Dr Wendy Burn CBE – a huge inspiration to us all

Dr Wendy Burn, a consultant old age psychiatrist in LYPFT, has been made a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list for her services to mental health.

We have to confess to falling a little behind celebrating a piece of really good news for 2021.

Dr Burn, immediate past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “To get the CBE really was a huge honour and a great surprise. It’s not just for me, it’s for the mental health field and for all those who work in it.”

She added: “I joined the organisation that later became the Trust in 1990 and throughout all that time it has been immensely supportive. I’m extremely grateful – I couldn’t have done my work first as Dean and then as President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists without the Trust’s support.”

Wendy’s parents were both doctors. Her mother trained when there were very few women doctors and was the first in her family to go to university. From the age of two she says, probably inspired by her parents, Wendy wanted to become a doctor herself.

She has two main professional interests: dementia in older people, and the education and training of psychiatrists.

“I really like working with older people. To hear the story of someone’s life is always a privilege and brings history alive. The elderly are a resilient group and put up with the losses that old age brings in a way that impresses me. During the pandemic the isolation has been terrible for many of them.”

Wendy has always had a close involvement with postgraduate medical training, and established the Yorkshire School of Psychiatry, becoming its head in 2007.

In 2016 she undertook a modernisation of psychiatric training when she was appointed Co-chair of the Gatsby Foundation and Wellcome Trust Neuroscience Project. This updated the neuroscience (scientific study of the nervous system) in the curriculum for trainee psychiatrists to meet the needs of modern-day mental health research and treatment.

“We looked at the rapid advances in neuroscience and saw that what we were teaching and examining in psychiatric studies was really old-fashioned. We needed to make it relevant for the psychiatrists of the future, but also for those currently practising. So we set about pulling neuroscience and psychiatry more closely together.

“This is now in effect and we are assessing how it is working.”

Elected President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2017, the focus of her three-year presidency was campaigning for more funding for Mental Health Services, improving recruitment and retention in the psychiatric workforce, and promoting diversity. During her time in office the Long Term Plan for the NHS in England was produced. She is proud to report that following campaigning by the College, the plan contained a promise to grow investment in mental health services faster than the NHS budget overall for each of the next five years.

Wendy currently works for the Trust in the community based at St Mary’s House, Leeds; advises Health Education England as a National Mental Health Clinical Advisor; and Chairs the Clinical group of Equally Well, a coalition that focuses on improving the physical health of patients with severe mental illness.

Christian Hosker, the Trust’s Medical Director, said: “Amidst everything that has gone on over the last year it was really thrilling to learn at the start of this new year that Wendy had been recognised in the honours list. Wendy has been a huge source of support and inspiration for me and many others, going all the way back to our days as psychiatric trainees.

“It is an incredible achievement for anyone to rise all the way up to being the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and it is fantastic that Wendy’s positive influence and tireless efforts during her tenure there have been recognised through a CBE.

“Wendy remains a huge inspiration to us all and it is a privilege for us all to work alongside her!”