Gail Harrison

Constituency:Staff: Clinical
elected to the: Council of Governors

Having worked for LYPFT since 1999 as a Clinical Psychologist I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as staff Governor. My career began in forensic learning disability (LD) inpatient services, through to adult psychological therapies, Community Mental Health Team (CMHT), Assertive Outreach Team (AOT), Rehabilitation and Recovery Inpatient and Community Service and I am now Psychological Professions’ Professional Lead for the Trust. I also carry out the role of Psychological Professions’ Workforce Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System (ICS). Those who know me will testify to my commitment to improving services. I work directly with service users, and indirectly through multidisciplinary team (MDT) colleagues, delivering supervision, training and service developments.

It is important to me to understand, listen and share different perspectives and to challenge when required. Within a healthy organisation and team culture, I believe these personal qualities are of value to a role which has scrutiny at its core.

My particular areas of expertise and interest include:

• trauma informed working and psychologically informed environments
• Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)/systems for people with psychosis and other severe mental illness (SMI)
• reasonable adjustments to improve access to our services for people with LD and autism
• organisational culture and working across systems
• outcome measurement
• professional development and resource management
• clinical supervision and training
• staff wellbeing and resilience.

I take time to connect regionally and nationally. I hope to contribute a psychological perspective, to learn and shape the development of LYPFT as we navigate the challenges faced post-Covid while realising the opportunities offered by community transformation and the NHS Long Term Plan.

Get in touch

Email: governor.lypft@nhs.net