Dame Denise is all smiles after receiving royal gong
A LEADING Glasgow psychiatrist who has devoted her career to improving the mental health of Scots has been honoured for her achievements.
Denise Coia, 64, who is part of the Italian dynasty that set up cafes all over the west of Scotland, has now added the title of Dame of the British Empire to her achievements in medicine.
She was presented with her award yesterday at Buckingham Palace by Prince Charles for services to mental health and healthcare improvement.
Presenting duo Ant and Dec were among the celebrities picking up gongs, collecting an OBE for services to TV.
Dr Coia, who is also chairwoman of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, spent most of her working life in a health centre in the Gorbals, where her father Joseph was born after his family settled there. They later moved to Milngavie and opened a fish and chip shop.
The consultant psychiatrist says she turned to mental health after finding obstetrics “boring” as a young doctor.
She says: “I’m both proud and delighted to be recognised in this way, just as it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work as a psychiatrist in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. It has been hugely rewarding to work with psychiatrists across the country to drive improvements in the quality of mental health services. I’ve always been interested in the mind and how that relates to the body.
“My dad came to the Gorbals as an Italian immigrant so it was quite nice for me to work there as a doctor in a health centre.
“There was a Jewish migration at the beginning of the century, then the Italians came in the 1920s. By the the time I was working there, it was an Asian population.
“It’s always been a place where immigrants have come to and developed and grown. I’ve just got huge admiration for how they have settled and transformed the city.
“You could never get my father to go on holiday to Italy because he just thought Glasgow was so great.”