[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/KatesNick.jpg” caption=”Nicholas Kates”]Nicholas Kates, a professor in McMaster's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, was the recipient of one of 19 psychiatric awards at the Canadian Psychiatric Association's (CPA) Annual Conference held recently in Vancouver.

Kates received the Alex Leighton Joint CPA – Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology (CAPE) Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology in recognition of his leadership and dedication to health care research and the health of the Canadian population. He is a recognized national and international expert on shared-care modes of care for primary care in psychiatry, an area on which he has written extensively and conducted research through grants from Ontario and national research granting bodies.

The Alex Leighton Award was established to honour Dr. Alex Leighton, a pioneer of Canadian psychiatric epidemiology. Professor's Leighton's life-long work combined innovative scientific endeavours with humanistic values and social concerns. The award recognize an individual or a group of individuals that have made a significant contribution to the advancement and diffusion of Canadian psychiatric epidemiology through innovative studies, methods,
teaching or transfer of knowledge.

“He personally influenced my early career development and had a major impact on my understanding that the factors that effect the wellbeing of populations can be incorporated into clinical practice,” says Kates who met Leighton through CAPE early in his career.

Kates is the director of the Hamilton Health Services Organization (HSO) Mental Health and Nutrition Program of the Ontario Centre for Collaborative Primary Healthcare and co-chair of the CPA's Collaborative Working Group on Shared Mental Health Care. He is acknowledged throughout Canada and abroad for groundbreaking work on shared mental health care in primary care psychiatry.

Just over two years ago on behalf of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, Kates brought together mental health professionals of all disciplines and secured 3.8 million dollars in federal funding for a National Collaborative Mental Health Initiative.