2006 New Zealand Early Intervention in Psychosis Training Forum

Professor John McGrath Variations in the incidence of schizophrenia: data versus dogma
Currently John is Research Director in Epidemiology and Developmental Neurobiology at the Queensland Centre for Schizophrenia Research and Adjunct Professor with the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences, Griffith University. His research aims to generate and evaluate nongenetic risk factors for schizophrenia. He has forged productive cross-disciplinary collaborations linking risk factor epidemiology with developmental neurobiology.

Professor David Castle What happens after the first episode?
Currently, David is a Professor at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and the University of Melbourne, and Consultant Psychiatrist, Royal Melbourne Hospital. He is heading up a research team developing psychosocial treatment packages for people with a mental illness, with special emphasis on those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and psychosis and substance abuse comorbidity.

Professor Paul Mullen Understanding and Preventing Violence in the Schizophrenias  
Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Monash University, and Clinical Director, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health. Formerly Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, 1982 –1992. Prior to that, Consultant Psychiatrist to the Royal Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. His current research interests are Stalking; the relationships between mental disorder and criminal behaviour; long term effects of child abuse; and the querulous complainant.

Professor Mason Durie Universal and Culture-bound Manifestations of Psychosis
Professor of Maori Research and Development & Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori). Mason Durie is from New Zealand and is a member of the Rangitane, Ngati Kauwhata, and Ngati Raukawa tribes. Current research includes a national child nutrition study, an international mental health prevalence study, a mental health outcomes study, and a national Maori mental health workforce development programme.

Jim Geekie Psychosis, spirituality and the search for meaning.
Jim Geekie is a clinical psychologist working in the area of First Episode Psychosis in Auckland. He is particularly interested in how clients make sense of the experiences that clinicians commonly consider signs of 'psychosis', and has published some preliminary findings from his research in this area in Models of Madness (ed. John Read et al). Despite his atheistic leanings he has an interest in the role of spirituality in the client's experience and how this relates to our clinical work with this client group.