 He also chaired the Research Advisory Group of Thrive a UK-based Charity that uses horticultural therapy to bring about profound transformations in the lives of people with disabilities or mental ill health.He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of the UK, the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability and has been Chairman of the World Psychiatric Association, Section of Intellectual Disabilities, President of the Psychiatry Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and Vice President of the European Association of Mental Health in Intellectual Disabilities.He was the editor of the journal Intellectual Disability Research - Mental Health and of special papers of the British Journal Psychiatry - International.