About the programme

The mind and body are inseparable, and mental and physical health conditions are often connected. Integrating mental and physical healthcare services has the potential to vastly improve the care that patients receive and deliver better outcomes for patients and service users.

Watch our Mind & Body animation

Evidence shows that by joining up physical and mental healthcare, we can help someone to manage their different conditions, improve their health outcomes, and even prevent unnecessary health problems for some people by identifying risk early.

The Mind & Body programme wants to reduce the known health inequalities by for people living with long term physical health conditions and mental health conditions:

• The average life expectancy for someone with a long-term mental health illness or learning disability is 15- 20 years shorter than for someone without.
• 30% of people with long-term physical health conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis or heart problems, also have a mental health condition, such as depression or anxiety.
• Nearly half of all people with diagnosed mental illness also have at least one, and often more, long-term physical conditions.

The programme seeks to do this by:

• Establishing what good mind and body care looks like;
• Developing a mind and body approach to practice; and
• Supporting organisations to achieve change and improvement in practice.

Key priorities for the programme are to develop new partnerships, test out new interventions and models of care, develop an evidence base for joined up mind and body care and to share our learning through the Mind & Body Improvement Network.

We are in the process of developing a refreshed strategy for the mind & body programme and look forward to sharing it in spring 2024.

King’s Health Partners recognises the importance of treating the patient as a whole person, and the impact that holistic, joined up and integrated mind and body care can have. The mind and body approach to delivering care is a golden thread that is embedded in all strategic priorities of King’s Health Partners.

Our website has a wealth of information and resources illustrating best practice and new innovations across our partnership in mind and body care. Browse the site for blogs, training opportunities and news. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email the team at mindandbody@slam.nhs.uk.

Our leadership

Together our leadership team works to refresh and refocus the Mind & Body programme’s strategic approach and long term goals.

Dr Siobhan Gee MPharm PGDip MRPharmS (consultant) Ph.D

Dr. Siobhan Gee is the acting deputy director of pharmacy and consultant pharmacist for psychiatric liaison at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She is an honorary senior lecturer in psychopharmacology at the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, and is accredited as consultant pharmacist by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society – one of the first people to receive this accolade.

Dr Siobhan Gee's specialist interest is in the use of psychiatric medicines for people with physical comorbidity, and she has more than a decade of experience working with psychiatric liaison teams at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS FT, King’s College Hospital NHS FT, Croydon University Hospital Trust, and Lewisham Hospitals. She is recognised internationally as a leading authority in the clinical use of psychiatric medicines, and is a contributing author to the world-renowned Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines.

Dr Michael Dilley, FRCPsych Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Michael Dilley has a special interest in brain injury and severe and complex functional neurological disorder that requires interdisciplinary inpatient or day patient rehabilitation and outpatient treatment. He provides input across the entire integrated care pathway for patients with neuropsychiatric needs associated with brain injury at King’s College Hospital NHS FT. He often supports patients' throughout their entire journey of recovery - from acute care to a return to the community.

He is a member of the Clinical Reference Group in Complex Rehabilitation at NHS England and Chair of the Faculty of Neuropsychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists. Mike is also a Trustee of the United Kingdom Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF). His previous roles have included leading the inpatient mental health services in Westminster, the national neuropsychiatry unit at The Maudsley, on the brain injury unit at St George’s Hospital, the rehabilitation units at Putney and Blackheath and as Clinical Director of the NHSE London Neurosciences Network. Mike has worked extensively across organisational networks both locally, regionally and nationally in integrating mental health services for people with neurological conditions. He is also committed to teaching and training around neurobehavioural rehabilitation. He is currently a co-investigator in the NIHR funded randomised trial of primary prevention of depression after traumatic brain injury.

Mark Edwards (MBBS, BSc (Hons), PhD, FRCP), Professor of Neurology and Interface Disorders at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at The Maudsley and King’s College Hospital

He has a specialist clinical and research interest in Movement Disorders and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). He is a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at UCL and the National Hospital for Neurology. Here he developed an NIHR funded research program and specialist diagnostic and treatment service for patients with FND. In 2015 he expanded this work to develop one of the first integrated diagnostic and treatment services for FND. Alongside this work he continued research into the pathophysiology of the disorder and development and testing of novel treatments, including the first randomised trial of specialist physiotherapy for functional movement disorders. He recently led the development of a national optimal clinical pathway for Functional Neurological Disorder for the National Neurology Advisory Group on behalf of NHS England.

He has published over 350 peer reviewed publications and is author of the Oxford Specialist Handbook of Parkinson’s Disease and Other Movement Disorders. He is President of the Association of British Neurology Movement Disorders Group, International Executive Committee member of the International Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Society, Board and Founding Member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society and Associate Editor of the European Journal of Neurology.

To get in touch please contact Natalia Stepan, Programme director at nstepan@slam.nhs.uk.

To find out more about the Mind & Body programme please email mindandbody@slam.nhs.uk. 

To discuss collaboration opportunities contact charlotte.curry@slam.nhs.uk for an introductory call.