Appointments and Reappointments to the Mental Health Commission - 12 May 2022

The Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, has appointed and re-appointed the following members to the Mental Health Commission:

The following appointments are with effect from 5 April 2022 to 4 April 2027.

Dr. Orla Healy

Dr. Orla Healy MD, MPH FRCP FFPHM (I) is the newly appointed National Clinical Director of Quality and Patient Safety in the HSE. A Graduate of UCC in 1994, Dr. Orla worked in hospital medicine before embarking in a career in Public Health Medicine. She was based in the Department of Public Health (DPH), HSE South (Cork and Kerry) from 2005 – 2017 during which time she subspecialised in Health Service Improvement. She fulfilled multiple senior national roles in quality and patient safety in the HSE between 2008 and 2017 as the Public Health Consultant on all the HSE National incident management teams since their inception in 2008 (Safety Incident Management Team (SIMT) National Incident Management Team) (NIMT/ National Incident management and Learning Team (NIMLT)). During that time, Dr. Orla was also involved in acute hospital policy formation and implementation at a national and regional level as a member of the Reconfiguration Executive for Cork and Kerry, and Public Health Representative on the Reconfiguration Forum.

In June 2012, Dr Orla took up a secondment at the Department of Health to provide public health expertise to the team for the formation of Hospital Groups. In May 2016, she moved to work in the South/South West Hospital Group. During her five years with the SSWHG, she occupied a range of senior management roles including Director of Quality, Governance and Patient Safety, Director of Strategy, Planning and Population Health and Chief Operations Officer. During that time, Dr. Orla was also seconded to work with the NSS on a plan for the audit of interval cancer in the screened population. She edited and produced a series of reports for each cancer screening programme in the National Screening Service (NSS).

Ms Catherine Cocoman

Catherine Cocoman is a registered general and psychiatric nurse and is currently working as an Assistant Director of Nursing in an acute mental health unit. Catherine is also currently a board member of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) and sits on two NMBI committees: The Education and Training Committee and the Fitness to Practice Committee. Catherine studied General Nursing in Trinity and later furthered her studies by completing a postgraduate in Mental Health Nursing in DCU and a Masters in Mental Health from Trinity. Catherine was one of the first clinical nurse specialists for self-harm in her area and was involved in the development and implementation of the delivery of the national clinical programme in self-harm at Naas General Hospital.

Ms Martina McGuinness

Martina Mc Guinness has almost four decades of nursing practice in the public metal health services and since 2014 is the Director of Nursing in Linn Dara Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). She has a demonstrated history of leading and managing innovation in practice, including delivering on complex programmes of service transformation and improvement.

Martina is a registered general and psychiatric nurse and holds a variety of post graduate qualifications in clinical practice, quality improvement, management, and leadership. She maintains a strong focus on advancing practice to ensure positive experiences and improved service outcomes.

Ms Linda Curran

Linda Curran is a social work team leader in adult mental health services. Linda has over 14 years experience working within mental health services, homeless and addiction services and with sex worker outreach programmes. She has a particular interest in addiction and dual diagnosis, family and systemic focused interventions and the role of clinical supervision. Linda holds a MSc. in Healthcare Management from RCSI, as part of which she implemented a structured family support programme for families of service users diagnosed with borderline personality disorder within a psychiatric hospital. Linda also holds a MSW (Masters of Social Work); a Post-Graduate Diploma in Clinical Supervision and a Bachelor of Sociology and Social Policy from Trinity College Dublin. She has served as the chair of SWAMH (Social Workers in Adult Mental Health), a special interest group of the IASW (Irish Association of Social Workers).

Ms Tammy Donaghy

Tammy Donaghy is a Youth Mental Health Advocate. Tammy comes from a youth work background and has completed her undergraduate degree in youth and community studies and is currently pursuing a masters in comparative criminology and criminal justice. Tammy has experience of working with, or advocating for young people at many levels and is currently a youth employability support worker in Finglas Youth Resource Centre.

Tammy has sat on the board for community creations (Spunout.ie and Text 50808), City of Dublin Youth Service Board and Jigsaw. She has also sat on the Children’s reference group and represented them at the advisory group for the developing of Overarching National Standards for the Care and Support of Children using Health and Social Care Services as well as giving many presentations to organisations on youth mental health. Tammy is very passionate about the work she does.

Dr. Joseph Duffy

Dr. Joseph Duffy, DClinPsych, MBA, FPsSI, has been the CEO of Jigsaw – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health since 2016. He has over 25 years experience as qualified Clinical Psychologist and has worked in the area of mental health leading, managing and delivering services across all age groups and within institutional and community settings.

He is a Board member of Mental Health Reform, a member of the Executive of the International Association for Youth Mental Health (IAYMH), he sits on Irish Government’s National Implementation Monitoring Committee (NMIC) for Sharing the Vision – A Mental Health Policy for Everybody and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Irish Probation Journal.

Mr Ray Burke

Ray Burke is Advocacy and Public Engagement Manager with Pieta, Ireland’s national suicide and self-harm prevention charity. Before this he worked as Senior Advocacy and Communications Officer with Mental Health Reform, as Policy Officer with the Disability Federation of Ireland and various other roles in the Voluntary and Community Sector. Ray has a keen interest in mental health policy and law, the history of mental health services in Ireland and the empowerment of people who use mental health services. He holds a MSocSc (Rights & Social Policy) from Maynooth University and is a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin. Ray serves on the Board of Trustees of Dual Diagnosis Ireland.

The following re-appointments are with effect from 5 April 2022 until 4 April 2025.

Dr. Michael Drumm

Dr. Michael Drumm is currently Principal Psychology Manager at the HSE’s Dublin North City and County Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). He is Director and Chairperson on the Board of the Parents Plus charity, and a member of the Board of Management of St. Brigid’s Day Nursery, Mountjoy Square, Dublin. In addition, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street from 2008 to 2019; Chairperson of the Heads of Psychology Services Ireland (HPSI) from 2010 to 2012; and President of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) from November 2011 to November 2012.

Dr. Margo Wrigley

Dr. Margo Wrigley is a consultant psychiatrist and currently works as the HSE’s lead for the National Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Programme, while she is also the clinical lead for the ADHD in Adults National Clinical Programme. She has worked in the public health service in Ireland since 1988 and set up the first psychiatry of old age service in the country in 1989 on which all other services are modelled. She was the Lead for Part 2: Specialist Mental Health for Older People, National Clinical Programme for Older People, which was launched in 2019.

She was the Executive Clinical Director of the Dublin North City Mental Health Service from 2009 to 2014 and National Clinical Advisor on Mental Health from 2014 to 2017. Margo has a major interest is the therapeutic value of dogs and up until last year she was the Chairperson of Peata Therapy Dogs, a charity which assesses and allocates visiting teams (dog and owner) to residential and day centres to enhance the quality of life of service users.

Ms Rowena Mulcahy

Ms Rowena Mulcahy is a practising solicitor, chartered arbitrator, accredited mediator, and member of the Valuation Tribunal, Rowena is also chair of the Commission’s Legislation Committee. She is a former chair of Mental Health Tribunals which reviewed the detention of persons involuntary detained in approved centres under the Mental Health Act, 2001; former Deputy Chair of the Board of Management and Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London, and former Taxing Master of the High Court.

The following re-appointments are with effect from 5 April 2022 until 4 April 2027.

Dr John Cox

Dr John Cox graduated from University College Dublin in 1979, completed his general practice training in 1983 and worked in general practice in south Dublin and as a research registrar at the Blood Pressure Unit, Beaumont Hospital, from 1985 to 1992. Since then, he has been in general practice at Fethard-on-Sea, Co. Wexford. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in 1994. He is immediate past Chairman of the Board of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and immediate past Chairman and Provost of the RCGP Republic of Ireland Faculty.

He presently sits on the Council of the ICGP and is secretary of the ICGP Wexford Faculty. He is co-author of the ICGP publication ‘Cardiovascular Disease: Prevention in General Practice’. He was previously a director of the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) and remains an active member of the Council on the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and the Council on High Blood Pressure of the IHF. He is a long-standing member of the British and Irish Hypertension Society. He is a GP trainer with the HSE for many years and is interested in curriculum development in general practice. His professional interests are in risk factor assessment and management of cardiovascular disease and the use of information technology in general practice.

Ms Fionn Fitzpatrick

Fionn Fitzpatrick is a passionate advocate for equality and human rights using community development approaches for social change. She is the Area Lead for Mental Health Engagement for Dublin North City & County Mental Health Services and the prior Co-ordinator of the Gateway Mental Health Project, a peer and member-led community development project in Dublin, hosted within Mental Health Ireland’s network from 2015 to 2021. Gateway has been cited as a model of best practice by the National, Economic and Social Forum (NESF) and in 2017 was independently evaluated by Trinity College, Dublin, as a valuable peer-led initiative for social support in the community.

Fionn holds an MA in Community and Youth Work from NUI, Maynooth. Fionn is active in several national and local working groups to progress reform and service improvement in mental health.

Fionn is a member of Mental Health Reform; a member of the Community Worker’s Cooperative; a member of Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI); and is a prior co-convenor of the CVNI East group.

Dr John Hillery

Dr Hillery is a graduate of the RCSI medical school and the National Higher Training Scheme in Psychiatry. Dr Hillery worked for over 20 years as a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Tallaght Mental Health Services and services for people with intellectual disability at Stewart’s Care in Dublin and the St John of God Community Services in Kildare. He is now |Consultant to various service providers for people mental health issues, intellectual disability, and related issues and also reports to the Courts Service and state agencies on cases related to psychiatric diagnosis and legal capacity.

Dr Hillery is a past president of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, the officially recognised training body for Psychiatry in Ireland. He is a past president of the Medical Council, the medical regulator, and the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities. He is a past member of the board of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the Pharmacy Regulator, and past chairman of its registration committee.

Dr Hillery has been appointed Chair of the Mental Health Commission board following his appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee as required under the Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards.