Allan Johnston (psychiatrist)

Dr Allan Johnston MBBS, MRCPsych, Cert.Med.Ed(IU) is a consultant psychiatrist with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, working at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and a world leading Sports Psychiatrist at Spire Leeds Hospital working with professional athletes, dance artists, Premiership and Football League managers and coaches.

Allan Johnston
Born
Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England
OccupationSports psychiatrist, NHS consultant psychiatrist
Years active2002 - present
Employer
Organization
  • State of Mind Sport
  • Sports Chaplaincy UK
Awards
  • Doctor of the Year, Yorkshire Healthcare Awards, 2019
  • Stimulation in Women's Sport awarded by Everything in Sport, 2019
  • Collaboration and Team Working Award, UK Sport PLx Awards 2020

Sports psychiatry

Johnston qualified as a medical doctor in 2002, and a RCPsych psychiatrist in 2005. He has been an NHS consultant psychiatrist since 2010 to present and a sport psychiatrist from 2012 to present.

Johnston was employed as a sports psychiatry doctor by the Bradford Bulls RLFC over the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons.[1] Johnston worked as part of the backroom staff of coach Francis Cummins.

In 2016, Johnston co-founded the Sports and Exercise Psychiatry Special Interest Group (SEPSIG)[2] alongside Prof. Alan Currie to develop education and governance for UK Sports Psychiatrists. The Group is managed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Johnston was the appointed Deputy Chair with a focus on co-coordinating training programs until July 2020. He remains an active supporter of the Group.

He is employed as the Sports Psychiatrist at Spire Perform, the Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy Clinic at Spire Leeds Hospital in Roundhay. (2017 to date)[3] and sits on the UK Anti-Doping authority (UKAD) specialist register for ADHD Therapeutic Use Exemption assessments (2015 to date).

In 2018 Johnston was employed by the English Institute of Sport (EIS) as Sports Psychiatrist to the Mental Health Expert Panel providing mental healthcare to the Team GB Olympic and Paralympics teams.[4] He provides medical care and supports the mental wellbeing of all athletes in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

In January 2019 Johnston was appointed as the first League Managers Association's (LMA) in-house Consultant Performance Psychiatrist, promoting the wellbeing of all managers and coaches across all four English football leagues[5] and leading development of the game-wide wellbeing strategy across all four leagues.

Johnston is also the Sports Psychiatrist to Premiership Football team Burnley F.C. in a role to develop the club's mental health strategy and provide mental health care for the 1st team, academy players and coaching staff alike (2019 to 2020). In February 2020 Johnston welcomed a representative of Prince William and The Royal Foundation to Burnley F.C. to share learning around mental health and football. This contributed to the publication in July 2020 of the Mentally Healthy Football declaration[6] committing to building a mentally healthy culture at all levels of the game.

In October 2020 Johnston was appointed Sports Psychiatrist to English Football League Team Rochdale A.F.C. as the first Sports Psychiatrist to work in EFL Football League One[7]

Suicide prevention

In his NHS role, Johnston chaired the Derbyshire Suicide Prevention Strategy Group 2013-2018[8] and led a range of innovations in the region including the development of the regional strategy, a greater involvement of service users in co-producing their own care and chairing Suicide Prevention conferences and World Suicide Prevention Day initiatives.

Notably on 10 September 2016 the Derbyshire Suicide Prevention group hosted the world's biggest[9] to date (2020), World Suicide Prevention Day event with the support of Derby County F.C. and Newcastle United F.C..[10]

In 2018 the Group's work with Public Health on training General Practitioners in Suicide Prevention strategies was nominated for a Health Service Journal (HSJ) award.[11]

Charity work

From 2012 to date, Johnston has volunteered as a sports psychiatrist and trustee to State of Mind Sport,[12] a charity aiming to improve the mental health and wellbeing of athletes and their communities.

He is also an ambassador for Sports Chaplaincy UK,[13] a charity providing spiritual and pastoral care to professional and amateur sport. (2020 to date).

Awards

In December 2019 Johnston was awarded the Everything in Sport award for Stimulation in Women's Sport, awarded for supporting the mental health of female athletes.[14]

At the end of 2019 Johnston was awarded the Doctor of the Year award at the Yorkshire Healthcare Awards.[15]

In November 2020 the EIS Mental Health Expert Panel including Dr Johnston were awarded the Collaboration and Team Working Award at the UK Sport PLx Awards for their work, alongside the EIS Psychology and PLA Teams in supporting the mental health of athletes during the COVID-19 Pandemic.[16]

Papers and publications


References
  1. "Mind guru aims to help Bradford Bulls on and off the pitch". thetelegraphandargus.co.uk.
  2. "Sport and Exercise". www.rcpsych.ac.uk
  3. "Dr Allan Johnston. Consultant sports psychiatrist”. Spire Health Care, Consultant Profile.
  4. "Dr James Bell: UK Sport appoint first mental health lead". BBC Sport. 2018-12-04.
  5. "LMA Statement: Dr Allan Johnston". LMA. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  6. "David Beckham: 'Mentally Healthy Football' Declaration so important for today's players". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  7. "Introducing Dale's Sports Psychiatrist Dr Allan Johnston" Rochdale AFC website 2021-01-08
  8. "Suicide Prevention Strategy.” www.derbyshirehealthcareft.nhs.uk April 2016. Page 9.
  9. Take a minute and change a life on World Suicide Prevention Day. news.derby.gov.uk Sept. 2017.
  10. "Derby County Join Forces With Local Organisations For World Suicide Prevention Day". DCFC Media.
  11. "HSJ Awards 2018 finalists announced”. www.hsj.co.uk.
  12. “Dr Allan Johnston Trustee”. State of Mind Sport
  13. “Ambassadors”. sportschaplaincy.org.uk
  14. "The Telegraph's 'Girls, Inspired' campaign among winners at Everything in Sport awards". The Telegraph. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  15. Alison Bellamy (11 December 2019). "Photographs of the winners of the Yorkshire Evening Post Health Awards 2019". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  16. "PLx 2020 award winners announced" UK Sport Website. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
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