Members

 

Melanie Rogers Melanie Rogers
Melanie is the Course Leader for the ‘MSc Advanced Nurse Practitioner’ and ‘Advanced Health Practitioner’ courses in the Division of Health and Rehabilitation at the University of Huddersfield. Her current interests include spirituality in healthcare, depression, women's health and advanced practice. Melanie is currently undertaking her PhD looking at a ‘Hermeneutic Enquiry into the Spiritual Dimensions of Advanced Nurse Practitioner Consultations’ and has spoken at the British Association for the Study of Spirituality and the European Conference on Spirituality and Religion. Melanie also works as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Leeds and is the founder and chair of the ‘Yorkshire Nurse Practitioner Forum’. In 2009 Melanie was awarded the Queens Nurse title and, in 2010, co-founded the special interest group with Dr Sharon Prentis and Janice Jones. She has been teaching Spirituality at the University of Huddersfield for the last five years.

Professor John Wattis John Wattis
John was appointed visiting Professor of Psychiatry for Older Adults at the University of Huddersfield in 2000, working as an NHS consultant in the specialty until 2005. Before coming to Huddersfield he was responsible for pioneering old age services in Leeds where he worked as a Consultant and Senior Lecturer for nearly twenty years. He completed his psychiatric training in Birmingham and Nottingham where he was Lecturer in the Department of Health Care of the Elderly (which combined Psychiatric and Medical approaches). He has experience of management as Medical Director of a large Community and Mental Health Trust. He is a former Chairman of the Faculty for Psychiatry of Old Age and the committee that advised on the higher training of doctors in general and old age psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has published research on the development of old age psychiatry services, alcohol abuse in old age, the prevalence of mental illness in geriatric medical patients, educational issues in old age psychiatry and outcomes of psychiatric care for older people and spirituality in healthcare. He has written or edited a number of books and contributed numerous chapters in the area of old age psychiatry. He has been Director of Research and Development for several NHS Trusts. He is involved in the supervision of PhDs including several concerned with spirituality in health and social care.

Phil Walters Phil Walters
Phil is Creative Minds Strategic lead at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, having worked for the Trust for the last 15 years. Phil as worked in mental health for over 25 years, qualifying with a BSC diploma in Psychiatric Social Work at Manchester University in 1990 and a BA in Applied Social Studies. Phil’s interest in Spirituality was kindled in his previous role as Head of Inclusion, ensuring the Trust is connected with the communities it serves, informing, consulting and involving key stakeholders in decision making and development of services. Talking and listening to service users and carers you get greater understanding how engagement in creative and spiritual approaches might promote recovery. Phil led and managed the Trusts Artist in residence “Inspire programme” in 2002 which provided the foundation for the current Creative Minds Strategy and approach. Creative Minds was developed with the full involvement and participation of service users, carers, staff and other community stakeholders. Phil has been a member of the University of Huddersfield Spirituality Special Interest Group for the last few years and is supporting the Trust’s “Spirit In Mind” approach seeing creativity being an essential component in a broader spiritual context of holistic approaches health and social care.