Professor Thomas Phillips

Professor Thomas Phillips

Professor of Nursing in Addiction and Director of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Health Sciences
  • School of Psychology and Social Work

Qualifications

  • PGDip (St George's, University of London)
  • MSc (St George's, University of London)
  • PhD / DPhil (King's College London)

Summary

Professor Phillips is the Director of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research (CAMHR), which is the £11m the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Mental Health Research Group at the University of Hull. CAMHR has a formal 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. Our collaborators are the University of Kent, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Three key themes will be researched over the five years of this award that will focus on improving care pathways for young people with substance use and mental health problems, developing pathways for adults with substance use and mental health problems presenting to places of safety and defining the needs of adults with alcohol-related cognitive impairment (https://www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us/research/groups/centre-for-addiction-and-mental-health-research).

Previously, Prof Phillips was awarded an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship and 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). This work has continued to be expanded to help address care pathways for alcohol use disorders within acute hospitals and support the development and implementation of alcohol care teams and alcohol assertive outreach treatment. He was Chief Investigator on the FASTer Access to Alcohol Treatment Study exploring the utility of short alcohol screening tests to identify alcohol use disorders within emergency departments.

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 (https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR152084). 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. It will identify the 'optimal' models of ACT, define the components which best support the identification, and cost-effective management of hospitalised adults with alcohol dependence.

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 Regional 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 at the National Addiction Centre, King's College London.

Outputs available https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/person/713284/thomas-phillips/outputs

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Journal Article

Predictors of 30-day readmission among those treated with alcohol withdrawal in acute hospitals in England

Phillips, T., Coleman, R., & Coulton, S. (2025). Predictors of 30-day readmission among those treated with alcohol withdrawal in acute hospitals in England. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 60(3), Article agaf022. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agaf022

Quality standards for the management of alcohol-related liver disease: consensus recommendations from the British Association for the Study of the Liver and British Society of Gastroenterology ARLD special interest group

Parker, R., Allison, M., Anderson, S., Aspinall, R., Bardell, S., Bains, V., Buchanan, R., Corless, L., Davidson, I., Dundas, P., Fernandez, J., Forrest, E., Forster, E., Freshwater, D., Gailer, R., Goldin, R., Hebditch, V., Hood, S., Jones, A., Lavers, V., …Masson, S. (2023). Quality standards for the management of alcohol-related liver disease: consensus recommendations from the British Association for the Study of the Liver and British Society of Gastroenterology ARLD special interest group. BMJ Open Gastroenterology, 10(1), Article e001221. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2023-001221

Adjunctive Medication Management and Contingency Management to enhance adherence to acamprosate for alcohol dependence: the ADAM trial RCT

Donoghue, K., Boniface, S., Brobbin, E., Byford, S., Coleman, R., Coulton, S., Day, E., Dhital, R., Farid, A., Hermann, L., Jordan, A., Kimergård, A., Koutsou, M. L., Lingford-Hughes, A., Marsden, J., Neale, J., O’Neill, A., Phillips, T., Shearer, J., Sinclair, J., …Drummond, C. (2023). Adjunctive Medication Management and Contingency Management to enhance adherence to acamprosate for alcohol dependence: the ADAM trial RCT. Health Technology Assessment, 27(22), 1-88. https://doi.org/10.3310/DQKL6124

Telemedicine in addictions: Feasibility randomised controlled trial

Mayet, S., Gledhill, A., McCaw, I., Hashmani, Z., Drozdova, Z., Arshad, S., Shahbaz, S., Huang, C., & Phillips, T. (2023). Telemedicine in addictions: Feasibility randomised controlled trial. Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems, 25(3), 27-36

Report

NIHR Evidence Review - Alcohol dependence: telephone support plus financial incentives helped people take acamprosate

Phillips, T. (2024). NIHR Evidence Review - Alcohol dependence: telephone support plus financial incentives helped people take acamprosate. London: NIHR

Lead investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

Programme of Research for Alcohol Care Teams: Impact, Value and Effectiveness (ProACTIVE -2)

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£778,103.00

Started

1 October 2022

Status

Ongoing

Project

A collaborative multi-method service evaluation of alcohol assertive outreach in Hull (CoACH)

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£145,600.00

Started

1 January 2023

Status

Ongoing

Project

Digital intervention for cocaine using virtual reality to deliver cue exposure treatment

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£23,038.00

Started

1 May 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

NIHR Mental Health Research Group

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£8,411,778.00

Started

1 November 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

ALCOHOL CARE TEAM COMPETENCIES (ACTC) PROJECT:

Funder

NHS England

Grant

£12,564.00

Started

1 July 2019

Status

Complete

Project

Examining the measurement and management of unplanned alcohol withdrawal admissions to acute hospitals

Funder

The Society for the Study of Addiction

Grant

£69,929.00

Started

1 September 2020

Status

Complete

Project

Alcohol Dependence Care Pathways

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£45,152.00

Started

1 September 2020

Status

Complete

Project

ADAM: The effectiveness of adjunctive Medication Management and Contingency Management to enhance adherence to medications for relapse prevention in alcohol dependence

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£2,612.00

Started

5 March 2018

Status

Complete

Co-investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship - Laura Hermann

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£106,734.00

Started

1 September 2021

Status

Complete

Project

The North of England Alcohol Team (NEAT)

Funder

NIHR National Institute for Health Research

Grant

£0.00

Started

1 January 2023

Status

Complete

Postgraduate supervision

CURRENT PhD and Postgraduate Students

Koren-Marie Cowap

Addiction and Suicide Prevention

University of Hull Scholarship

Supervisors: Prof Thomas Phillips, Dr Philippa Case, and Dr Chao Huang

(Commenced: Sept 2024)

Buse Apel

Exploring the Role of Physical Activity in the Treatment of Alcohol Dependence

University of Hull Scholarship

Supervisors: Prof Thomas Phillips, Dr Judith Cohen, and Prof Grant Abt

(Commenced: Sept 2019)

Nurun Tania

An examination of current pathways for patients receiving unplanned care for alcohol related liver disease (ARLD): A mixed methods approach to identify targets for improvement.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust & University of Hull Doctoral Scholarship

Supervisors: Prof Thomas Phillips, ICAHR, Dr Maureen Twiddy, HHTU, and Dr Lynsey Corless, HUTH

(Commenced: Jan 2020 P/T)

COMPLETED PhD and Postgraduate Students

Rachel Coleman

Exploring the measurement and management of alcohol withdrawal in the acute general hospital setting.

Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) PhD Studentship

https://www.addiction-ssa.org/author/rachel-coleman/

Supervisors: Prof Thomas Phillips and Prof Simon Coulton (University of Kent)

(Commencing: Sept 2020)

Bethany Cragg

Exploring Individuals’ Experiences of Hospital Readmissions for Alcohol Withdrawal’

Clinical Psychology Doctorate (ClinPsyD)

Supervisors: Dr Nick Hutchinson and Prof Thomas Phillips

Saphsa Codling

Elucidating the relationships between physical activity and risk of alcohol-related harm/consumption using social determinants of health in early to mid-adolescence.

University of Hull Scholarship

Supervisors: Prof Lesley Smith, Prof Thomas Phillips, Prof Colin Martin, and Dr Chao Huang

(Commenced: Sept 2019)

Laura Hermann

NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship

Supervisors: Dr Maureen Twiddy, Prof Thomas Phillips and Dr Chao Huang

(Commenced: Sept 2021)

Emma Robinson

What helps and hinders access to alcohol treatment? Perspectives from people experiencing homelessness and alcohol dependence and homeless outreach keyworkers.

Clinical Psychology Doctorate (ClinPsyD)

Supervisors: Dr Nick Hutchinson and Prof Thomas Phillips

Clinical role

Professor of Nursing in Addiction

2021

Clinical and strategic support to the Alcohol Care Team, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Committee/Steering group role

NICE Quality Standards Advisory Committee on Alcohol Use Disorders: Expert Member

2022 - 2023

Co-opted Member of the Faculty of Addictions Executive, Royal College of Psychiatrists

2019 - 2023

Member of the UK Alcohol Clinical Guideline Group

2019

Providing specialist clinical and nursing advice to inform the development of national guidelines on the assessment, management and treatment of alcohol use disorders.

Member of the Alcohol Care Team Working Group

2019

Providing specialist clinical and nursing advice to support the development of alcohol care teams prioritised under the NHS Long-term plan.

External examiner role

External Examiner - University of Ulster

2020

Honorary position

Professor of Nursing in Addiction

2024

National/International learned society/body role

NIHR Yorkshire and Humber RDN - Specialty Lead for Mental Health

2024

NIHR Y&H CRN - Specialty Lead for Mental Health

2015 - 2024

Provision of clinical academic advice to support the implementation of health and social care research across the Yorkshire and The Humber, Clinical Research Network.

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