Dr Hammond graduated from Aston University of Birmingham in 1998, BSc Psychology with first class honors. During his undergraduate years he worked as a health care assistant in several mental health hospitals in the Birmingham area. In his third year he completed an assistant psychologist placement at an early intervention in psychosis service, one of the first of its kind in the UK.
Following university Dr Hammond went on to work full-time as an assistant psychologist in a medium secure mental health hospital in York before moving to London to carry out research into community interventions for adults with severe mental health difficulties at South London and Maudsley Mental Health Foundation Trust. He went on to train for his doctorate in clinical psychology at Royal Holloway University/Camden and Islington Mental Health Foundation Trust. During these three years he worked across different clinical settings including, adult mental health, child and adolescent, intellectual Disabilities, in his final year he specialised in different models of psychotherapy (Psychoanalytic, Schema Focused and Cognitive Analytic Therapies) at the Halliwick Centre, St Anne’s Hospital in North London. His thesis focussed on the development of resilience in the face of adversity in a population with learning difficulties.
In 2004, following completion of his doctorate, Dr Hammond went to work in Marlborough and Devizes community mental health teams where he provided psychological interventions to people experiencing a broad range of mental health difficulties. During this time he joined a developing clinic offering Autism diagnosis for adults in mental health settings. After a few years of working in the West Country honing his clinical skills, Dr Hammond returned to work for South London and Maudsley in an early intervention in psychosis service in Croydon. During this time he trained at the Institute of Psychiatry in the delivery of CBT for young adults experiencing their first episode of psychosis, in this service he continued to use his specialist skills in working with adults on the autism spectrum. In 2009 Dr Hammond took a post with the National neurodevelopmental services at South London and Maudsley.
Whilst working for the National Autism Unit Dr Hammond founded the National Adult Autism and ADHD Psychology Service at the Maudsley Hospital. He started this service as a lone practitioner. Based on his model of psychological treatment for adults with Neurodevelopmental difficulties he successfully expanded this service to serve the needs of hundreds of adults per year who receive treatment there.
As the lead consultant clinical psychologist for the adult neurodevelopment pathway at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust he developed and managed the psychological therapies team and the National Autism Unit, which has maintained an "outstanding" rating from the Quality Care Commission over the time that he was there. He also conceived, developed and led a national outpatient psychological therapies team, the National Adult ADHD/Autism Psychology Service, which in its 15th operational year. Toward the end of his time with the service Dr Hammond achieved funding for a ‘Transforming Care’ Autism team from NHS England. This team has been operating for 18 months during which time they have received excellent feedback from local community staff and service users with highly complex needs.
In Dr Hammond’s NHS role he led a team of 25 psychologists/psychotherapists who work across adult Autism and ADHD services. The main aspects of the role included supervision, appraisal, service management, development, governance and clinical practice. He worked collaboratively with senior managers and the multi-disciplinary teams (MDT) to ensure that NHS services provide the highest quality of care.
Dr Hammond always maintained a clinical caseload across services which included diagnostics, individual interventions and MDT interventions primarily for adults with Neurodevelopmental disorders with co-morbid mental health problems and their support systems. He worked clinically in outpatient and inpatient settings. In his inpatient role at the National Autism Unit he redesigned the psychological therapies service to imbed the principles of positive behavioural support planning within team interventions. Dr Hammond is particularly proud of his role in founding and extending the outpatient psychological therapies service to work with over 250 service users per year.
Academic
Dr Hammond teaches CBT for adults with Autism at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. He also teaches complex case formulation in seminars on Salomons University DClinPsy program and CBT for Autism at Royal Holloway University of London and University College London. He regularly presents at national conferences with organisations such as the National Autistic Society and the Royal College of Psychiatry. He has recently led the teaching programme for CBT for adults on the autism spectrum across Scotland. Dr Hammond has also consulted to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and NHS England on treatments for adults on the autism spectrum.