychiatric education, and to communicate the results of such research to all interested persons.

Our Constitution (click to download)

Meet The AUTP Team

Dr Declan Hyland - AUTP Chair

I am a Consultant in general adult psychiatry working in an inpatient unit in Liverpool. I was awarded by Certificate of Completion of Training in August 2016. Having studied at Sheffield Medical School, I then completed by Foundation Training in Liverpool. I always knew I ultimately wanted to pursue a career in psychiatry (since I was in my third year of my Medicine degree). I completed my Core Training in psychiatry in the Mersey region and then my Higher Training in general adult psychiatry, again in the Mersey region. I have been in my current Consultant post since August 2016.

I have always had a keen interest in medical education. This started in my Foundation Training, when I would enjoy providing bedside teaching to Liverpool medical students. My interest in medical education continued to grow throughout my postgraduate training and since I became a Consultant. My interest lies not only in undergraduate medical education, but also postgraduate.

In November 2018, I was appointed as the Deputy Director for Year 4 of the course at Liverpool Medical School and as the undergraduate psychiatry lead for the medical school. I continue in both roles to this day. As well as writing exam questions for Liverpool medical finals, I also write and review questions for the Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance (MSCAA). I represent Liverpool Medical School on the Royal College of Psychiatrists Undergraduate Education Forum. I regularly supervise both Year 4 and Year 5 Liverpool students and really enjoy offering an optional placement (SAMP) to those Year 5 students who have a keen interest in psychiatry.

I first heard about the Association of University Teachers of Psychiatry (AUTP) in 2019 and quickly signed up to be a member of the organisation and attended their excellent annual conference in Birmingham that year. My interest in and involvement with the work of the AUTP has grown over the last couple of years and I was delighted when I was informed I had been elected to succeed Prof Subodh Dave as Chair of the AUTP.

My goal is to, not only raise the profile of psychiatry in the undergraduate curriculum, but also more fundamentally to try to help create more psychologically-minded junior doctors as they progress through their medical training.

As AUTP Chair, I aspire to grow the membership of the organisation, increase its diversity of membership and to continue the excellent work achieved by Prof Dave during his tenure as Chair.

I have a fantastic team working alongside me at the AUTP and very much look forward to helping the organisation go from strength to strength.

Dr Sridevi Sira Mahalingappa - Honorary Secretary

Consultant Psychiatrist, Western Sydney Local Health District, Sydney;
Honorary (Consultant) Assistant Professor - University of Nottingham;
Honorary Clinical Teaching Fellow - Derbyshire Health Care NHS Foundation Trust

Sridevi has a Diploma in psychiatry (NIMHANS, India). She has an interest in medical education and global mental health. She has been involved in an educational link project between India and UK to increase the capacity of trained medical educators in medical colleges in India.

She has been to Zambia to contribute actively in the M Med teaching programme. She currently works as a Clinical Teaching Fellow teaching medical students in Derby.

Deepika Sharma - Honorary Treasurer

Deepika is a graduate final year medical student at the University of Sheffield and previously president of Sheffield Psychiatry Society - winners of the 2020 Royal College of Psychiatrists PsychSoc of the year award. She previously qualified as a mental health nurse from King's College London in 2015 and worked at South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, specialising in psychiatric intensive care and places of safety (136 suite) coordination. She continues to work part-time at Sheffield Health and Social Care as a mental health nurse on an adult acute psychiatric ward. She is currently co-leading a national research project, mapping the current psychiatric curriculum in the UK. She also has a keen interest in student mental health and has created ‘Medics Together’ - a termly newsletter with a focus on medical students’ mental health. Alongside this she started a medical student mental health support group at her university called 'The Listening Bunch' and is working with the University of Bristol to introduce a course for Sheffield students, which aims to give them the tools to talk about and manage their own mental health during medical school.

Sheffield PsychSoc contact details: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/become-a-psychiatrist/med-students/psychsocs

MedicsTogether Newletter: www.bit.ly/medicstogether

Tools to Talk course:
https://www.projecttalk.org.uk/toolstotalk

Dr James Fallon - Trustee

Dr Liz Forty - Trustee

AUTP Research Associates

Dr Jinal Patel
Dr Kiera Ajagun-Roberte
Dr India Lunn
Dr Rahul Mehta
Dr Matthew Twohig
Dr Shentong Wang
Dr Megan Buoey
Dr Godwin Tong

Executive Committee (EC) Members

Dr Nagina Khan - Academic Lead

BHSc, PGCert, Ph.D.

Nagina is an academic researcher and collaborator at Touro University Nevada, working on research in medical education. Her current research is on professionalism in medical education, supported by Dean Wolfgang Gilliar. She is the primary investigator leading and conducting this research in medical education with four other medical students with a keen interest in learning about professionalism and medical education research. Nagina’s role at Touro University was constructed to focus on professionalism and medical education.

Methods

Nagina’s work has focused on using specific methodologies such as meta-synthesis, line or argument synthesis, qualitative analysis methods, mixed methods, writing, teaching, supporting students and other medical educators to publish and become independent.
Other collaborators
Nagina collaborates with other medical educators on different research projects, such as Professor Walther van Mook Internist-intensivist, vice-chair Department of Intensive Care Medicine, and Director of the Academy (Dean) for Postgraduate Medical Training Maastricht UMC, Chair Committee of Professional Behaviour, FHML, Maastricht University Netherlands.
Nagina is also working on multiple collaborations with Professor Subodh Dave, Consultant Psychiatrist and Deputy Director of Undergraduate Medical Education, Dean of Royal College of Psychiatry UK, and past Chair of AUTP.

Memberships

Nagina is a Hon’ Member of the Creative Community Group UK. Member of the Expert Reference Group UK – 4 Mental Health, UK. Advocacy Committee Compass Foodbank and Outreach Centre, Canada.
Nagina is an Editorial Board Member - Associate Editor at the BMC Medical Education Journal.

Dr Neil Sarkar - Discover Psychiatry Lead

Dr Santosh Kumar - Representative from secondary care

KM Santosh Kuma MBBS, MRCPsych. (PGDip Forensic Mental health, PG Cert Leadership in Health and Social Care)

Santosh is a jobbing Forensic Psychiatrist working in the North East and with a passion in medical education and embedding Quality Improvement (Human Factors).

He values the role of patients in teaching and learning from them all the time. He is committed to #choosepsychiatry movement and improvement of the holistic approach in psychiatry and using clinical setting for teaching and teaching methods to help with a preventative and highlighting the
important relational aspect of psychiatry.

He has a wide-ranging experience of teaching and examining medical students; trainees and teaching and supporting, teaching and training non-medical professionals. He values interdisciplinary learning and teaching and understanding the neurosciences of the psycho-social aspects of psychiatry. He has undertaken several Cochrane reviews and coauthored these.

He offers a popular SSC for Medical university students called Reel to Real Psychiatry. Again emphasising the relational model of psychiatry.

He likes to understand and embed neurosciences and related sciences (including learning from mathematics, physics and astrophysics for example) into Clinical and Academic Psychiatry and considers a constant student of this fascinating speciality of Science.

He loves making time to spend with his family, music (listening!), Nutella, the colour orange and developing an attitude of gratitude. He lives in Hope!

Twitter @santosh_k2021