Outstanding achievement
Winner
Sarah Armer
Professional lead (dietetics), dietetic service manager and home enteral feeding lead specialist
Representing Barnsley BDU
Sarah’s dedication to her roles goes above and beyond. She dedicates herself entirely to her service, her staff and beyond any question to her patients. Sarah not only puts the patient in the centre of everything she does, she goes one step further and actually puts herself in her patients’ shoes. This year Sarah committed herself to only eating liquidised food and thickened fluids like some of her patients. More recently Sarah had a naso-gastric tube fitted, again to empathise with her patients and gain a true experience. These acts of selflessness demonstrate Sarah’s outstanding compassion for her patients.
Ken Taylor
Volunteer
Representing support services
Ken had a long standing successful career leading a regional charity over 7 years ago. A number of life issues resulted in him using mental health services and taking a step down from a challenging and intense career. As part of his journey to recovery, Ken has decided to share his skills, wisdom and knowledge openly and generously as a volunteer, furthering the aims of the Trust. Ken has demonstrated outstanding generosity, selflessness and absolute dedication in shaping the culture of the Trust. He is a compassionate ambassador for the best of humanity and lives the Trust’s values in all that he does.
Finalists
Cassie Metcalfe
Ward manager, Beechdale ward
Representing Calderdale and Kirklees BDU
Cassie leads by example and her team hold her in high regard. One area where the ward has excelled under her leadership is in relation to end of life care. Cassie has ensured that all her staff have received end of life care training, which was recently praised by a specialist palliative care nurse. Cassie is a role model on the ward – she is caring, she listens and takes everyone’s needs into account. Beechdale ward was the first mental health team to receive a gold certificate for going 39 days without a violence and aggression incident – an example of the great leadership Cassie has shown.
Claire McGuinness
Advanced nurse practitioner, Calderdale and Kirklees CAMHS
Representing Calderdale and Kirklees BDU
Claire always puts service users and families first, thinking about the best course of action for their individual needs. She leads by example with a can do attitude, and is a real go-to person for service improvements with excellent standards of care. She is always ahead of the game in all aspects of her work, and gets involved in change and improvements. She recently devised a risk assessment tool to identify children and young people’s risk of admission to hospital early, which NHS England have praised and are now adopting and rolling out in other areas of the country.
Jacqueline Sharp
Occupational therapist
Representing forensic BDU
Jacci joined the low secure therapy team at the Bretton Centre in May 2017. She always goes above and beyond what is required of her, putting service users first and in the centre of her every working day. She has become an invaluable staff member, and has made a huge impression in many different ways. She has set up a number of gardening sessions which have not only helped the service users in their recovery but improved the environment they live in. One of Jacci’s many strengths is her ability to build self-confidence in our service users, which has enabled them to take on individual roles and responsibilities.
Laura Royston
Community psychiatric nurse
Representing Wakefield BDU
Laura has gone above and beyond her role to offer a Couch to 5K course through the Wakefield Recovery College. Due to her hard work, Wakefield Council are now funding a spin off weekly project, enabling members of the public to attend a “Mindful Movers” running and walking group. Laura has personally helped the first group to achieve their goals, increase their physical health, increase their mental health, increase their confidence and self-esteem and is now working with some of them to go on to complete their run-leader training. This will enable those who were participants initially to now go on and facilitate sessions.
Page last updated on: