Revd. Dr Alison Gray

Revd. Dr Alison Gray

Department of Theology and Religion
Consultant Psychiatrist, Hereford County Hospital, UK
Honorary Fellow, Edward Cadbury Centre

Contact details

Email
alison.gray6@nhs.net

I am a consultant psychiatrist, leading the Mental Health Liaison team in the Hereford County Hospital. I also have a long interest in religion, spirituality and health and I am an ordained Anglican church minister.

Qualifications

  • MB BChir, University of Cambridge
  • MA, University of Cambridge
  • MRCPsych Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.
  • MMedSci in Psychiatry, University of Birmingham
  • Dip Applied Theology, University of Birmingham
  • FRCPsych Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.

Biography

Having started out as a natural scientist at Cambridge University, Dr Gray transferred into medicine and then trained in psychiatry in the West Midlands. She worked for several years in the National Deaf Mental Health Service in Birmingham, leaving there in 2006 to train for ordination at Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education. After being ordained in the Church of England Dr Gray returned to psychiatry in 2010.  Having worked with the RAID team in Birmingham she set up and continues to run the Mental Health Liaison team in Hereford.

Research

Dr Gray is interested in the intersection of health, Religion and spirituality,  and the nature of compassion and how this is developed, nurtured and sustained in a healthcare setting.  Her  current project is to establish if religious observance and/or spiritual practices enhance resilience in medical students.

Other activities

  • Associate Priest at Great Malvern
  • Secretary of the RCPsych Spirituality Special Interest Group
  • Trustee of the Whole Person Health Trust.
  • Lead organiser of the Faith in Health and Healing conferences
  • Media expert for the RCPsych on spirituality and religion. 

Publications

Book Chapters.

  • Gray A, Commentary on spirituality, in “Changing Minds: our lives and mental illness” in Ramsay R, Page A, Goodman T, Hart D (eds). Gaskell Press: London, 2002. p 88-89
  • Gray A, duFeu M. 2004. The causes of schizophrenia and its implications for Deaf People. In Austen & Crocker (eds) Deafness in Mind. Whurr, London
  • Austen S, Gray A, Carney S.  2007. Diagnosis and Challenging Behaviour of Deaf People in S Austen and D Jeffery (eds) Deafness and Challenging Behaviour: The 360° Perspective. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Pp. 52-72.
  • Gray A. and Cox J. 2014, ‘Religion, race and mental health’ in Critical Psychiatry and Psychology: Exploring the Work of Suman Fernando in Clinical Practice. Moodley R., Ocampo M. (eds). London: Routledge. 

Journal Articles

  • Gray A,  Staples V, Murren K, Dhariwal A, Bentham P. (2001) Olfactory identification is impaired in clinic-based patients with vascular dementia and senile dementia of Alzheimer type International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 16, (5),  513–517,
  • Gray A. 2001 Attitudes to mental health issues in a church congregation Mental Health Religion and Culture. 4(1) 71-80
  • Gray A. 2002  Stigma in Psychiatry. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 95; 72-76
  • Gray A. 2003 The psychiatrists training journey. Healthcare counseling and psychotherapy journal , 3(2);7-11
  • Harrison T, Gray A. 2003 Leadership, complexity and the mental health professional; A report on some approaches to leadership training.   Journal of Mental Health, 12 (2); 153-159
  • Cox J and Gray A. 2009. Psychiatry for the person. Current opinions in psychiatry, 22: 587-593.
  • Gray A. 2010. Whatever happened to the Soul? Mental health religion and culture, 13(6): 637-648.
  • Gray A. 2011. Worldviews. International Psychiatry, 8(3): 58-60
  • Gray A. 2013. re: Mid Staffs is evidence of all that is wrong with NHS management. 
  • Cox J, Gray A.  2014. Médecine de la Personne and the lost morality of the NHS in England (letter).  Lancet 2014; 383: 696.
  • Cox J and Gray A. 2014. Medicine of the Person: a charter for change following the Mid – Staffordshire Francis enquiry. European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare 2(2) DOI: 10.5750%2Fejpch.v2i2.739
  • Cox J and Gray A. 2014. The College Reply to Francis misses the big question: a commentary on OP92. Psychiatr Bull 2014; 38: 152–3.  DOI: 10.1192/pb.bp.114.047514
  • Correspondence BJPsych Bull 2015; 39(1): 48-49. DOI: 10.1192/pb.39.1.49
  • Cox J and Gray A. 2015. NHS at the hustings: quality Indicators for a person centered medicine. European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare 3(1): 1-3.
  • Gray A. and Cox J. 2015. The roots of Compassion and Empathy: implementing the Francis report and the search for new models of health care.  European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare 3(1): 122-130.