Celebrating our mental health nurses at Forward Thinking Birmingham

Celebrating our mental health nurses at Forward Thinking Birmingham

Forward Thinking Birmingham is the city’s innovative mental health partnership for 0-25 year olds and is part of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Elaine Kirwan, Deputy Chief Nurse at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust wanted to recognise and celebrate those nurses who make a difference.

“Our nurses at Forward Thinking Birmingham do so much more than take care of our children and young people, they are all fearless leaders stepping up to the challenges in our NHS today. I am so proud that they are our mental health nurses and they all embody our NHS values and mental health care
and compassion.”

Below are details of some of our fantastic team members and I would like to showcase their amazing skills, care and compassion:

JO HEMMING
During Covid, Jo has been a wise inspirational leader and provided help and support to all professions.

TODD NYAMHUNGA
Todd has an ability to be kind and understanding of our young people in a mental health crisis. As one of our nurses working in the urgent care crisis team, he has actively turned lives around.

AVELLA REID
Avella has been an inspiration to so many and she wants others to grow and learn through ‘Striving not Existing.

ERIN DOHERTY
Erin is incredibly passionate about youth and mental health. She is open with her knowledge and expertise and wants everyone to learn with her.

ENEY MHIZHA & IVY JAMANDA
Our amazing nurses in Oaklands community and urgent care team who worked incredibly hard
through the pandemic and stepped up to support everyone when we lost our colleague during the pandemic.

CALLUM MOORE
Callum’s reflectiveness and ability to understand and respond to patient distress means his therapeutic practice is value-based and grounded in compassion.

AMANDA GRIMSHAW
Amanda gives all of her energy and time to making a difference to those patients with learning disabilities. She teaches so many of us so we can better work together across services and pathways.

PAT TULLOCH
Pat’s passion is for advocating, educating and maintaining high nursing standards for our young people struggling with eating disorders.

CRAIG HODGSON
Craig is kind and always strives to improve the care we provide, whilst looking after the wellbeing of his team.

RACHEL COLEY
The smallest act of caring, offering a kind word, a smile or a listening ear makes a big difference. This is
something Rachel always gives to her team and to those around her.

LISA MCGOWAN
During the Covid crisis, Lisa has kept us safe with training and knowledge on all things PPE, making sure the teams were looked after and supported. Lisa goes above and beyond looking out for staff.

Community effort helps to deliver drive-through flu jab service for at risk groups

GPS Healthcare Nursing Team organised their first ever drive-through-flu vaccination service in autumn 2020. The team, headed up by Julie Carrick and Sally Scott, were able to use the car parks and campus
offered by Solihull College and University Centre to enable the drive through service, while local
charity Solihull Round Table handed out tea and biscuits to patients.

Julie, Sally and other members of the team successfully planned the whole service, from purchasing
extra vaccine fridges and using temperature controlled cool boxes to store the vaccines, as well as
organising tea and biscuits for patients in their cars after they had received their flu jabs.

Despite battling with relentless rain and Storm Alex during the weekend, the nursing team’s spirits never dampened and the team’s innovative service saw over 2,000 patients receiving their jabs in their cars.

The service saw the team vaccinating patients in the safety of their cars, focusing on shielded and elderly patients, for which they achieved universal satisfaction from our patients.