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.