Dr Mary Myers FRCPsych

Abstract

Presents an obituary of Mary Myers (1930-2013). Mary Myers was born in Hornsey on 9 December 1930 and studied at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, qualifying in 1960. She undertook postgraduate training in developmental psychiatry at the Ida Darwin Hospital, Cambridge. She was a leading pioneer in the field of the psychiatry of mental handicap (renamed learning disability) at a time of rapid change when mental hospitals were gradually being emptied of their patients. In 1974, Mary took up the post of consultant psychiatrist in mental handicap in Rotherham with the specific task of establishing a community-based service. In 1982 she was appointed lead consultant in the Sheffield Health Authority. As a member of the National Development Team during the 1970s, she sought to improve services around the country and was a member of the group which produced the Kings Fund’s seminal publication, An Ordinary Life. Her career as a psychiatrist had not merely been an employment but was an expression of her core beliefs, values and respectful curiosity about people and how they can work together in genuine partnerships for the common good. Mary continued to teach, advise, support and learn from others and at the time of her death was still learning and relishing being in the company of a younger generation while studying for a masters degree in autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)