Dr Philip Timms trained in medicine at Guy’s Hospital and then worked in ENT surgery before starting my psychiatric training at Guy’s.

In the mid-1980s he researched the relationship between homelessness and mental illness and then helped to set up the first UK community mental health service for homeless people – the PTSHP (Psychiatric Team for Single Homeless People) in Lewisham and Southwark.

Since 1991 Dr Timms has worked as a consultant psychiatrist for the START team, the mental health outreach team for homeless people in South London. This was set up as part of the Homeless Mentally Ill Initiative.

Philip is a member of a European network concerned with mental health and social exclusion – SMES “Sante Mentale, Exclusion Sociale”.