Denise Coia FRSE
Children and Young People's Mental Health Taskforce
Dame Denise Coia was a world-renowned clinical psychiatrist and leader in the field of mental health, with a lifelong commitment to improving the mental health of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society and extraordinary contribution to the field of psychiatry.
Born in 1952 and brought up in Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow, Denise attended Notre Dame High School and subsequently studied medicine at Glasgow University. Originally training in obstetrics, she retrained in psychiatry and spent the rest of her career working with and advocating for people in some of the most deprived communities in Scotland.
In 1987, Denise became a consultant clinical psychiatrist in the Gorbals in south Glasgow. She was determined to transform its Cinderella status and put mental health on the same footing as cancer or orthopaedic surgery, spending the next 30 years working in Glasgow and spearheading numerous initiatives to raise standards in Scotland and beyond.
Denise passionately believed in investing more in child and adolescent mental health services, becoming Chair of the Scottish Government & COSLA Taskforce on Children and Young People’s Mental Health; also serving as Convenor of Children in Scotland in her last few years.
A psychiatrist with a “mischievous sense of humour” and a passion for investigating the role of art in treating mental illnesses, Denise initiated a huge listening exercise across Scotland and relished the chance to talk to hundreds of people, but most importantly children, young people and families.
Denise was Vice-President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 2005 to 2010; Principal Medical Officer (Mental Health) to the Scottish Government from 2006 to 2011; Chair of Healthcare Improvement Scotland from 2010 to 2018, and Convener of Children in Scotland from 2017 to 2019.
Denise was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2016. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2018.
