Alan is a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Hon Professor / Professorial Fellow, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Australia, Clinical Associate Professor, Brain & Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia, & Visiting Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Far West LHD Mental Health Service, NSW, formerly Research Psychiatrist, Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Services, University of Newcastle.
He was Senior Staff Specialist Psychiatrist, Service Director, & Director of Clinical Services of the award-winning Royal North Shore Hospital & Community Mental Health Services, 1979-2009, & inaugural Deputy Commissioner of the NSW Mental Health Commission.
He has been invited speaker and/or performed consultancies on service development in several Australian states and territories, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, USA, Canada, China, Thailand, Slovenia, Hong Kong & New Zealand. He was Visiting Professor, University of Wisconsin, Department of Psychiatry 1990 & Visiting Senior Fellow, Departments of Medical Anthropology & Social Medicine, Harvard University, Boston in 2006.
He is the author or coauthor of 170 journal articles and chapters plus a book, published reports, and many media pieces on 24/7 community based alternatives to acute & long-term inpatient care, including home visiting crisis teams, rehabilitation & recovery, assertive community treatment & support teams, interdisciplinary care management & integrated mental health service systems; early intervention for psychosis & other psychiatric conditions; homeless and itinerant individuals contending with complex mental disorders; co-occurring disorders; deinstitutionalization; psychiatric stigma & discrimination, stereotyping & psycho-cinematics; family intervention; Indigenous & remote area mental health, cultural influences on mental health service systems; research & evaluation in mental health, qualitative & quantitative functional outcome measures; interdisciplinary co-design & co-leadership, together with lived experience, families and communities; complexity science; impairment & burn-out in clinicians and support workers; service & workforce standards; the National Mental Health Strategy; international comparisons between Mental Health Commissions & Community Mental Health Services; climate change psychiatry & mental health-care ecosystems; human rights vs. involuntary care & the history of Australasian & global mental health services.
He was conferred as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2014 & is the recipient of several awards in recognition of his significant contribution to mental health treatment and care.
