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Dr Susanna Every-Palmer 2019 thumbnailMBChB (Akld), MSc in Evidence-based Health Care (with Distinction, Oxon) FRANZCP, Adv Cert Forensic Psychiatry (RANZCP), PhD (Otago)

Susanna is an academic psychiatrist who is passionate about using multidisciplinary research collaborations to inform the highest quality evidence-based care for people with mental illness.

Alongside her role in the university, Susanna is concurrently employed at the Central Regional and Forensic Services. She has worked in a number of different areas across the mental health sector, including as Clinical Director and Director of Area Mental Health Services (DAMHS) of the Forensic and Rehabilitation Services covering courts, prisons and inpatient and community forensics across New Zealand's lower north island and as New Zealand's Acting Director of Mental Health at the Ministry of Health.

Between 2021–2023, Susanna was the Chair of the New Zealand Committee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and a Board Member of the Council of Medical Colleges. She is currently a Vice-President of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatry and Co-secretary of the World Psychiatry Association Section on Multi-morbidity.

Susanna completed medical training at Auckland University and obtained RANZCP Fellowship in 2008 and an Advanced Certificate in Forensic Psychiatry in 2010. She has a Masters in Evidence Based Medicine from Oxford University and her PhD focussed on mitigating harms in the treatment of serious mental illness.

Contact details

Email susanna.every-palmer@otago.ac.nz

Positions

  • Head of Department, Department of Psychological Medicine
  • Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, MHAIDs, Te Whatu Ora
  • Vice President Board Director for the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists
  • Deputy Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
  • Co-secretary of the World Psychiatry Association Section on Multi-morbidity

Research summary

  • Mental health service development and co-design
  • Reducing health inequities in mental health care
  • Multidisciplinary management of serious mental illness

Research interests

Susanna's academic and clinical interests include

  • Reducing health inequities in mental health care
  • Multidisciplinary management of serious mental illness, especially schizophrenia
  • Antipsychotic treatment and its side effects, with a particular focus on clozapine
  • Forensic psychiatry: legal frameworks, prisons, and forensic rehabilitation
  • Trauma-informed care
  • Mental health service development and co-design

Susanna is interested in supervising postgraduate students in any of the research areas listed above or related areas. Please contact her directly

Publications

Bell, E. M., & Every-Palmer, S. (2025). New Zealand experience with gun violence and gun control. In N. D. Thomson (Ed.), Handbook of gun violence. (pp. 525-540). London, UK: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-323-95272-9.00042-5 Chapter in Book - Research

Every-Palmer, S., Flewett, T., Hansby, O., Ross, B., Rutledge, E., Dean, S., Weatherall, M., & Bell, E. (2024, September). Psychosis, trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Verbal presentation at the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) New Zealand Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Flewett, T., Rutledge, E., Ross, B., Bell, E., Hansby, O., & Every-Palmer, S. (2024, September). A qualitative study of experiences of people with serious mental illness who received eye movement desensitisation reprocessing therapy. Verbal presentation at the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) New Zealand Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Every-Palmer, S., Hansby, O., Flewett, T., Dean, S., Bell, E., & Weatherall, M. (2024, September). Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy in adults with psychosis and other comorbidities: A real-world randomised controlled trial. Verbal presentation at the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) New Zealand Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Bell, E., Hansby, O., Flewett, T., & Every-Palmer, S. (2024, September). Post-traumatic stress disorder in people with serious mental illness. Verbal presentation at the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) New Zealand Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

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