Professor Thomas Phillips RMN MSc PhD

Professor Phillips leads the £11mn Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research which is the NIHR Mental Health Research Group based at the University of Hull which works in partnership with world leading academics from the Addictions Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London and the Institute of Mental Health Research at the University of York. Collaborators are drawn from the University of Kent, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The initial five years of research will focus on people who may not access treatment. These include young people and adults with substance use disorder and mental health problems and adults with alcohol-related cognitive impairments.

Awarded an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship, he obtained a Doctorate in Addiction Science at King’s College London, undertaking the epidemiological analysis of alcohol use disorders within emergency departments. (https://www.dev.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/CDRF%202009-81)

Professor Phillips is currently Joint Chief Investigator along with Professor Julia Sinclair, University of Southampton, on the NHIR HS&DR funded Programme of Research for Alcohol Care Teams: Impact, Value and Effectiveness (ProACTIVE) project. The ProACTIVE research programme is a multi-disciplinary, integrated, mixed-methods study designed to evaluate the impact of ACTs at the policy, health system and patient level. He is also leading a collaborative multi-method service evaluation of alcohol assertive outreach in Hull (COACH study) funded by NIHR Mental Health Innovation Network which involves clinical and academic partners from across the Yorkshire and The Humber region.

Professor Phillips supervises several PhD students investigating the care and management of alcohol withdrawal, alcohol-related liver disease and alcohol dependence within acute hospitals and specialist community alcohol teams. He also represents the NIHR Yorkshire and The Humber Research Delivery Network as Specialty Lead for Mental Health and practices clinically within the Alcohol Care Team, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. He is a member of the UK Alcohol Clinical Guidelines Expert Group; NICE Quality Standards Committee on Alcohol Use Disorders, a member of the Alcohol Care Team National Working Group and holds a visiting appointment as Professor of Nursing in Addiction at the National Addiction Centre, King’s College London.