Testimonial – Tricia Berril

Tricia Berill, Mental Health Nurse, LYPFT.

I am a senior nurse working for Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust. With many years’ experience as a crisis practitioner in acute mental health services, I developed a special interest in peri/menopause and its association with mental health. I completed training with the British Menopause Society and concentrated my efforts on raising awareness of the impact of peri/menopause on those with serious mental illness. This led to me carrying out a service audit and developing awareness sessions on the topic which I have been delivering across the trust.

Having instigated several practice development initiatives in peri/menopause and mental health, I turned my attention to research, reaching out to academics in the Yorkshire and Humber area. After meeting with Professor Linda McGowan at University of Leeds and Professor Liz Hughes at Glasgow Caledonian University, I successfully applied for the NIHR integrated clinical academic internship with a focus on peri/menopause and suicidality. With the support of Liz and Linda, I have been involved in different research projects on this topic and other related topics.

Since receiving an invitation to deliver a session to mental health nursing students at the University of Leeds, I have been focused on education and have recently taken up a position as a Clinical Educator for pre-registration nurses with the Practice Learning and Development Team at LYPFT. I continue to promote research in practice and recently co- delivered a session with a Research and Development colleague on embedding research into practice to preceptees in the Trust.

My future research goals center on raising awareness of, and developing priorities for, peri/menopause and mental health, specifically the impact of peri/menopause symptoms on those with existing mental health diagnoses. I am also passionate about nurse education and supporting the embedding of research in practice, and continue to work with universities across Leeds to achieve this goal.