Baroness Sheila Hollins
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry of Disability at St George's University
HRF Publication: People, Care and Work in the Home
Conference: Happy Homes, Happy Society?
Conference: A Home: A place of growth, care and wellbeing
Professor Sheila the Baroness Hollins is an independent cross bench life peer in the House of Lords, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry of Disability at St George’s University of London, and Honorary Professor of Spirituality, Theology and Health in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham. She chairs the Board of Beyond Words, a not for profit spin out social enterprise.
Dr Hollins has been a clinical specialist, teacher, researcher and policy maker in mental health and has published over 200 scientific papers, books and accessible patient materials. In 1989 she founded the long running Books Beyond Words series of picture books for young people and adults with intellectual disabilities, which includes titles on health and care, criminal justice, mental health and counselling. She currently chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee at the Centre for Child Protection of the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University. In 2014 Pope Francis appointed her for a four-year term to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in Rome.
Baroness Hollins has been President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2005-2008), President of the British Medical Association (2012-2013) and Chair of the Board of Science of the British Medical Association (2013- 2016). She is currently President of the College of Occupational Therapists in the U.K.
She has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Durham, London, Sheffield, Bath and Worcester in the UK and from the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne as well as the Bronze medal of the Institute of St Martin in Florence for her work in the disability field. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Colleges of Medicine in South Africa, a Fellow of the City Literary Institute in London, and recently became the 2016 FRED forum leadership hero.