Suzanne Thomson

Suzanne Thomson qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1986 and worked in an acute medical in-patient setting before leaving in 1992 to take up post as the first Staff Nurse to be employed within the Health Visiting Service in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. In 1995 she completed a Health Visitor qualification at Glasgow Caledonian University and worked in predominantly rural deprived cummunities untill 2001. Thereafter she took up post as a Primary Mental Health Worker/Charge Nurse within NHS Ayrshire and Arran Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) when she completed an Honours Degree in Mental Health Practice at Edinburgh Napier University. Suzanne remained there, latterly as a Locality Team Leader, until taking up post as a Lecturer-Practitioner in Mental Health at the University of the West of Scotland in 2011. The clinical half of this post was as Infant Mental Health Co-ordinator for NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Suzanne is now employed permanently as a Lecturer in Mental Health at Ayr Campus.

Suzanne's main area of research interest to date are:

Perinatal and infant mental health

Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Attachment

Suzanne has just completed a quantitative research study of CAMHS practiitoner knowledge and use of Video Interaction Guidance.

Suzanne is scheduled to begin Professional Doctorate in September 2018 and plans to examine Mental Health Nurse training in relation to recruitment and use of base placement model.