Dr Mariana Vieira bags top prize from RRCPsych Faculty of Addictions

Dr Mariana Vieira

We are delighted to announce that Dr Mariana Vieira, Specialist Trainee 5 Doctor at GMMH’s community Addiction Services in Bolton, has won the Trainee Poster Competition at the Royal College of Psychiatrists Faculty of Addictions Annual Conference 2025.

The competition is open to psychiatric trainees, speciality and specialist doctors (and equivalent) who present a poster at the Faculty’s annual meeting. It aims to encourage interest in research in addictions and is judged on originality and relevant to addictions.

Dr Vieira won this year’s prize for her review of a new way of teaching addictions skills to core psychiatric trainees.

The poster describes the teaching sessions that GMMH’s Addictions consultants and specialist trainees have been providing to trainees in the North-West, and demonstrates how beneficial this is.

Dr Vieira said:

“Continued evaluation of educational interventions is fundamental to ensure quality delivery of medical training, and it was a pleasure to be able to review the feedback received.

"Although these case-based discussions provide relevant training and support residents in developing their skills around substance use disorders (SUDs), these do not replace direct clinical exposure to Addiction Services.

“Resident Psychiatrists in England have increasingly been struggling to obtain relevant clinical exposure to the management of SUDs. GMMH, as one of the few trusts within the NHS that provide SUD services in England, has provided us with unique opportunities to develop our knowledge in such a prevalent health condition.”

Dr Tracey Myton, Consultant Psychiatrist at GMMH’s Addictions Services, said:

“We are delighted that Dr Vieira has won the prize for the best poster at the recent Royal College of Psychiatrists Addiction Faculty meeting. This demonstrates the excellent teaching that the consultants and specialist trainees have been delivering to resident doctors across the whole of the North-West.

"It has been recognised that there are not enough training posts in Addictions Services nationally, and so the Case-Based Discussion sessions which Dr Vieira describes give residents the opportunity to discuss the patients suffering with addictions that they encounter during core training in other services. These sessions seem to be hugely appreciated and are another important example of the value of having Addiction Services within mental health trusts.”

Dr Tracey Myton