May Davidson Award 2024 winners announced

We're pleased to announce that the May Davidson Early Career Award for 2024 has been given jointly to two exceptional clinical psychologists. It is a measure of their early career achievements that the quality of their work meant the Award has been given jointly.

Dr Faye Nikopaschos

Dr Faye Nikopaschos is Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Whole System Lead for Psychology Services across acute and community secondary care adult mental health in Harrow, Central and North-West London NHS Foundation Trust. She has made an outstanding contribution to integrating psychology and trauma-informed perspectives into clinical work with people experiencing severe and enduring mental health difficulties. She has managed to bring her enormous skill, compassion and dedication to implementing an innovative trauma-informed approach on adult acute psychiatric wards, home treatment and community mental health teams. 

Her work has transformed outcomes, fostering cohesive and positive team cultures; increasing staff compassion, morale and understanding of trauma, reducing self-harm incidents and the use of restrictive practice and increasing staff confidence in applying a psychological approach. The project is being adopted by services beyond the Trust, both nationally and internationally, has received national recognition from NHS England, and the United Nations has requested permission to disseminate one of the core workbooks from the Stabilisation Manual. The Award provides deserved recognition for the determination and tenacity to implement this high quality work which has significantly improved the lives of those served.

Dr Sarah Parry

Dr Sarah Parry is Academic Director for Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester and Strategic Research Lead for Young People's Mental Health at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust. Her work has been driven by innovation, creativity, and a commitment to mental health research with young people. This work has focussed on advancing care for children, young people, and families and promoting the wellbeing of frontline workers in homes for cared for children. 

Sarah has championed a reflective and compassionate approach to training in mental health and clinical psychology. She has pioneered leading on clinical research in under researched areas in the field of youth mental health using a collaborative approach in developing communities of support and co-creating research with experts by experience. Sarah has disseminated this work extensively through publications in international journals, authorship of guidance documents, multimedia outputs, and conference presentations. Significant funding has been secured from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to enhance psychological support for children, young people, and families through the ChUSE Trial, Care Responders Study, and the NEST Study. The Award is in recognition of the dedication and thoughtfulness shown and the quality of the work in improving children and young people's mental health.