Plenary: “Domestic violence and perinatal mental health"

Preconference Workshop: “How to ask and respond to Domestic Violence -recommendations by the WHO and NICE-a practical how to do it session”

Professor Louise Howard studied medicine at University College London and completed an intercalated BSc in Psychology before finishing her undergraduate studies in 1988. She trained in general medicine in Bloomsbury obtaining the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1991. After completing her general psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital and obtaining the MRCPsych she obtained a Wellcome Trust Health Services Research Training Fellowship in perinatal psychiatry. She studied for an MSc in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and then studied for a PhD on the outcome of pregnancy in women with severe mental illness; this work was awarded the Association of European Psychiatrists Research Prize in 2004. She has also been awarded the Institute of Psychiatry Dennis Hill Prize (1996), the Royal College of Psychiatrists Bronze Medal research prize (1997, and the Marce Medal (2014) for excellence in perinatal mental health research. She was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2004, promoted to a Reader in Women’s Mental Health in 2008 and to Professor in Women’s Mental Health in 2010.Current research includes a NIHR Programme on the effectiveness of perinatal mental health services and a prestigious NIHR Research Professorship on maternal mental health. She Chaired the National Institute for Clinical Excellence Guideline Development Group (update) on Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health (published 2014), led the Lancet perinatal mental health series (2014) and has been a professional member of the WHO and NICE/SCIE guideline development groups on Preventing and Reducing Domestic Violence. She is currently National Clinical Advisor to the NICE/NCCMH technical team to the NHS England Perinatal Mental Health Access and Waiting Time Programme. She is Head of the Section of Women’s Mental Health at the Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London (KCL) and the KCL Women’s Health Academic Centre.