RECOVERY AND REHABILITATION SYMPOSIUM

RECOVERY AND

REHABILITATION

SYMPOSIUM

23-24 July 2019, Diamond Building, Sheffield

Programme and Speaker Biographies

RECOVERY AND REHABILITATION SYMPOSIUM

PROGRAMME

DAY ONE: 23 JUL 2019

0900-0910 OPENING ADDRESS

SESSION ONE: HISTORY OF MILITARY INJURY CHAIR: AIR CDRE WITHNALL

0910-0935 The history of combat injury, rehabilitation and recovery

DR EMILY MAYHEW

SESSION TWO: INJURY CHAIR: LT COL AL MOUNTAIN

0935-1000 The science of blast injury: why is it so bad?

PROF ANTHONY BULL

1000-1025 Trauma Surgery- What we learned, how we improved?

SIR KEITH PORTER

1025-1050 UK Military Injury in Afghanistan and Iraq: The Size and Severity of the

Problem.

SURG CAPT JASON SMITH

1050-1100 Panel discussion

COFFEE

SESSION THREE: MILITARY REHABILITATION CHAIR: COL ALASTAIR NICOL

1130-1150 Key principals of military complex trauma rehabilitation

COL RHODRI PHILIP

1150-1210 Evolution and innovation in prosthetics

COL ALAN MISTLIN

1210-1230 The amputee rehabilitation pathway: room for improvement?

MAJ PETE LE FEUVRE

1230-1245 Panel discussion

LUNCH SESSION FOUR:PART I

RECOVERY AND REINTERGRATION

CHAIR: COL NEIL SMITH

1345-1410 Recovery and Reintegration- A Holistic Approach from Defence

HELEN HELLIWELL

1410-1435 Help for Heroes and Military Charities- Why the Third Sector is

Essential?

MEL WATERS

1435-1500 The Scar free Foundation: The Role of Medical Research in Recovery and

reintegration

BRENDAN ELEY

COFFEE

SESSION FOUR:PART 2

1530-1550 Reintegration by assisted activities- The Success of Battle back.

MARTIN COLCLOUGH

1550-1605 The effect of Invictus on the recovery journey

DR SHIRAZIPOUR

1605-1625 Defence Recovery Capability WG CDR TRACY PILKINGTON

1625-1650 The Impact of Sepsis- The Shock of Survival

DR RON DANIELS

1650-1700 Panel discussion 1700-17.10 CLOSING REMARKS AIR CDRE WITHNAL

DAY TWO:24 JUL 2019

SESSION FIVE THE LONG TERM OUTCOMES OF MILITARY SERVICE AND COMBAT

TRAUMA

CHAIR: AIR CDRE WITHNALL

0830-0855 The consequences of military service- what has the King’s Cohort

study taught us?

SIR SIMON WESSELY

0855-0920 The ADVANCE Study- The long term medical and psychosocial outcomes

of combat trauma

GP CAPT ALEX BENNETT

0920-0945 The effect of combat Trauma on Cardiovascular Health- Initial results

from the ADVANCE study

PROF CHRISTOPHER BOOS

0945-1010 Wounded Warrior Recovery Project- US military combat trauma

outcomes

DR JESSICA WATROUS

1010-1020 PANEL DISCUSSION

COFFEE

SESSION SIX THE PATIENT AND FAMILY PERSPECTIVE

CHAIR: CAPT (RN) SIMON JOLL

1045-1110 The effect of military service and injury on families

PROF NICOLA FEAR

1110-1135 The impact on families supported by the Royal British Legion

ANTHONY BAINES

1135-1200 Caring and Coping: The Family Perspective on Living with Limb Loss

BARRY LE GRYS/HEATHER BETTS

1200-1225 What about me?- The Patient’s perspective

CAPT (RTD) DAVE HENSON

1225-12.40 Panel discussion 12.40-12.45 Closing remarks AIR CDRE WITHNALL

Air Cdre Rich Withnall QHS MD MA MSc MBBS FRCGP CMgr RAF Head Research and Clinical Innovation

Air Commodore Rich Withnall joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a Medical Cadet in 1990 and qualified from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London in 1992. He undertook General Practice Vocational Training at Princess Mary’s RAF Hospital, Halton and Peterborough Hospitals National Health Service Trust. His UK postings have included Senior Medical Officer appointments on fast jet, multi-engine and rotary flying stations, and the RAF’s recruit Phase 1 training unit. He has undertaken Command & Staff appointments at HQ Personnel and Training Command, HQ AIR Command, HQ Surgeon General and the Ministry of Defence. His overseas experience includes Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Denmark, the Falkland Islands, Ghana, Iraq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Norway, Romania and the United Arab Emirates.

He was appointed as Advisor in General Practice (RAF) in 2005, then undertook the Advanced Command & Staff Course in 2007-8, winning both the Brooke-Popham Prize for the Best Defence Research Paper and the Sir Michael Howard Prize for the Best MA student. After a tour as SO1 Med Pol in the Ministry of Defence, Rich returned to HQ AIR Command as Deputy Director Health Services (RAF) in 2010. He was selected as the first RAF Defence Professor of General Practice & Primary Care in 2013. In 2017, he became the first primary care clinician to be appointed as the Defence Medical Services’ Medical Director. Rich has remained clinically current throughout, revalidating with a licence to practise in 2013. He is on the National Performers List. An accredited GP Trainer and Appraiser Trainer since 2002, and an RCGP Examiner since 2005, Rich became a Fellow of the RCGP in 2006. He is a member of RCGP Council, the RCGP’s International Medical Director, and Deputy Clinical Lead for the MRCGP Clinical Skills Assessment. He is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s GP Advisor, a GP Specialty Advisor to the UK Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and Convener of the World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Association of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (WONCA) Special Interest Group on Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine. Rich is a Chartered Manager and has undertaken the RAF’s Strategic Leadership and Development Programme. He lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two children. He remains a keen motorcyclist and fly-fisherman but, despite being very proud to have captained the RAF Medical Services rugby team, Rich has now hung-up his rugby boots in favour of season tickets at Gloucester Rugby (where watching is sometimes more painful than playing!)

Gp Capt Alexander Bennett PhD FRCP MFSEM Defence Professor of Rheumatology & Rehabilitation

Gp Capt Alexander Bennett joined the RAF in August 2000. He has been a Consultant in Rheumatology and Rehabilitation at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley Court and Stanford Hall since October 2008, the Head of the Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation since June 2011 and is the RAF Consultant Advisor in Rheumatology and Rehabilitation. He was appointed Defence Professor of Rheumatology & Rehabilitation in March 2017 and Honorary Clinical Professor at the University of Loughborough in May 2018. He is a clinical academic and has published widely in the fields of Rheumatology, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine in particular in the fields of early diagnosis and prognosis in seronegative inflammatory arthritis

/spondylitis and in musculoskeletal injury. He has lectured on many occasions at national, European and American conferences. He is a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and a member of the British Society for Rheumatology, the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine and the International Society of Assessment in Ankylosing Spondylitis (ASAS) and is the secretary to the British Society of Spondyloarthritis (BRITSpA). Gp Capt Bennett oversees all research at the Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation, which focuses on trauma rehabilitation and outcome, musculoskeletal injury and disease. He is the Chief investigator of the ADVANCE Study, a 20yr cohort study investigating medical and psycho-social outcomes of combat casualties with multimillion pound funding and is also principal investigator to another 3 large randomized controlled trials investigating interventions for musculoskeletal injury and supervising multiple PhD studies. He has successfully raised over £7million in grant funding for research for the benefit of military personnel.

Col Alastair M Nicol MBChB MSc Dip IMC RCS(Ed) FFSEM(UK) L/RAMC

AH Rehab HQ DPHC and DCA Rehab

Col Alastair Nicol is now Head of Defence Rehabilitation and the Consultant Advisor. He also has a lot of experience in elite sport, having been at the last three Commonwealth Games with Scotland as Team Doctor, he was CMO of the Prep Camp prior to the Rio Olympics in 2016 with Team GB and is one of the Team GB Doctors for the Tokyo Olympics next year.

Dr Emily Mayhew Author and Military Medical Historian

Dr Mayhew is a military medical historian specialising in the study of severe casualty, its infliction, treatment and long-term outcomes in 20th and 21st century warfare. She is historian in residence in the Department of Bioengineering, working primarily with the researchers and staff of The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies, and a Research Fellow in the Division of Surgery within the Department of Surgery and Cancer. She is based jointly in the Department of

Bioengineering and at the Chelsea and Westminster campus. (Or, as a colleague put it recently when he introduced me: "this is Emily. She's a historian. It's complicated.") Emily is the Imperial Lead on the Paediatric Blast Injury Partnership, part of the Centre for Blast Injury Studies network.

Lt Col Al Mountain Consultant Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgeon

Joined RAMC as medical cadet in 1990

Served in NI as RMO to 1st Bn Highlanders and 1 RRF

Surgical training on South Coast based around Portsmouth

Operational Tours NI and Bosnia

Higher Surgical Training in North East of England

Appointed Consultant to QE UHB in 2010 and developed

interest in post-traumatic hindfoot reconstruction.

Served with 16 Medical Regiment (2013-2016)

Completed 4 tours of Afghanistan.

Has worked at Royal Stoke University Hospital and North

Midlands MTC since 2015

Awarded Surgeon General Individual Quality Improvement Award 2017 for services to British

Forces Germany.

Appointed Consultant Adviser (Army) in Trauma & Orthopaedics to SHA December 2018

Regional Surgical Adviser to Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) July 2018

National Clinical Director of European Trauma Course UK

International Chair of Course Management Committee for ETC

Professor Anthony Bull FREng

Head, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London

Anthony is Professor of Musculoskeletal Mechanics at Imperial

College London and leads the Royal British Legion Centre for

Blast Injury Studies that has worked since 2008 on translational

research into the mitigation, protection, treatment, and

rehabilitation of blast injuries. He also serves on the ADVANCE

study Project Board, the 20 year cohort study following the war

wounded from Afghanistan.

A mechanical engineer by background, Professor Bull’s

research is focused on the basic mechanics of joints (including

the tissues of joints and the mechanics of joints within the whole

musculoskeletal system) and the application of this knowledge and technologies developed

to clinical practice, including the diagnosis and treatment of pathologies, improving

performance, and ageing. These are applied to Sport Biomechanics, Trauma (and Blast)

Biomechanics, and the Biomechanics of Ageing including Osteoarthritis.

Anthony has received numerous awards and honours for his work, including being elected

to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the American Institute of Medical

and Biological Engineering. In 2018 he was elected as one of 40 members of the World

Council of Biomechanics.

Professor Sir Keith Porter

Head of Traumatology, RCDM

Professor Porter was educated at Marlborough College and St Thomas’s

Hospital, London. He was appointed Consultant Trauma Surgeon at

Birmingham Accident Hospital in 1986, a service that is now delivered at

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, where he is Professor of Clinical

Traumatology and until June 2018 the Clinical Director of the Major

Trauma Centre.

He is the clinical lead for injured soldiers returning to the UK for the last

decade including both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Professor Porter has been a leader in the development of the new medical subspecialty of

Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine and in recent years has been the Chairman of the Faculty

of Pre-Hospital Care and also the Intercollegiate Board for Training in Emergency Medicine.

He is Chair of the Trauma Care Council and co-editor of the journal “Trauma”.

Professor Porter has over 190 peer review publications and has co-authored/edited

numerous books.

For his services to the military he was knighted in the 2010 Queen’s New Year’s honours list.

Surg Capt (RN) Jason Smith

Defence Professor Emergency Medicine

Surgeon Captain Jason Smith joined the Royal Navy

and qualified in medicine from Newcastle University in

1992. He underwent specialist training in London,

Plymouth and Sydney before being appointed as a

consultant in emergency medicine at Derriford

Hospital, Plymouth, UK in 2005. He has extensive

military operational experience, having undertaken

several deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra

Leone, and most recently South Sudan.

He undertook a doctorate in the management of

patients with blast lung injury, and his current research

interests include the treatment of pain in emergency

patients and the management of traumatic cardiac

arrest.

He is currently the UK Defence Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Academic

Department of Military Emergency Medicine, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine,

Birmingham. He was appointed Royal College of Emergency Medicine Professor in

2013,and is an Honorary Professor at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of

Medicine and Dentistry.

He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service,

and an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps and the

Emergency Medicine Journal. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Emergency

Medicine, the Royal College of Physicians of London, and the Royal Geographical

Society.

Col Rhodri D Phillip OBE

Clinical Director & CT lead Consultant, Defence Medical Rehabilitation

Centre

Col Rhodri D Phillip is the Clinical Director for DMRC Stanford Hall, the British

military’s tertiary rehabilitation centre. He is a trained rehabilitation medicine and

rheumatology consultant and completed his specialist training over ten years ago.

He primarily works in the field of complex trauma rehabilitation, with his case-mix

varying from amputation to multiple injuries and spinal cord damage. He is a

member of various working parties looking at improving care for this patient cohort

Col Alan Mistlin

Consultant DMRC

Col Mistlin Qualified from Guy’s Hospital in July 1989 with MBBS. After Pre-

registration jobs in London embarked on General Duties in Germany, Northern

Ireland, Aldershot and Africa and the Caribbean. A return to hospital medicine in

1994 saw a junior doctor rotation through Rinteln, QEMH Woolwich, Frimley Park,

The Royal Brompton, Musgrave Park and Bosnia. Selected for specialist training in

Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Medicine in1997 after gaining MRCP. A six-year

programme through Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Guy’s and St Thomas

Hospitals, The Royal London, The Hospital for Neuro-Disabilities, Putney and the

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore. Certificate of Completion of

Specialist Training gained in 2003.

Appointed a Consultant at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley

Court 2003. Has worked as the consultant lead to Spines and Neuro-Rehabilitation

Group. Currently consultant lead to the Complex Trauma and mild Traumatic Brain

Injury Groups. Col Mistlin holds a full time clinical consultant appointment within the

MOD and NHS in Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Medicine at The Defence

Medical Rehabilitation Centre and Frimley Park Hospital. Until January 2015 he was

Medical Director of the only self-managed Military Unit with responsibility for all

clinical outputs, providing clinical direction and policy, Healthcare Governance and

Clinical Delivery. He has directed liaison with NHS care providers. Nationally he has

represented the AF on the BSRM Specialist Interest Group in Amputation Medicine.

He is Chair of the Clinical Reference Group for NHSE for Complex Rehabilitation

and Disability. He sits on the Veterans Prosthetic Panel with NHS England

delivering seamless transfer of Military patients to NHS care and chaired the RSM

SEM Section.

As Complex Trauma Rehabilitation and mild traumatic brain injury lead he has

driven forward the developing rehabilitation service for injured servicemen. The

service has evolved using DMRC staff and evaluation of advanced technology.

Previously he has lead the Spinal and Neurological services at DMRC. He believes

that rehabilitation medicine in the UK can develop into a world leading service.

Rehabilitation needs to look forward and use the experience and knowledge of

Neurological, Prosthetic, SCI, AAC, EC and the Military experience to prepare not

only for the patients that NHSE already treats but also needs to be prepared for

emergency situations such as those experienced in Paris, London and Madrid.

Col Mistlin was awarded FRCP(London) and FFSEM.

Maj Peter Le Feuvre MBE

Complex Trauma Research Fellow

Major Peter Le Feuvre has enjoyed a varied career as

a physiotherapist. Having started his professional life

within the NHS, he went on for a Non-Governmental

Organisation, before joining the British Army in 2003.

In 2006 he was posted to RCDM, where he led the

military physio team at Selly Oak Hospital,

Birmingham. This coincided with the surge in

casualties from British military operational

commitments. This surge continued for 8 years. His

role in the early development of the rehabilitation

pathway, together with operational tours in Iraq and

Afghanistan led to a posting at DMRC Headley Court.

As Clinical Lead Physiotherapist within Complex

Trauma he continued his work with the combat casualties until 2014. He is currently

working towards a PhD within the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College

London. The research is seeking to capture many of the rehabilitation lessons we

learnt during this period of intense operational activity.

Col Neil Smith QHVS

AH Future Healthcare, Healthcare Plans in JMG

He has had an eclectic career over the last 30

years, which includes being RCD (Scotland &

Northern Ireland) with responsibility for multiple

PCRFs and a couple of RRUs. His current

responsibilities cover IPC4V and the Defence

Recovery Capability WG. In addition he is also

the Chief Veterinary and Remount Officer, so

brings a different perspective to Healthcare. He

was involved in the first Invictus Games in 2014

as his ex-military working dog, who had been

injured by an IED in Afghanistan, was asked to

be the mascot for Team GB.

Helen Helliwell

Director Armed Forces People Policy, UK Ministry of Defence

Helen took up the position of Director

Armed Forces People Policy in February

2019. The portfolio is responsible for the

strategies and policies to ensure we

attract and retain a sufficient, capable

and motivated Armed Forces through

the provision of world class enabling HR

policies. The policy areas include health,

wellbeing and welfare, accommodation,

remuneration, flexible service, the

service justice system, transition and

support to families and veterans through

the lens of the Armed Forces Covenant.

Prior to this position, Helen was the Hd of Service Personnel Support where she

was responsible for the Armed Forces Health, Wellbeing and Welfare portfolio

including specific responsibility for delivering the Armed Forces Covenant - a

promise by the nation that those who serve and have served, and their families, are

not disadvantaged in accessing goods and services.

Helen is a career Senior Civil Servant who joined the Ministry of Defence in 2001;

she has held roles in HR developing talent, leadership and engagement; with the

Department of International Development, where she developed a cadre of Civil

Servants to deploy to fragile states; in the Prison Service, where she led a

Programme of Workforce Modernisation within Prisons and a number of roles within

Defence, including on Afghanistan and War Crime Tribunals.

Helen has a BSc (Hons) in Physiology and Pharmacology; is a fellow member of

the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and holds the Diploma of

Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors.

In her early career, Helen also enjoyed time as a Royal Navy Reservist (Medical

Branch).

Melanie Waters OBE

CEO Help for Heroes

Melanie Waters was appointed Chief Executive

Officer of Help for Heroes in November 2016.

Prior to joining Help for Heroes Mel was Chief

Executive of The Poppy Factory – an independent

employment charity, which puts the recovery and

employment of ex-Service people at its heart. In this

role, she made history as the first female CEO of a

military charity.

In her earlier career Mel held significant roles in the

commercial sector, leading the External Affairs,

Business Improvement and Operations for

companies such as the Automobile Association and

Unite Students. Having graduated in Law from

Manchester University Mel joined The AA and

quickly became one of the first female patrol

managers. She attained her MBA in 2005.

In non-executive roles, Melanie is a member of NHS England’s Armed Forces

Clinical Reference Group and an Executive member of Cobseo (Confederation of

Service Charities); she is also on the board of Women in Defence.

Mel has a strong personal interest in disability and was awarded the OBE in 2017

for services to the Armed Forces.

Once a keen athlete, Mel’s interests now are Pilates and cycling; she completed

her first Help for Heroes Big Battlefield Bike Ride in 2017.

Brendan Eley CEO Scar Free Foundation

Brendan Eley has been Chief Executive of The Scar Free Foundation (formerly the Healing Foundation) since April 2004. The charity’s mission is “To achieve scar free healing within a generation and transform the lives of those affected by disfiguring conditions”. He joined the charity in 2001 as Appeal Director, managing the charity’s major donor fundraising drive. Since

2003, the Scar Free Foundation has raised over £15 million and secured matched funding support in excess of £10 million, to support a national programme of research in burns, cleft, regenerative medicine and the psychology of disfigurement. Chaired by the National Medical Director of NHS England, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, other Trustees include Lt Gen Richard Nugee, The UK Armed Forces’ Chief of Defence People and Professor Peter Weissberg, former Medical Director of major research funder, the British Heart Foundation. The Foundation is currently undertaking a £24 million fundraising and research drive to deliver scar free healing within a generation. In 2018 the charity was awarded £3 million by The Chancellor from LIBOR funds to establish The Scar Free Foundation Centre for Conflict Wound Research. Focused on the recovery, repair and rehabilitation of wounds and scars caused by blast and gunshot injuries encountered in both military and civilian conflict, research is now underway at the Centre’s sites at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and the Centre for Appearance Research, Bristol. Before joining the Foundation, Brendan was Director of the Mary Rose Foundation raising funds and the profile of Henry VIII’s famously favourite Tudor warship, and enjoyed previous positions with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Cancer Research UK.

Martin Colclough MSc OBE Head of Sports Recovery at Help for Heroes

I joined H4H in May 2011 having served in Army and a Junior Soldier from the age of 16, firstly in the Parachute Regiment and latterly in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC). During my military career I developed a keen interest in rehabilitation and paralympic sport, which led me to take a career break as the Senior Paralympic Performance Manager at UK Athletics during 2006/7. In 2008 I helped establish the MOD's Battle Back Programme at Headley Court, a founding partner of which was H4H. My role in the Charity as Head of Sports Recovery is to maintain our position as the leading provider of adaptive sport and adventurous training opportunities, through the Battle Back programme, to

wounded, injured and sick personnel to help maintain an active and independent lifestyle, participate in competitive sport and through the delivery of vocational training courses. Much of this work involves exploiting existing opportunities and developing innovative programs with key partners such as the British Paralympic Association and National Governing Bodies for sport.

Dr Ron Daniels Chief Executive Sepsis Trust

Ron is Chief Executive and one of the

founders of the Trust; he developed his

passion for improving systems for Sepsis

during his Role as a Consultant in Critical

Care and Anaesthesia, and his parallel

role as CEO of the Global Sepsis

Alliance. He is a recognised world expert

in sepsis and lectures internationally.

I won’t rest until patients with sepsis are

dealt with as quickly and reliably as

patients with heart attacks or stroke, every time. I initiated the development of the

UK Sepsis Trust when it became clear that to achieve this required not only

education, but also engagement.

Wing commander Tracey Pilkington MBE BA(HONS) RAF SO1 Recovery Delivery RAF

Tracey Pilkington was commissioned into the Administrative (Support) Branch of the Royal Air Force in 1991. As a junior officer, she served in a variety of roles including accounts, recruiting, instructing and human resources, as well as serving on Ascension Island as the OC Admin Flight and Property Manager. Promoted to Squadron Leader in 2003, he became OC Infrastructure Central responsible for delivery of major infrastructure projects including the preparations for the arrival of the Typhoon aircraft at RAF Coningsby, before serving as OC Personnel Management Squadron at RAF Coltishall and completing tours in project management, performance management and career managment. On promotion to Wing Commander in 2009, she joined the RAF JPA

Focal Point responsible for future development, deployed to the Middle East with the NATO (Training Mission), completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree through the Open University in 2010, and was a Case Officer within the Defence Inquests Unit before moving to the Ministry of Defence Headquarters as a staff officer specialising in tri-Service allowances policy. In March 2018, Wing Commander Pilkington took up post as SO1 Recovery Delivery with responsibility for the oversight of all RAF Wounded, Injured and Sick (WIS) personnel on the Defence Recovery Pathway, and took on two separate new roles as Product Owner for the development of a new Defence Case Management System and tri-Service Patient Advocate. She serves as a Charitable Trustee for the Victory Services Club. Wing Commander Pilkington lives in Buckinghamshire and is married to Alex. Her interests include all skiing, diving and going to the theatre or cinema.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely

Regius Professor of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College

London

Simon Wessely studied medicine and

history of art at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and

finished his medical training at University

College Oxford, graduating in 1981. He

obtained his medical membership in

Newcastle, before moving to London to

train in psychiatry at the Maudsley. He has

a Master’s and Doctorate in epidemiology.

He is consultant liaison psychiatrist at

King’s College Hospital, Civilian Consultant

Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army

since 2001, and a Foundation Senior Investigator of the National Institute for Health

Research.

He founded the Gulf War Illness Research Unit, which in 2003 became the King’s

Centre for Military Health Research. Its flagship project is a large-scale ongoing

study of the health and wellbeing of the UK Armed Forces, has had a direct impact

on public policy and on forms of treatment and help for serving and ex serving

personnel. Professor Wessely has over 800 original publications, with a particular

emphasis on the boundaries of medicine and psychiatry, unexplained symptoms

and syndromes, military health, population reactions to adversity, and

epidemiology, He is active in public engagement activities, speaking regularly on

radio, TV and at literary and science festivals. He is a trustee of Combat Stress and

his contributions to veterans’ charities include cycling (slowly) eight times to Paris

to raise funds for the Royal British Legion.

In 2012 he was awarded the first Nature “John Maddox Prize” for Standing Up for

Science, and was knighted in 2013 for services to Psychological Medicine and

Military Health. He was President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists between

2014 and 2017, chaired the Review of the Mental Health Act at the request of the

PM, and is now President of the Royal Society of Medicine. He became the

country’s first Regius Chair of Psychiatry in 2017. His favourite occupation though

remains arguing in cafes.

Dr Christopher Boos

Consultant Cardiologist Poole Hospital NHS Trust Visiting Professor,

Carnegie Research Institute

Dr Boos has been a consultant Cardiologist at Poole

Hospital in Dorset since 2008. Following SPR training

in Wessex he transferred to Birmingham to undertake

his MD and further training in heart failure and device

therapy. He recently retired from the Defence Medical

Serviced as the Army’s senior Cardiologist after 23

years in the military, yet has maintained close links.

He is the current Armed Forces Civilian Consultant in

Cardiology. Dr Boos has a strong academic interest

and has published more than 130 papers in peer

reviewed journals. He is a visiting research fellow at

Bournemouth University and a visiting Professor at

Leeds Beckett University. His main research interests

are around high altitude and exercise Medicine and

Cardiovascular Risk. He is a founding project

member and a co-investigator with the ADVANCE

Study.

Antony Baines

The Royal British Legion Director of Operations

Antony began working for The Royal British Legion at

the beginning of 2013 as Assistant Director of

Operations for the Midlands region before being

appointed as the Director of Operations in February

2016.

After ten years in the architectural glazing and

construction sector, he held a number of senior

management roles in social finance, housing and

community regeneration organisations, including Chief

Executive of a group of community owned social

enterprises working to improve the lives of the residents

in some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK.

Educated at Southwell Minster and Naropa University,

Colorado, Antony’s qualifications include International

micro-finance, project and programme management, business improvement and quality, he

is a Master Black belt in Lean Six Sigma.

Dr Jessica Watrous

Clinical Health Psychologist and Senior Researcher, Naval Health Research

Center in San Diego, California

Dr. Jessica Watrous is a licensed Clinical Health Psychologist and Senior Researcher (contractor) at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, California. Dr. Watrous received her PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus in Behavioral Medicine/Clinical Health from the University of Memphis. She completed her clinical internship and a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported postdoctoral fellowship at the Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System and University of California, San Diego. Broadly, her clinical and research efforts have focused on health behaviors, the relationships between physical and mental health, and optimizing clinical prevention and intervention protocols for health promotion and behavior change. This has included work in the areas of addictions, co-occurring disorders, and chronic illness in civilian, veteran, and active duty

military populations. Dr. Watrous has co-authored 27 manuscripts and book chapters, over 50 professional presentations, and has contributed to numerous Department of Defense (DoD), NIH, and VA-funded clinical research projects. Dr. Watrous is the Co-PI of the Wounded Warrior Recovery Project (WWRP), a longitudinal examination of patient-reported outcomes for service members injured during overseas contingency operations. Her work with WWRP aims to understand the complex relationships between mental and physical health, with the ultimate goal of informing optimized healthcare to improve outcomes for this population.

Capt Simon Joll MA MSc Royal Navy

Head of Welfare Policy

Capt Joll joined the RN in 1992 and, after BRNC Dartmouth, he

served training tours in HMS JUNO, PEACOCK, BIRMINGHAM and

SPLENDID. Capt Joll qualified as a nuclear submariner serving as

the Logistics Officer of HMS SOVEREIGN. This included taking the

submarine out of refit and back to operational readiness and

qualifying as surfaced OOW. Capt Joll then served as EA2 to the

Chief of Staff to the Second Sea Lord and the Chief Naval Logistics

Officer. This was followed by a short tour as a training Officer at the

Royal Naval Supply School.

Staff and professional training was followed by promotion to Lt Cdr

and assignment as the head of the Logistics Department of the T23

frigate HMS MARLBOROUGH. MARL conducted BOST and force

generation back to full operational readiness and then deployed on

live operations in the Gulf as part of OP TELIC/OIF in 2003. During

this time, MARL acted as CTG and Capt Joll acted as Group Logistics Commander for a 4 ship UK TG

sustaining high tempo operations over stretched lines of supply. His time on board concluded with

exercises with the FPDA Navies.

Appointed to Navy Command HQ in summer 2003, Capt Joll was responsible for Afloat Support policy

for the RN optimising support from current platforms, developing new policy and strategy and setting the

requirement for new maritime auxiliary platforms. Selected to be Military Assistant to an Army General

in 2005, two fascinating years followed with insight into the higher levels of Defence, management of

10,000 plus geographically dispersed personnel, contractorisation and private finance initiatives as well

as joint logistics and Army personnel management.

Selected for promotion to Cdr in 2007 and after attending ACSC11, Capt Joll returned to Navy Command

as the Joint Support Chain and Logistics C4I lead developing the RN’s capability and understanding in

these areas as well as supporting frontline operations. This was followed by two years in the PJHQ

working on J1 and J4 support to all UK operations around the world ranging from Afghanistan to Libya.

This tour included two months with the USMC’s 2 MEF as the PJHQ Liaison Officer to the Commanding

General of RC(SW) in Afghanistan.

Capt Joll joined the British Embassy in Washington, DC in summer 2012 and served for two years on

the British Defence Staff in the US as the lead for both Maritime and Joint logistic and personnel

cooperation between the US and UK armed forces. Capt Joll remained in the US for 2014-5 as the UK’s

International Fellow for the yearlong US National War College, the US’s senior joint, interagency and

international strategic security course. He served as the Logistics Commander at RNAS Yeovilton 2015-

18 responsible for supporting Force Generation and global support for all UK embarked aviation. In

2018, Capt Joll served in Baghdad, Iraq as part of the US-led multinational coalition OP SHADER/OIR

supporting the Government of Iraq as part of the Ministerial Liaison Team. He joined the MoD in 2018

as the Head of SP Welfare Policy and DHd SP Sp.

A graduate of the University of Manchester, King’s College London and the US National Defense

University, Capt Joll is married with two children

Prof Nichola Fear

Director of the King’s Centre of Military Health Research

Nicola joined the Academic Department of

Military Mental Health at King’s College London

(KCL) in 2004 having trained as an

epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene

and Tropical Medicine and University of Oxford.

Nicola has also worked as an epidemiologist

within the UK Ministry of Defence.

Since 2011, Nichola has been Director of the

King’s Centre of Military Health Research

(KCMHR) alongside Professor Sir Simon

Wessely. In 2014, Nicola was awarded a Chair in

Epidemiology.

Nicola is the lead epidemiologist on the KCMHR military cohort study and leads

several studies examining the impact of military service on families.

Barry Le Grys

Chief Executive BLESMA

Barry Le Grys worked in the offshore oil industry before

being commissioned into the Royal Engineers. Barry is

currently the Chief Executive of Blesma, a Service charity

that has specialised in assisting veterans overcome limb

loss and loss of use since the end of World War One. He

is also a Governor of Motability, Director of the

Confederation of Service Charities (Cobseo), a Director of

Veterans Scotland, and a Member of the Independent

Medical Expert Group, advising the Ministry of Defence on

the relevance and validity of the Armed Forces

Compensation Scheme.

Heather Betts

Director Independence and Wellbeing

Heather has worked in the military charity sector

since 2005, following an 18-year career as an

officer in the WRNS/Royal Navy.

When she joined the WRNS women didn’t serve at

sea, but following a change in policy and the

disbandment of the WRNS she became an RN

Officer and having volunteered for sea service she

went to sea for the first time in 1993 as the

Captain’s Secretary in HMS INVINCIBLE, despite

being warned by a number of ‘salty sea dogs’ that

“she’d hate serving in big ships”. Always ready to

listen to advice she nonetheless decided to make

up her own mind and having enjoyed her

appointment so much (including two six-month

deployments to the Adriatic) went back in 2001 as

the Refit Pusser and Deputy Logistics Officer. In

between her drafts to INVINCIBLE she completed the Supply Charge Course and

enjoyed a two-year appointment as the Supply Officer HMS SUTHERLAND which

included a six-month deployment to the South Atlantic. Heather also enjoyed her

appointments training new entry Wrens, new entry officers and junior logistics

officers and the time she spent recruiting officers in Scotland when she served with

the Directorate of Naval Recruiting.

Heather retired as a Lieutenant Commander in 2004 and was determined to work

in the charity sector. Having worked for the Tourette Syndrome (UK) Association

in business development and as the General Secretary of the Royal British Legion

Scotland she brought a wealth of experience when she joined Blesma as the

National Welfare Officer (NWO) in April 2008.

As NWO she was responsible for directing the activity of the Area Welfare Officers

who delivered Blesma's very comprehensive welfare service to Members and

Widows. In 2017 following some restructuring in Blesma Headquarters Heather’s

remit was expanded and as Director Independence and Wellbeing she is

responsible for all membership matters, including liaison with MoD recovery

services and the National Health Services, prosthetic provision, the Blesma welfare

service in the field, grant making and Blesma’s Outreach programme.

Dave Henson MBE

Capt (rtd RE), Invictus Games, European Championships, World

Championships, Paralympic Medal Winner

Dave joined the British Army in 2008, starting his military career

with a year of infantry and leadership training at the Royal Military

Academy, Sandhurst. Upon commissioning, Dave joined the

Corps of Royal Engineers and deployed to Afghanistan in 2010

as a Royal Engineer Search Advisor, responsible for the co-

ordination, planning and execution of Improvised Explosive

Device (IED) Search Operations.

In February 2011, this high – risk role cost Dave both of his legs

during what should have been a routine clearance patrol. He

was brought back to the UK and spent five weeks in the care of

the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, a very highly skilled

military medical unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. Here Dave was put back

together piece by piece before being sent to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre,

Headley Court. Dave was up and walking just 8 weeks after losing his legs.

During his time at Headley Court, Dave used sport as a catalyst for his recovery and found

a new passion after receiving his running prostheses. Determined to leave the military in the

same fitness state as he entered, Dave passed his military fitness test before moving to track

racing. He competed at the 2013 Warrior Games but his athletic abilities came to the fore

during the inaugural Invictus Games in London, 2014.

As Captain of the hugely successful British Team, Dave took gold medals in Sitting Volleyball

and athletics. Success at these games led Dave to pursue international representation in

athletics, and gained his first GB vest in 2015. In 2016 he retained his Invictus Games gold

medal, won his first international medal at the European Championships and achieved his

ambitions of a podium finish at the Rio Paralympic Games. Dave was awarded his fourth

GB appearance in two years at the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2017 and won his

third international medal in the 200m.

In his time post-injury, and alongside his sporting achievements, he has gained his Masters’

in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London, and is undertaking his PhD in

Amputee Biomechanics at the same institution. Pursuing his passion for the improvement

and development of new technologies for amputees, Dave is currently developing a new

running prosthesis for the improvement of running mechanics and versatility of amputee

runners.

He is a trustee of the Invictus Games Foundation and the Explora Scholarship Fund, the

Veterans’ Advisor to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies and the co-chair and founding

member of the CASEVAC Club. Dave is married to Hayley and has two daughters. He was

awarded the MBE in 2014 for services to the military.