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Gary currently works as a Research Fellow in the Section of Psychological Medicine, at the University of Wales Bangor. His research interests include the patterns of alcohol consumption, the delivery and organisation of mental health services, and the effects of the supplementation of anti-depressants with folate.
Before joining the University in November 2002 Gary worked for 4½ years at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies in Newcastle as the National Research Coordinator of the United Kingdom Alcohol Treatment Trial (ukatt). This was a pragmatic, prospective randomized trial investigating the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of two manualised treatments for people with alcohol problems. It is the largest trial of its kind undertaken in the UK, and was funded by the MRC to the tune of £1.5 million.
Prior to this he worked for 1½ years at the CRC Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham where he undertook a systematic review of the factors that effected clinician and patient accrual into clinical trials. He was able to put the experience of his previous post, as the Trial Coordinator to the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (MRC-CFAS) at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Liverpool, to good use. CFAS is a large epidemiological study of cognitive function in England and Wales, consisting of 13,004 research subjects. He was employed on this project for 2 years.
He had spent the 2 years earlier living and working in Salford, in the Department of Behavioural Medicine at Hope Hospital. His main task was to develop an audit tool to systematically assess the effectiveness of a Total Quality Management intervention within the health trust. In addition his department involved in an innovative pilot project with the North West Ability Development Centre to develop a new course for a Back Restoration programme. Gary co-taught the stress and relaxation components of this course, and was also responsible for the administration, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the various psychometrics used. In addition he lectured to the Cardiac Rehabilitation course on Stress and Anxiety.
His first research post had been for 8 months as assistant psychologist at the Doncaster Royal Infirmary. He had been involved with two projects looking at external (i.e., service users) and internal (i.e., other medical staffs and GPs) users satisfaction with the service provided to them by the Department of Psychology. He also undertook a number of other projects, including the analysis of the results of a stress audit conducted in the Special Care Baby Unit.
Gary is active on the Standing Committee for Continued Professional Development of the BPS, and serves on the North East Wales Local Research Ethics Committee.
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