Consultant Psychiatrists

Dr Nicky Kalk is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions in the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and a Visiting Senior Lecturer in Addiction Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN) in King’s College London. She trained in psychiatry initially as an NIHR academic clinical fellow in Bristol, before moving to Imperial College London for a Wellcome Trust GSK Translational Medicine Training Fellowship, where she completed her PhD in Addiction Psychiatry. She then moved to the Maudsley Training Scheme for her registrar training, working in both inpatient and community general adult psychiatry, including placements in community addictions teams, the Centre for Affective Disorders, an Early Intervention in Psychosis team, a crisis team and a Mood, Anxiety and Personality disorders team. During her final years in training she held an NIHR clinical lectureship at the Addictions Department in the IOPPN.

Dr Kalk is experienced in the assessment and management of mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and psychosis. She has a particular interest in working with people who have co-occurring mental health and substance use problems and has experience in prescribing where there is also severe physical health comorbidity, in particular, liver disease.

In her NHS practice, Dr Kalk works in an addictions liaison consultant post at King’s College Hospital, in the emergency department and hospital wards. She established the Integrated Liver Clinic with Dr Naina Shah at King’s College Hospital, where she provides assessment and treatment of mental health difficulties for people with alcohol-related liver disease.

Dr Kalk has an interest in clinical education; she has a Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice in Higher Education from King’s College London and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She supervises a variety of post-graduate and under-graduate dissertations and lectures in the medical school and on the MSc. in Addictions course.

Dr Kalk is research active and is a co-investigator on the NIHR D-SITAR and ProACTIVE studies as well as supporting studies in the Maudsley BRC Addictions stream. She has interests in implementation of addictions-related health care and integrated care pathways, in the nexus of psychiatric crisis and substance use, and in understanding patterns in drug-related deaths. A list of her publications can be found here.

In order to ensure best practice and safety, Dr Kalk has a few requirements that need confirming in order for her to be able to take on patients. Patients must -

• be willing to come in to see Dr Kalk in person if this is requested
• be willing for Dr Kalk to contact and share information with other professionals involved in their care - GP, psychologist, hospital doctors etc. Dr Kalk will be unable to see people who will not allow contact with their GP.
• have at least one person/significant other that they are happy to be contacted if she can't get hold of them/have involved in their care

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