Consultant psychiatrist for the homeless and former medical director at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC), Professor Tim Kendall, has received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to mental healthcare in England.
Professor Kendall was recognised by His Majesty the King in his 2024 New Year Honours List. The list marks the extraordinary contributions and service of people across the UK.
Professor Kendall was previously the medical director for SHSC for more than a decade until 2016 and still continues in his role as consultant psychiatrist.
Professor Kendall said: "I feel both humbled and pleased by the award of a CBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours list for my services to mental healthcare.
"I have worked in mental health for 40 years this year, having been a consultant for 33 years, previously medical director at SHSC for 13 years and working nationally for 25 years, including producing the first NICE guideline, chairing the first NICE quality standard, winning the Lancet Paper of the Year Award and working as national clinical director for mental health for nearly eight years.
"For the last 15 years I have worked clinically with people who are homeless with usually severe mental health problems, work I am continuing with: a growing and incredibly difficult part of mental health care. So, to receive this award is both a great honour and a pleasure to receive."
Dr Mike Hunter, medical director at SHSC, said: “We are delighted that Tim has been recognised with a CBE. His dedication to mental healthcare, both nationally and in Sheffield, has had a positive impact on so many people’s lives, being named in the King’s New Year’s Honours List is just reward for his work over the years.”
Tim Kendall is an honorary professor at the University of Sheffield and visiting professor at University College London, international director at the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health which he founded in 2001, and he has advised numerous governments, including in his role as national clinical director for mental health with NHS England.
He helped gain an additional £3.3 billion per year for mental health and set up the Global Ministerial Summit on Mental Health, involving more than 60 countries with hundreds of minsters over the years since founding this in 2018 when he hosted the first summit in London. The summit has since been to Amsterdam in 2019, Paris in 2021, Rome in 2022 and Argentina in 2023.
He chaired the first NICE guideline, launched in December 2002, on the management of schizophrenia and the first National Quality Standard for NICE which was around dementia.
Professor Kendall has published numerous articles and papers and in 2004 he was awarded Lancet Paper of the Year for showing the impact of selective publishing by the drug industry about antidepressants in the treatment of childhood depression; and with others was awarded the Paper of the Year Award for the Health Economic Journal ‘Value in Health’ in 2012 for work on schizophrenia.
Congratulations for this great achievement, Tim.
