All change at children's mental health service

Gavin Portier, originally from Newcastle, Australia, flew over 9,000 miles to the UK in 2000 and has just taken up the role of operational manager for the Rotherham Children’s and Young People's Mental Health Service, also known as CAMHS. 

The service is run by Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH).

Gavin, who started his nursing career in Sydney and worked in the rural part of Victoria in Australia as a country nurse, has also worked in various roles in a number of hospitals in the UK.

He will be joined by Abigail Oldfield and Jenny Nicholson, both psychologists; nurse Laura Airey, CAMHS practitioner Chris Stoker, ADHD nurse specialist Mandy Sutton and Janine Cherry Swaine, a psychotherapist.

Gavin said: “My main interest is working to improve and enhance services so that they are better for the people who use them and for the staff.  

“I also want to work to make CAMHS more widely accepted in Rotherham and ensure young people, parents and carers know that our service is here to help them, if they need us.

“If any existing patients, parents of patients or carers have any questions or comments for me about the service they can call in to see me or make an appointment to see me by emailing [email protected].”

Meanwhile, an RDaSH team has been shortlisted for a gong.

The Grounded Research team is in the running in the Nursing Times awards, which will be presented on October 26.

RDaSH Research Nurse Helen Oldknow said: “It is a great honour for us to be recognised in this way and reflects the significant effort we have put into embedding a research culture in our nursing workforce over the past three years.

“Research in RDaSH aims to improve people’s lives by ensuring we have the best and most effective services available to our patients, and for our staff to be experts in what they do, both now and in the future.”