Publish date: 8 December 2022

Congratulations Ashlie O'Connor, Urgent Care Mental Health Division, who has won Employee of the Month for October.

Ashlie was nominated by Denise Carey for the value accountability.

Ashlie is the Clinical Services Manager in CRHT, she regularly supports the street triage car, work, attended an incident of a member of the public standing on the opposite side of the bridge contemplating suicide. Police negotiators were on scene but were having minimal effect. Ashlie was able to support the service user to return to a safe space and arranged an urgent mental health assessment.

The service user was provided with a warm drink on scene. Ashlie is an experienced staff member who is both compassionate and empathic, her knowledge, and understanding of this gentleman’s situation was why a safe care plan was put in place to support this gent through his crisis.

Member of the public was assisted to a safe space and was able to receive a rapid assessment of his mental health. Now receiving care and treatment by the trust, to manage his crisis situation. The collaborative work with many emergency services at the scene resulted in the gent receiving the most appropriate care and treatment. Ashlie is a very valuable member of the urgent care team, staff, service users and carers have respect for her. SERV ice users care, and safety is at the heart of everything Ashlie does.

Congratulations to Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Team who have won Team of the Month for October.

They were nominated by Leah Stichbury for the value support.

The CJLDT have been through an extremely challenging 2 years. We have integrated with MITIE and have had to navigate through an entire new way of working, including numerous system changes. We have been through a particularly challenging period where we had no operations manager or team manager for months. Additionally, we have had severe staffing deficits which has resulted in the team being in business continuity for a period of time. Despite these difficulties, the team remain focused with the best interests of the service users we support at heart. The camaraderie amongst the team is what has kept it together. There is always someone at the end of the phone or a car ride away to offer support. Staff are regularly moved locations to support activity without hesitation. Of all the teams I have ever worked in, this is the largest and we are spread out over 9 bases. This doesn't seem to affect the unity of the team and I am proud to be part of it.

As a team we work across various sites with individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system, be at point of arrest, through the court process or following release from prison. Our team are there at every stage in this journey offering support, excellent assessment skills and supporting diversion where required to ensure some of the most vulnerable people in society are fairly represented, supported, and sentenced. Recent feedback from a family member praised the outreach team for being able to engage with her son who is really difficult to engage with but is now relaxed and happy knowing a plan of support has been put in place by people who care. The support and knowledge that the CJLDT can provide to CMHT/CRHT is invaluable and is often called upon to support discharge/risk meetings.