Graham Thornicroft
Sir Graham Thornicroft FRCPsych FMedSci is a British psychiatrist, researcher and Professor of Community Psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health[1] and Centre for Implementation Science[2] at King's College London.[3] He also a Consultant Psychiatrist working at a community mental health team at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. He is best known for his work on community mental health services, stigma and discrimination, and global mental health. He has published 30 books, and has written over 640 peer-reviewed scientific papers.[4] Thornicroft was made a knight bachelor in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to mental health.[5]

Education and early life
Graham gained a first class honours degree in Social and Political Sciences from Queens’ College, University of Cambridge. After a year working as a residential social worker in a children’s home in Labrador, Canada, he studied Medicine at Guy’s Hospital, and trained in psychiatry at both the Maudsley and Johns Hopkins Hospitals.[6] He completed an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and went on to complete his PhD at the University of London, focusing on the positive outcomes of discharging long-term psychiatric in-patients to community care.
In November 2019, Graham was interviewed on the BBC World Service series, The Inquiry, in a radio documentary called "What can we do about the world's mental health problem?", in which he revealed that he had been inspired to become a psychiatrist by an incident in his childhood when his mother, who experienced a severe episode of depression, had attempted to kill herself and her children by using the gas from the kitchen oven (in those days, the gas used in British housing was "coal-gas" containing carbon monoxide, was poisonous and was often a feature in suicides[7] in the UK). Thornicroft's mother was treated for several months, made a full recovery and then returned to work.[8]
Career
Graham is a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is the founding Head of the Health Services and Population Research Department (HSPRD) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, Founding Director of King's Improvement Science and he established the Centre for Implementation Science at KCL. Graham is a founding member of the Movement for Global Mental Health, a network of 200 institutions and 10,000 individuals involved in improving services for people living with mental health problems and psycho-social disabilities.[9] Alongside Professor Norman Sartorius, Thornicroft is also the Co-Founder of The INDIGO Network, an international collaboration of researchers working to assess the global impact of discrimination against people with mental health conditions with colleagues in over 40 countries worldwide.[10] He is the Director of the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) in South London.[11]
Mental health policy
Thornicroft Co-Chaired the External Reference Group to create the National Service Framework for Mental Health in England.[12] Published in 1999, this is a 10-year national mental health plan that transformed the provision of mental health care in England.[13]
Stigma and discrimination research
In 2006, Graham published Shunned: Discrimination against People with Mental Illness[14] and the book won the British Medical Association Award for Best Mental Health Book of the Year.[15] With Professor Norman Sartorius, he established the INDIGO Network,[16] a research collaboration in over 40 countries developing evidence about reducing mental illness related stigma and discrimination.[17][18] In collaboration with colleagues he has published over 140 scientific papers on stigma and discrimination, including papers from the evaluation of Time to Change, the national programme to reduce stigma and discrimination in England.[19]
Global mental health
Graham Co-Chaired the Guidelines Development Group for the World Health Organisation Mental Health Global Action Plan (mhGAP) Implementation Guide. The guidelines have been implemented in over 100 countries.[20] In 2014, Graham and Nicole Votruba coordinated the FundaMentalSDG initiative[21][22] which contributed to the adoption of mental health related targets and indicators within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.[23]
Graham is a member of an international group of experts which produced the 2007 Lancet Global Mental Health series aiming to 'highlight the gaps in mental-health services worldwide, and to formulate a clear call to action'.[24][25] In 2018, he was one of the four editors of The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development.[26] Thornicroft was a Principal Investigator of the Community Psycho Social Intervention (COPSI) study in India, a Welcome Trust randomized controlled trial of community mental health teams in Chennai, Goa and Maharashtra.[27] He has also led the Emerald Programme (Emerging Mental Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries), funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme.[28] In 2017, the project results were presented in the House of Commons in London.[29]
Awards
Graham has received more than 170 research funding awards, to a total value of over £130 million.[30] In 2009, Graham and his colleagues at the Health Services and Population Research Department at the IoPPN at KCL received the Queen’s Award Prize for Further and Higher Education for work of outstanding excellence.[31] With Professor Claire Henderson he has co-led the evaluation of the Time to Change anti-stigma programme and in 2020 this was recognised as one of the Top 20 Public Health Achievements of the 21st century by Royal Society of Public Health. In 2022 Graham received the Rema Lapouse Award from the Mental Health, Epidemiology, and Statistics Sections of the American Public Health Association.
Books
To date, Graham has co-authored the following 30 books:
- Thornicroft G. Brewin C. & Wing J.K. (1992) Measuring Mental Health Needs. Royal College of Psychiatrists, Gaskell Press, London.
- Phelan M. Strathdee G. and Thornicroft G. (1995) Emergency Mental Health services in the Community. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Knudsen H. & Thornicroft G. (1996) Mental Health Service Evaluation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (Translated into Italian).
- Thornicroft G. & Strathdee G. (1996). Commissioning Mental Health Services. HMSO London.
- Tansella M. & Thornicroft G. (1996) Mental Health Outcome Measures (1st). Springer Verlag, Berlin
- Johnson S. Ramsay R. Thornicroft G. Brooks E. Lelliot P. Peck E. Smith H. Chisholm D. Audini B. Knapp M. & Goldberg D. (1997) London’s Mental Health. King’s Fund, London. (First and Second editions).
- Goldberg D. & Thornicroft G. (1998) Mental Health in Our Future Cities. Laurence and Erlbaum, London
- Slade M. Thornicroft G. Loftus L. Phelan M. & Wykes T. (1999) Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN). Royal College of Psychiatrist, Gaskell, London.
- Tansella M. & Thornicroft G. (1999) Common Mental Disorders in Primary Care. Essay in Honour of Professor Sir David Goldberg. Routledge, London. (Translated into Portuguese).
- Thornicroft G. & Tansella M. (1999) The Mental Health Matrix. A Manual to Improve Services. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (Translated into Italian, Rumanian, Russian and Spanish).
- Reynolds A. & Thornicroft G. (1999) Managing Mental Health Services. Open University Press, Milton Keynes. (Translated into Italian and Portuguese) (Highly Commended in BMA Medical Book Awards, 2000).
- Thornicroft G. & Szmukler G. (2001) Textbook of Community Psychiatry. Oxford University Press, Oxford. (Highly Commended in BMA Medical Book Awards, 2002).
- Tansella M. & Thornicroft G (2001) Mental Health Outcome Measures (2nd Edition). Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.
- Thornicroft G. (2001) Measuring Mental Health Needs (2nd edition). Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrist, London.
- Xenitidis K. Slade M. Thornicroft G. & Bouras N. (2003) Camberwell Assessment of Need for Adults with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (CANDID). A comprehensive needs assessment tool for people with learning disabilities (mental retardation) and mental health problems. Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.
- Thomas S. Harty M.A. Parrott J. McCrone P. Slade M. & Thornicroft G. (2006) The Forensic CAN: A needs assessment for forensic mental health service users. London: Gaskell.
- Thornicroft G. Becker T. Knapp M. Knudsen H. C. Schene A. Tansella M. & Vazquez-Barquero J-L. (2006) International Outcome Measures in Mental Health. Quality of Life, Needs, Service Satisfaction, Costs and Impact on Carers. Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.
- Thornicroft G. (2006) Shunned: Discrimination against People with Mental Illness. Oxford University Press, Oxford (Winner of BMA Book of the Year Award: Mental Health Category, 2007) (Translated into Japanese and Turkish)
- Thornicroft G. (2006) Actions speak louder: tackling discrimination against people with mental illness. Mental Health Foundation, London.
- Knapp M. McDaid D. Mossialos E. & Thornicroft G. (Eds) (2007) Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe. The Future Direction of Mental Health Care. Open University Press (Winner of the 2007 Baxter Award of the European Health Management Association).
- Johnson S. Needle J. Bindman J. & Thornicroft G. (eds) (2008) Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment in Mental Health. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Howard L. Hunt K. Slade M. O’Keane V. Seneviratne T. Leese M. & Thornicroft G. (2008) Camberwell Assessment of Need: Mother's Version (CAN-M). A needs-based assessment for pregnant women and mothers with severe mental illness. Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.
- Thornicroft G. & Tansella M. (2009) Better Mental Health Care. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (Translated into: Chinese, Georgian, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish and Serbian and Vietnamese)
- Thornicroft G. & Tansella M. (2010) (3rd edition). Mental Health Outcome Measures. RCPsych. London. (Highly Commended in BMA Medical Book Awards, 2011).
- Thornicroft G. Drake RE., Mueser K. & Szmukler G. (2011) Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health. Oxford University Press, Oxford
- Thornicroft G., Alem A., Drake RE., Ito H., Mari J., McGeorge P., Thara R. & Semrau M. (2011) Community mental health: putting policy into practice globally. London: Wiley-Blackwell. (Highly Commended in BMA Medical Book Awards, 2012).
- Callard F. Sartorius N. Arboleda-Florez J. Bartlett P. Helmchen H. Stuart H. Taborda J. & Thornicroft G. (2012) Mental Illness, Discrimination and the Law: Fighting for Social Justice. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Wright A. Thornicroft G. & Randolph J. (2012) A view from inside. White-Card, London.
- Thornicroft G. Ruggeri M. & Goldberg D. (2013) Improving Mental Health Care: the Global Challenge. London: Wiley-Blackwell. (Highly Commended in BMA Medical Book Awards, 2014).
- Thornicroft G. & Patel V. (2014) Global Mental Health Trials. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
References
- "Centre for Global Mental Health". Centre for Global Mental Health.
- "Centre for Implementation Science". Centre for Implementation Science.
- "Graham Thornicroft - Biography - Research Portal, King's College, London". Kclpure.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
- "Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft invested with a Knighthood". King's College London.
- "Knighthood for Professor Graham Thornicroft - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust". Slam.nhs.uk. 2017-06-19. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
- "Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft". Research Portal.
- Clarke, Ronald V.; Mayhew, Pat (1988). "The British Gas Suicide Story and Its Criminological Implications". Crime and Justice. 10: 79–116. doi:10.1086/449144. ISSN 0192-3234. JSTOR 1147403. S2CID 144060328.
- "BBC World Service - The Inquiry, What can we do about the world's mental health problem?". BBC. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
- "About the Movement". Global Mental Health. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- "The Indigo Network". Indigo Group. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- "Governance". CLAHRC South London. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- "National Service Framework for Mental Health". National Service Framework for Mental Health.
- Thornicroft, Graham (June 2000). "National Service Framework for Mental Health". Psychiatric Bulletin. 24 (6): 203–206. doi:10.1192/pb.24.6.203.
- Thornicroft, Graham (2006). Shunned: Discrimination Against People with Mental Illness. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198570981.
- "British Medical Association". British Medical Association.
- "The INDIGO Network". The INDIGO Network.
- Lasalvia A, Zoppei S, Van Bortel T, et al. (2013). "Global pattern of experienced and anticipated discrimination reported by people with major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional survey". Lancet. 381 (9860): 55–62. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61379-8. PMID 23083627. S2CID 2625047.
- Thornicroft G, Brohan E, Rose D, Sartorius N, Leese M, The INDIGO Study Group (2019). "Global pattern of experienced and anticipated discrimination against people with schizophrenia: a cross-sectional survey". Lancet. 373 (9661): 408–15. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61817-6. PMID 19162314. S2CID 6335512.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Henderson C, Thornicroft G (2009). "Stigma and discrimination in mental illness: Time to Change". Lancet. 373 (9679): 1928–30. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61046-1. PMID 19501729. S2CID 205955155.
- "mhGAP Intervention Guidelines". mhGAP.
- Thornicroft, G & Votruba, N (2016). "Does the United Nations care about mental health?". The Lancet Psychiatry. 3 (7): 599–600. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30079-7. PMID 27371979.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Votruba, N.; Thornicroft, G. (2015). "The importance of mental health in the Sustainable Development Goals". BJPsych International. 12 (1): 2–4. doi:10.1192/S2056474000000027. PMC 5619591. PMID 29093831.
- Votruba, N, & Thornicroft, G (2016). "Sustainable development goals and mental health: Learnings from the contribution of the FundaMentalSDG global initiative". Global Mental Health. 3, E26 – via Cambridge University Press.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "The Lancet Series on Mental Health". Global Mental Health 2007.
- Saxena S, Thornicroft G, Knapp M, Whiteford H (2007). "Global Mental Health 2 - Resources for mental health: scarcity, inequity, and inefficiency". Lancet. 370 (9590): 878–89. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61239-2. PMID 17804062. S2CID 8916770.
- "The Lancet Commission 2018". The Lancet.
- Chatterjee S, Naik S, John S, et al. (2014). "Effectiveness of a community-based intervention for people with schizophrenia and their caregivers in India (COPSI): a randomised controlled trial". Lancet. 383 (9926): 1385–94. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62629-X. PMC 4255067. PMID 24612754.
- Semrau M, Evans-Lacko S, Alem A, et al. (2015). "Strengthening mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries: the Emerald programme". BMC Med. 13: 79: 79. doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0309-4. PMC 4393637. PMID 25879831.
- "Emerald Event hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health". EMERALD Programme.
- "Prof Sir Thornicroft, Research Funding". Research Portal.
- "King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry". Royal Anniversary Trust.