Dr. Louise Gallagher – Chief, Child and Youth Mental Health Collaborative

It is with great pleasure that we announce the new Chief, Child and Youth Mental Health Collaborative, Dr. Louise Gallagher.

Dr. Gallagher will serve as Chief, Department of Psychiatry at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and will work in collaboration with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as their Chief, Child and Youth Division and with University of Toronto as their Director, Division of Child and Youth Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, where she will also be appointed as a Professor. In addition, she will continue her research activities at SickKids.

Dr. Gallagher will commence her role here in mid-July 2022.  She comes to us from Dublin, Ireland and brings with her a wealth of knowledge, experience and dedication to the world of paediatric psychiatry and child and youth mental health.

Dr. Gallagher (MB MRCPsych PhD FTCD) is Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Trinity College Dublin and a Consultant Child Psychiatrist in Children’s Health Ireland at Tallaght University Hospital. Her research interests are in autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders, and she leads a multi-disciplinary research team focused on understanding the relationship between genetic factors, neurocognitive and clinical phenotypes or traits. The ultimate goal of her research is to identify neurobiologically valid translational biomarkers to inform diagnosis and the development of new therapies. The research team applies a range of methodologies that include genomics, MRI, EEG and clinical phenotyping. She has strong international collaborative research activities and is currently a member of AIMS-2-TRIALS, a consortium working towards autism biomarkers and clinical trials and is a member of several European and international research networks involved in autism and other neuropsychiatric conditions.

Dr. Gallagher has also been a lead consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Irish Health Service for 17 years. In that time, she oversaw the development of services for paediatric consultation liaison, neurodevelopmental assessment and a large regional community consultation service for autistic children and youth. She has worked closely with health-care managers in service development and has been involved in policy advice to health services on autism and other rare neuropsychiatric conditions. She chairs the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland Autism Special Interest Group, which is tasked with providing policy advice on service provision, guiding education and continuing professional development for psychiatrists at all career stages.

She is a strong advocate for the involvement of community in research and improved mental health services. She has worked with advocacy groups in Ireland and internationally to address the gap between research evidence and clinical service delivery, e.g., AsIAm.ie, the International Prader Willi Syndrome Organisation and The Prader Willi Syndrome Clinical Trials Consortium. She is also the International Society for Autism Research Global Leader for Ireland.

We have a bold and ground-breaking strategy for the future of child and youth mental health and with Dr. Gallagher’s direction, leadership and passion we know the children, youth and families that we serve will benefit greatly.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Louise Gallagher to Toronto and her new role!