Johnston qualified as a medical doctor in 2002, and a RCPsych psychiatrist in 2005. He has been an NHS consultant psychiatrist since 2010 to present and a sport psychiatrist from 2012 to present. Johnston was employed as a sports psychiatry doctor by the Bradford Bulls RLFC over the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons. Johnston worked as part of the backroom staff of coach Francis Cummins. In 2016, Johnston co-founded the Sports and Exercise Psychiatry Special Interest Group alongside Prof. Alan Currie to develop education and governance for UK Sports Psychiatrists. The Group is managed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Johnston was the appointed Deputy Chair with a focus on co-coordinating training programs until July 2020. He remains an active supporter of the Group. In 2018 Johnston was employed by the English Institute of Sport as Sports Psychiatrist to the Mental Health Expert Panel providing mental healthcare to the Team GBOlympic and Paralympics teams. He provides medical care and supports the mental wellbeing of all athletes in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games. In January 2019 Johnston was appointed as the first League Managers Association's in-house Consultant Performance Psychiatrist, promoting the wellbeing of all managers and coaches across all four English football leagues and leading development of the game-wide wellbeing strategy across all four leagues. Johnston is also the Sports Psychiatrist to Premiership Football team Burnley F.C. in a role to develop the club's mental health strategy and provide mental health care for the 1st team, academy players and coaching staff alike. In February 2020 Johnston welcomed a representative of Prince William and The Royal Foundation to Burnley F.C. to share learning around mental health and football. This contributed to the publication in July 2020 of the Mentally Healthy Football declaration committing to building a mentally healthy culture at all levels of the game. He is employed as the Sports Psychiatrist at Spire Perform, the Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy Clinic at Spire Leeds Hospital in Roundhay. and sits on the UK Anti-Doping authority specialist register for ADHD Therapeutic Use Exemption assessments.
Suicide prevention
In his NHS role, Johnston chaired the Derbyshire Suicide Prevention Strategy Group 2013-2018 and led a range of innovations in the region including the development of the regional strategy, a greater involvement of service users in co-producing their own care and chairing Suicide Prevention conferences and World Suicide Prevention Day initiatives. Notably on 10 September 2016 the Derbyshire Suicide Prevention group hosted the world's biggest to date, World Suicide Prevention Day event with the support of Derby County F.C. and Newcastle United F.C.. In 2018 the Group's work with Public Health on training General Practitioners in Suicide Prevention strategies was nominated for a Health Service Journal award.
Charity work
From 2012 to date, Johnston has volunteered as a sports psychiatrist and trustee to State of Mind Sport, a charity aiming to improve the mental health and wellbeing of athletes and their communities. He is also an ambassador for Sports Chaplaincy UK, a charity providing spiritual and pastoral care to professional and amateur sport..
Awards
In December 2019 Johnston was awarded the Everything in Sport award for Stimulation in Women's Sport, awarded for supporting the mental health of female athletes. At the end of 2019 Johnston was awarded the Doctor of the Year award at the Yorkshire Healthcare Awards.
Papers and publications
Mistry AD, McCabe T, Currie A. The first ever case study book in sports psychiatry entitled "”. Johnston A, Al-Dawoud M, Pattinson C; Chapter 7 Boxing – low mood and gambling. Cambridge University Press. Publishing date, July 2020.
