Psychiatry as a career: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask

John McAnallen has been a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in East London since 2007 and an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University and Barts & London medical school.

He is the Lead East London Educational Supervisor for Higher Trainees in the North & East London Forensic Psychiatry and teaches core psychiatric trainees at Barts as well as coaching student’s professional development. 

John originates from Ireland, schooled in Nigeria and the Republic and Northern Ireland before he settled in London. After studying medicine at University College London he undertook basic training in Psychiatry & then Forensic Psychiatry Higher Training in London and has worked in a wide variety of clinical settings.

Dr Andrew Forrester (BSc(Hons) MBChB MPhil MD(Res) CMgr MCMI FRSA FRCPsych) has worked as a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist for 18 years. 

He is Academic Secretary to the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists, and a delegate to the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry’s Executive Committee. 

His clinical and research work has mainly been within the criminal justice system, including prisons, courts and in police custody. 

He is Editor-in-Chief of the BAFS journal Medicine, Science and the Law and an officer of BAFS, sits on the Executive Council. 

Andrew has published over 100 academic articles in his field and has provided over 600 reports to the Courts, mainly in criminal proceedings. He is a member of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, the Society of Expert Witnesses, an honorary member of the World Psychiatric Association, and a trustee of the charity Crime in Mind.

He is also a former chair of the World Psychiatric Association’s international prison mental health task-force, and a former member of the British Medical Association’s Forensic Medicine Committee, NHS England’s Health in Justice Strategic Clinical Network, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Working Group on the Mental Health of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

Dr Owen O’Sullivan is a Fellow in Medical Education at Maudsley Simulation (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust). He is a Specialty Registrar in Forensic Psychiatry (North East London Training Scheme). He has also worked in forensic psychiatry in the Rep. of Ireland where he trained. He holds an MSc in cognitive neuroscience (UCL) and is pursuing an LLM in mental health law (Northumbria University).

Dr Johnson completed his Foundation Training at University Hospital North Midlands, and was a Core Psychiatry Training with Southwest London and St Georges NHS Trust until 2019.  After a career break travelling in the South East Asia for 9 months, he currently works as a Locum Registrar for SWLStG, in General Adult Inpatient and Community Forensic Mental Health Services. He has an interest in Medical History, having intercalated at the Wellcome Trust as an undergraduate and studied at Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (DHMSA).