Highlights and challenges in an eventful 15 years

For this ‘question and answer’-style article, Jonathan Baillie, editor of The Network, asked her to reflect on her professional career, her experience as a service-user, and how it has guided her work as a healthcare planner, and some of her greatest challenges and achievements in a 15-year-long association with an organisation which has always striven to raise standards in mental healthcare settings, to the benefit of both services-users and staff.

JB: Jenny, Can you tell me a little about your own professional background and experience in the mental healthcare sphere, and your first introduction to the field?

JG: Training as a secretary in the late 1970s, my first job was in the medical secretariat at the local hospital. This was followed by a decade or two in the family travel business. Following the sale of the business, I moved back into health in the 1990s, working at the local health authority. During this time, I was fortunate enough to be funded by the (Calderdale and Kirklees) Health Authority to undertake and be awarded an MSc in Health and Social Care Management. During the decade I worked at the Health Authority it went through many changes, and I undertook many roles – from dealing with extra contractual referrals, to contract management and commissioning of services. My final role was as the National Service Framework manager for adult mental health for Huddersfield, an exciting time for mental health, when, finally, there was money available to improve services.