Carmel is the Academic Dean for the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, and Professor of Addictions and Mental Health and member of the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (DARC). Carmel earned her doctorate from St Georges Medical School, University of London, UK, and is currently registered with the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) as a mental health and adult nurse, and has over 25 years’ experience in delivering nursing education at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including curriculum development, specifically in the area of addiction; and was the course developer of the first Masters in co-morbidity (dual diagnosis) in Europe. In 2014 with funding from Health Education England Carmel established My Care Academy – a knowledge building community in partnership with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, and is currently the Project Director. In October 2020 (for a two-year term) Carmel took over the office of President of the International Nurses Society on Addiction. She has written extensively in this area and in 2017 co-chaired a Public Health England working group on the nurses’ role in the treatment and recovery addiction pathways . Carmel has also served as a Member of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)(2002 -2011) – a Standing Committee which advises the UK Government on drug issues and policies. In 2015 in recognition of her contribution to addiction practice, she was awarded a Fellowship by Distinction and entered onto the membership register for the UK Faculty of Public Health. Carmel has provided training to addiction professionals throughout the world and is a member of The International Society of Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Professionals (ISSUP) and holds credentials ICAP-III from the Colombo Plan-ICCE.
Creating great relationships and rapport with my students is central to my personal teaching and learning strategy and what I believe makes the process of learning enjoyable and effective. Whilst my current role limits my teaching commitments I favour the ‘coach/player’ approach, leading through example, and continue to ‘guest teach’ across a number of courses associated with my subject area, and continue to deliver a series of Interprofessional Learning Symposia on Addictions. The student experience is paramount and being close to what is happening on the ground either via online learning, lecture hall, dissertation supervision, or Boards of Studies is essential to ensuring best delivery. The following offers a summary overview of the key areas of teaching that I have and continue to deliver
Addiction – Generally: theoretical, epidemiological, clinical and professional perspectives. Specifically: the nursing role and working with problematic drug users across health and social care settings e.g. Addiction specialist services, accident and emergency, child and adolescence services, primary care, midwifery and mental health.
Dual Diagnosis (Co morbidity of mental health and substance misuse) – theoretical, epidemiological, clinical and professional perspectives, and service development issues
Mental health - theoretical, epidemiological, clinical and professional perspectives, and service development issues, including clinical leadership.
Research – quantitative and qualitative research methods, statistics (particularly the delivery of lab-based workshops on setting up and undertaking quantitative data analyses using SPSS).
I have been part of establishing and serving on a number of European Research Networks, in the two areas of addiction and mental health. These include the European Collaborating Centres in Addiction Studies (ECCAS) during which time I was coordinator of an EU funded 16-centre research trial on the efficacy of methadone substitution therapy.
Shortly after joining Middlesex University in 2000 and in collaboration with Professor Peter Ryan I formed the European Network for Training, Education, and Research (ENTER) in Mental Health, now in its 21st year of operation; the network has successfully bid for and won numerous EU grants, of which I was Principal Investigator (PI) for one in the area of Dual Diagnosis.
Jain, Briony and Hafford-Letchfield, Trish and Ellmers, Toby and Chandra, Carl and Billings, Barbara and Teacher, Ruth and O’Farrell Pearce, Sioban and Clancy, Carmel (2021) Dog‐assisted interventions in care homes: a qualitative exploration of the nature, meaning and impact of interactions for older people. Health & Social Care in the Community , 29 (5). pp. 1450-1460. ISSN 1365-2524
Hafford-Letchfield, Trish and McQuarrie, Tricia and Clancy, Carmel and Thom, Betsy and Jain, Briony (2020) Community based interventions for problematic substance use in later life: a systematic review of evaluated studies and their outcomes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 17 (21). pp. 1-26. ISSN 1660-4601
Clancy, Carmel and Kelly, Peter and Loth, Christien (2019) State of the art in European addictions nursing: perspectives from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Journal of Addictions Nursing , 30 (3). pp. 139-148. ISSN 1088-4602
Clancy, Carmel and Hafford-Letchfield, Trish (2018) Falling Down: Problematic substance use in older generations. In: Dual Diagnosis in Older Adults, 10 December 2018, De Vere's, London.
Clancy, Carmel and Hafford-Letchfield, Trish (2018) Getting addicted to digital: presentation to Widener University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia, US. In: Partnership event at Widener University, Philadelphia, US, 14 Mar 2017, Widener University.
Currently I am the President of the International Nurses Society on Addictions . IntNSA's mission is to advance excellence in nursing care for the prevention and treatment of addictions for diverse populations across all practice settings through advocacy, collaboration, education, research and policy development. In 2019 IntNSA gained 'specialist affilitate status' with the International Council of Nurses and seeks support all nurses working with this marginalised population. Check out IntNSA's short film on 'how addiction nurses save lives'.
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