Announcing prof. Merete Nordentoft as leureate of the 2024 EPS constance Pascal – Helen Boyle Prize
Professor Merete Nordentoft has been selected by the members of the jury as the 2024 winner of the EPA Constance Pascal – Helen Boyle Prize of €10,000 for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in Working to Improve Mental Health Care in Europe.
Merete Nordentoft is a clinical psychiatrist and Professor of Psychiatry, University of Copenhagen. Merete Nordentoft played a leading role in developing and implementing early intervention services in Denmark. She is an expert in epidemiology, suicidal behavior, psychopathology and early intervention in psychosis.
She has led the process from research to implementation of early intervention services all over Denmark, and all over Europe, she has been a strong advocate for improvement of services for people with first episode psychosis.
The EPA warmly congratulates Prof. Nordentoft on this well-deserved distinction, which recognises her exceptional contribution towards better mental health care in Europe.
Learn more about her remarkable achievements
Background of the Pascal-Boyle Prize
Women have long been discriminated against, including in the fields of mental health care and psychiatry. The aim of this prestigious prize is to publicly acknowledge and increase awareness of the outstanding achievements by women in working to improve mental health care in Europe.
The prize is named in honour of Dr. Helen Boyle, an Irish-British physician and psychologist who started working as a psychiatrist in 1894 in England and went on to become the first female President of the Medico-Psychological Association (later to become the Royal College of Psychiatrists); and Dr. Constance Pascal, a Romanian doctor who was the first woman to qualify as a psychiatrist in France in 1908.
Both contributed significantly to scientific literatur in addition to their pioneering clinical work and served as role models for generations of future female psychiatrists.
For more information on the EPA Constance Pascal – Helen Boyle Prize, visit the EPA website