Helen first worked with the Royal College of
Psychiatrists when she contributed to the 2004 self-harm guideline
produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health and
NICE. In-keeping with her enthusiasm to drive forward service
improvement, she then helped secure funding from the Health
Foundation to establish the ‘Better Services for People who
Self-Harm’ Project.
The ‘Better Services’ project was designed to
bring together emergency department staff and service users to make
positive changes to the experiences of people who had
self-harmed. Helen’s contribution to the development of the
project, through her role as Project Worker and Service User
Advisor, simply cannot be overstated. She was involved in
all aspects of the work - the development of the
underlying quality standards, the design of the data collection
tools, the writing of reports, and the composition of important
recommendations for future improvements. Helen (and Kate the
dog!) travelled with the rest of the team to deliver presentations,
run workshops and take part in peer-reviews with staff and service
users. Helen’s insight, enormous experience, and the gentle,
yet compelling manner in which she delivered her message was a
powerful tool for change. When Helen spoke, people
listened. She was described as ‘an inspiration...a
passionate and vibrant woman….with humour, warmth and
insightful leadership’. In 2006 Helen also became
involved with the College’s Training and Education Centre, and had
put together a training package to be jointly delivered by service
users and mental health staff.
Helen was a great believer in meaningful
service user involvement and her guidance around this will direct
the way that the College’s Centre for Quality Improvement engages
users in its work for years to come. She has also influenced
wider organisations, such as the Health Foundation, who in a
tribute to her life explained that ‘she showed us all what a
large and useful contribution patients can make to quality
improvement – her caring, her insight and her ideas have shaped our
work, and our future plans’.
Helen was loved by the Project Team for her
warmth, her kindness, her brilliant mind, her great sense of
humour, her fervour for improving services and her perception,
fantastic awareness, and sensitivity to others. Helen’s
insight and input has had a profound effect on the Project Team,
both professionally and personally, and they are determined that
her legacy to improve services for people with mental health
problems will live on through their work, and the work of
others.