I have recently taken on the role as the Patient and Carer Involvement Lead for Adult Services.
By profession I am a Mental Health Nurse and have worked within Oxfordshire services for a number of years, before this I studied Marine Biology at university before working a WH Smith for a couple of years. I also have the experience of supporting my grandmother who had Alzheimer’s, however at the time I did not see myself as a “carer”, I was her grandson. I have recently started playing the saxophone again after a few years without picking it up and I’m passionate about outdoor cooking and spending time in my garden.
My role is a new one for adult services therefore at the moment very varied. Getting feedback from carers and people who access our services is very important, I am responsible for looking at the feedback we get and then disseminating that to the relevant teams for the purpose of improving the quality of our services. Another area of my role is to develop how we involve people in our services, our aim is to use peoples experiences and knowledge to co-design, co-produce and co-deliver services. I am also working with a group of people (both people with lived experiences and professionals) to develop a Peer Support Worker role for Adult Services.