Professor Thomas Phillips

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