Benchmark your Transformation: Mental Health Crisis Care and Home Treatment Teams

Sarah Boul has worked in the health service for over 15 years, starting out in provider services and then local commissioning before moving to NHS England and more recently to NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (NHS SY ICB). Within the ICB Sarah is the Programme Director for Mental Health focussing on working across South Yorkshire to improve pathways and provision by delivering the Mental Health Long Term Plan transformation ambitions and the ambitions outlined in the NHS South Yorkshire 5 Year Plan. Sarah is a proud resident of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, is a trained mental health first aider and is passionate about the promotion of access to blue and green space to help facilitate positive mental wellbeing.

John has been a registered RMN for the last 25 years. Working in a range of inpatient services (Forensic/PICU/acute), for the last 10 years he has been in senior management roles.

John’s previous roles have included being part of the initial senior transition team which facilitated the transition of psychiatric services in Bedford and Luton from South Essex Partnership Trust to East London Foundation Trust. Upon leaving  this post he was taken on as the senior manager for patient flow and bed management in Camden and Islington NHS Trust in London.

From there John was recruited to take the lead on the setting up of The First Response Teams in Central and North West London NHS Trust.

His current role is that of Deputy Head of Urgent Care for CNWL whereby he is the lead clinician for the Central Flow Hub (bed management), FRT’s and the Mental Health Crisis Assessment Service(psychiatric Emergency Department).

Michael has worked for Rethink Mental Illness for 10 years, having been the Registered Manager of the Sheffield Crisis House for 4 years. 

Previously Michael was a Primary School Teacher and came into the Mental Health sector through having lived mental health experience himself.

Philippa qualified in 1992 as an occupational therapist from Queens College Glasgow. Her first role as a junior therapist was a rotational post in Middlesbrough where she had placements in neurology neurosurgery older adult rehabilitation acute psychiatry and community mental health. It was there Philippa fell in love with mental health. In 1994 Philippa moved south and after a few months as a locum secured a senior post in forensic psychiatry with Oxleas which involved supporting individuals on their transition from hospital into supported accommodation and re-integration into the community. In 1996 Philippa returned briefly to the world of physical health spending time in orthopaedics, surgical and rehabilitation – hand injuries and Royal British Legion scheme. 

1999 saw Philippa return to mental health and start her relationship with KMPT. She initially joined KMPT as senior occupational therapist within acute inpatient services, prior to undertaking some leadership development and taking on her first team manager post within the community mental health teams in Tonbridge in 2001. In 2004 Philippa moved from services in West Kent to manage the mental health team in Gillingham, during this time she was supported to complete her MBA in healthcare management. 2007 saw a change in direction of career when Philippa stepped into a programme manager/ service development role where she led on pathway development, service improvements, building improvements and hospital new builds. She was supported to gain qualifications in project and programme management. 2017 Philippa moved back into operational management within the acute services -initially covering inpatient and Crisis Resolution Home Treatment in the west before organisation restructure led her to oversee all CRHTs, places of safety and support and signposting in 2019. 

Philippa returned to her roots in 2022 and took up the position as Head of Allied Health Professions and moved into her position with the west directorate in April 2023. Philippa’s current role involves providing professional leadership for all allied health professions that work within the west directorate, working closely with her senior colleagues to see how allied health professions can deliver safe effective services and support the implementation of the community mental health framework. Philippa lead on patient, friends, family carer experience and peer support within the directorate. 

Philippa’s aspirations are, as always, to see services that are responsive, deliver excellent care and enable patients, carers and staff to be the best that they can be. Philippa sees her services actively involved in quality initiatives and research, with teams that value the diversity of experience, backgrounds and professions who are enabled to be innovative with coproduction at the centre of all that we do.

Gill Taha has spent the last four years using her personal and career experiences to help people with their mental health illness and provide them with support when their lives seem to be more than they can handle. Gill has lived experience of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She understands the impact of mental illness on the individual & their family & friends. Gill also knows that although the journey with mental illness can be a struggle there is a way through for most people. Gill understands there is no single approach that works for everyone, so she continues to educate herself on emerging therapies and psychological trends. 

Gill qualified as a Registered Nurse specialising in Oncology before going into senior management roles. On leaving her nursing role she went into education as she believes learning and development is key to empowering individuals. She worked for a private sector training provider delivering mandatory training to the NHS and currently delivers mental health training courses & workshops to corporate organisations on behalf of Northamptonshire Mind. 

The last four years Gill has managed the Crisis Pathway for Northamptonshire Mind which includes the Crisis Cafes, Integrated Response Hub and the Mind support workers that work alongside the Acute Liaison Mental Health Team in Northampton Health Foundation Trusts Accident & Emergency Department. Gill is very proud of the Crisis Pathway which has won several awards. People from other Trusts across the UK have come to gain an understanding of how the service is managed and consider duplicating it within their own areas of work. 

Gill is passionate about speaking about mental health in the correct way. Language can cause unintentional harm and reinforce stigma. But when we get it right, we have the power to transform lives. 

Connect with Gill: 

Email: gill.taha@northamptonshiremind.org.uk 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gill-wallbank-50865776

Alex Harvey is Head of Partnerships & Innovation at Grassroots Suicide Prevention. He joined the charity in 2010 and has worked with the team to deliver a diverse range of innovative projects aimed at making our communities and workforces safer from suicide, including the Stay Alive app and Real Talk interactive film. As a charity Grassroots Suicide Prevention’s vision is “A future where more lives are saved from suicide”. This involves empowering people to help saves lives from suicide through connecting, educating, and campaigning nationally. Grassroots offers bespoke and evidence-based consultation and training, co-designed to empower individuals, organisations, and communities to develop the skills and confidence to help save lives. The charity helps remove the stigma around suicide and raises awareness through campaigning on the ground and influencing at a strategic level.

Sonya works as a Senior Programme Manager for Mental Health Crisis Care for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board and has been in her position for over 7 years, working in the NHS for over 20 years.

Previous to this role, Sonya has worked in commissioning for urgent care services, contracting urgent and emergency care services, working in Learning Disabilities and Social Care. 

Sonya is a system enabler, delivering transformation at pace and scale across the Integrated Care System through provider collaboratives. This has eradicated unwarranted variation and provided parity for urgent and emergency physical and mental health care.  Sonya’s programme of transformation involves working with multi-agency partners across Local Authority, Police inc. British Transport Police, Ambulance, NHS 111, Acute, Mental Health providers and voluntary sector organisations to name but a few. The programme of work recognises the critical role the ambulance service has through 111/999 and healthcare professional lines in improving patient safety and experience as part of a seamless system response.