NEWS 2020 AGM sees new Chair announced
Left: Retiring DiMHN Chair, Jenny Gill, who stepped down at the 2020 AGM, said she had had ‘an exciting, rewarding, and challenging seven years’ in the role. Right: The Design in Mental Health Network’s new Chair, Philip Ross.
The Design in Mental Health Network’s 2020 AGM, held ‘virtually’ on 4 November, saw Philip Ross, who leads the Network’s Testing & Innovation Stream, and has been on the DiMHN Board since 2013, elected as the organisation’s new Chair. In being elected to the role, the co- founder and Commercial director of secure doorset specialist, Safehinge (now Safehinge Primera) took over from Jenny Gill, very much the public face of the Network since her election as Chair in 2013. An experienced healthcare planner specialising in mental health with a background in NHS management, her first involvement with the Network was some 15 years ago. Her professional career has seen her work on the design of many mental healthcare facilities, and her experience and in-depth knowledge resulted in the Department of Health commissioning her as technical author for both Health Building Note HBN 03-01 (2013) – Adult acute mental health units, and HBN 03-02 – Facilities for child and adolescent mental health services. At the Design in Mental Health Network she was an early champion, alongside Britplas’s Kevin Gorman and former DiMHN Treasurer, Clive Stone, of the Better Bedroom, and later led the DiMHN input to the joint work undertaken with NAPICU (the National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care and low secure units) on the publication, Design Guidance for Psychiatric Intensive Care Units, published in 2017. She has also played a major part in the organisation of the DiMHN’s annual conferences, a role she intends to continue informally.
Involvement from the start During the AGM’s ‘Any other business’, Philip Ross thanked her for all her work for the DiMHN on behalf of the Board. He said:
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“Jenny, You have been involved in the Network pretty well from its inception, and it would be safe to say – on behalf of everyone – that you have been an inspiration – not just for the Board members here, but to Members far and wide. You have led on a number of major initiatives that have profoundly changed mental health environments and the way we think about them; not just stakeholder engagement-wise, but equally practically – for example, what does a really good inpatient bedroom actually look like, and optimising this with the Better Bedroom initiative. You have also ably led our conference and exhibition programme, really platforming best practice, and ultimately allowing us all to become better designers and create better spaces for recovery.”
Chair Emeritus honour
In recognition of her contribution, Philip Ross explained that the DiMHN Board had decided to elect Jenny Gill as the Network’s Chair Emeritus. He added: “You have made a long-lasting impact that will be felt for years to come.” Her successor as DiMHN chair, Philip Ross, has been on the Network’s Board since 2013, and leads its Testing & Innovation Workstream. Working with colleagues and counterparts within the DiMHN and the BRE to bring the initiative to fruition, he has devoted considerable time over the past 3-4 years to getting a new publication, Informed Choices. Testing Guidance for Products in Mental Health Facilities, published, and the associated independent testing scheme, established. The new product testing guidance, published jointly by the DiMHN and BRE last April (see The Network – July 2020), draws on the expertise, knowledge, experience, and input, of a wide range of
stakeholders. It is hoped that the BRE will soon be able to begin independently testing products submitted to it, before certifying and grading them based on characteristics such as their strength and robustness, and anti-ligature properties. Two of the key goals behind the testing guidance and regime are ‘to ensure no compromise in patient safety through inappropriate product selection for mental healthcare environments’, and ‘to provide performance categorisation criteria for products that can be easily referred to be contractors, specifiers, procurement teams, and manufacturers’.
EFM specialist appointed Vice-Chair Serving alongside Philip Ross as the new DiMHN Vice-Chair will be Jonathan Campbell, a professionally Chartered NHS director of Capital, Estates, and Facilities with over 20 years’ experience of mental health and acute and community services, who is associate director of Capital Development at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. He joined the DiMHN Board in 2018. The AGM heard that three directors had retired by rotation – Jenny Gill, Tony Crumpton, and Alex Caruso, with Alex Caruso the only one to stand for re- election. He was successfully re-appointed to the Board. Other new Board members announced at the 2020 AGM are expert- by-experience, Katharine Lazenby; Professor of Health and Organisational Psychology at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Steve Brown, and managing director at CAD21, Garry Charlton. Intastop’s director of Business development, Phil Barsby, will continue as Treasurer into 2021, and has been supported during the COVID-19 pandemic by his predecessor in the role, Clive Stone.
JANUARY 2021 | THE NETWORK
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