Chris O'Sullivan, Policy and Development Manager, Scotland

Chris joined the Foundation in 2011 following the merger with the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health (SDC).

At SDC Chris led SUPPORT, an EU Public Health Programme Project providing high level policy and research support to the European Commission in developing and implementing an EU wide approach to public mental health. Before joining SDC in 2006, Chris worked for ‘see me’, Scotland’s national anti-stigma campaign, for Bipolar Scotland and for the National Union of Students. Until December 2012, Chris served as Chair of Trustees for Action on Depression.

Chris leads the Policy and Development team in Scotland. The team works with a range of partners to support capacity building for mental health, and to raise awareness of mental health in both professional and public contexts. The team works locally, nationally and internationally to ensure that practice and policy reflect the best available evidence, and include lived experience wherever possible.

Chris has a longstanding interest in technology and mental health, and is currently working with The Scottish Government on a major technology project to support people to self-manage distress.

His other areas of interest include stigma and discrimination, arts and mental health, public mental health, suicide and self-harm, and workplace mental health.

In 2011 Chris was selected as a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2001, with a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology.

Chris uses his lived experience of mental ill health and recovery to inform his work, and was one of the steering group that established Voices of Experience (VOX).