Leeds Health Board Chair back on familiar ground

Trust staff welcomed a leading councillor on a visit to the Becklin Centre on Wednesday 5 October.

Councillor Rebecca Charlwood spent time with staff and service users in the inpatient wards and the Crisis Assessment Service, along with the Trust’s Chief Executive Sara Munro and service managers Judith Barnes and Maureen Cushley.

Cllr Charlwood is currently the Executive Member for adult social care and public health at Leeds City Council, and was appointed the Chair of the Leeds’ Health and Wellbeing Board in May this year.

However, her career and lifelong interest in mental health started in 2002 when she became a mental health support worker for the Leeds third sector agency Community Links. Her role involved working in a hostel doing shifts and sleep-ins with some of the most vulnerable people in the community – often working with people who were discharged from the Newsam Centre and Becklin Centre.

“My passion to help people with mental health problems and other disabilities remains a strong influence in both my work and political careers,” said Cllr Charlwood. “So it was great to meet some of the staff at the Becklin Centre and, 12 years after I started my career in the city, it was great to see the progress that’s been made to the environments, the treatments people are receiving and the outcomes they are achieving.”