Meet the Team

Professor Jonathan Green, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Manchester and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Jonathan Green has a long standing clinical and research interests in autism and other aspects of social development in children. He co-led the UK's first study into Asperger Syndrome and has published on social and language development in ASD, co-morbidity and treatment intervention, as well as on the social development consequences of early attachment failure. He has led a number of clinical trials including the MRC Preschool Autism Communication Trial (PACT), currently the largest early intervention RCT for autism internationally; the i-BASIS prevention intervention trial for autism, which is the first of its kind to target high risk infants under one year; the Care Placement Evaluation Trial, looking at the effectiveness of therapeutic foster care for adolescents in care after early maltreatment; and therapeutic trials of statins in NF1-autism. He served on the recent NICE guideline development group for interventions in autism.

Shruti Garg

Shruti Garg is a Consultant in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and a Clinical Research Fellow at the Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, UK. Her research and clinical interests include neuropsychiatry and neurobiology of developmental disorders. Over the past 4 years she has studied the psychiatric morbidity in Neurofibromatosis Type 1 particularly looking at the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder. Along with working with the Social Development clinic she leads a specialist NF1 psychiatry clinic in Manchester.

Paul Abeles

Dr Paul Abeles is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist based at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Manchester UK. He was awarded Honours and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Psychology at University College London in 1995 and 1999 respectively. He gained a Doctor of Clinical Psychology degree from Kings College London in 2001 where he trained at the Maudsley Hospital. Since then, he has worked in both specialist and district CAMHS in Manchester's CMFT NHS Trust

Sue Wilkinson

Sue is a highly experienced nurse who originally worked in Paediatrics, then moved to work in Child Mental health services. She has over 25 years of experience in child mental health particularly with children on the autism spectrum. She has been with the Social Development Clinic since 2004 and is trained in various autism diagnostic instruments such as ADOS, MCAST and MIPO trained.

 

Joan O'Rafferty

Joan is a highly specialist occupational therapist with over 25 years of experience. She obtained a diploma in occupational therapy in 1984 and Masters in paediatric occupational therapy in 2004.

She works with children and their families to fulfil their potential of every day activities. She promotes activity, quality of life and the realisation of potential in children who experiencing occupational disruption, deprivation, imbalance or isolation.

She uses sensory processing techniques and assessments to understand the performance difficulties of children who attend the clinic and provides appropriate interventions.

Katy Baldwin

Katy is a highly specialist speech and language therapist is the field of Autism and Social Communication Difficulties. She has been working with children across the age range, with Autism and Social Communication difficulties for over 10 years. She has worked in a number of different roles and trusts in Sheffield, Rochdale, Huddersfield and Manchester and has specifically been working within multiagency teams assessing children with Social Communication Difficulties and Autistic Spectrum Conditions for the last four years.

Andrea Koudellas

Andrea is the team secretary who joined the Social Development Clinic 18 months ago after spending almost 40 years working for Manchester City Council in Adult Social Care.  This is a new area of work for her which she finds very rewarding. She particularly enjoys meeting the families who come along to the Clinic.