Tell us a little about your background and previous roles.

I’ve worked in various roles within the case management industry for over 21 years now and I have to admit – it is the best job ever.  Case managers are a particular breed of people who have a tenacity unlike many other professions, and I have had the pleasure of working alongside some of the best in the business. This has shaped me to have an eye for detail, a passion for supporting case managers to be the best that they can be and a determination to do the right thing for our clients.

As a chartered occupational psychologist, I have been able to combine my love of working with people, my interest in people performance and people development and my passion for supporting clients with complex conditions as a Quality and Training Manager in case management. This has been my role and focus over the last 8 years and I am delighted to have joined Harrison Associates in this role to continue the great work that they do here.

 

What are your thoughts about Harrison’s since joining?

I have been impressed with how clinically strong the team here are, sharing a vision of ensuring that our clients are offered the best quality provision available to them.

 

What does your current role entail?

At only 3 months in, my role at Harrison Associates is already incredibly varied – all centred around the key pillars of clinical governance.  From process and guidance development to support clinical effectiveness, clinical reviews and audits so we know we are doing what we say we’ll do, stakeholder experience analysis to understand and respond to their needs, and developing robust learning and development programmes for the team, I am never going to be bored that’s for sure!

 

Can you give us some insight into the training and development opportunities at Harrison’s?

Education and training is a key focus at present.  I am a firm believer that in order to be assured of quality in our provision, we must invest in learning and development for our teams.

We are lucky to have some very skilled professionals within Harrison Associates using their transferable skills from occupational therapy, physiotherapy, nursing etc to take a holistic case management approach to supporting our clients within the setting of complex trauma.  And as developments are happening all of the time in the case management field as well as in the treatment and rehabilitation of clients with complex conditions there is always learning to do.  

 

What are your plans for learning and development within Harrison’s?

As Harrison Associates has a combination of employed and self-employed case managers, my challenge has been developing a programme that everyone can access – anytime and anywhere.

Anyone who knows me will know that I am not a fan of e-learning per se as I strongly believe that the opportunity to chew things over, relate learning to our field of practice, reflect on our practice and challenge our thinking supports the development of independent practitioners who are confident to push forward with complex situations, seeking out support when needed.

So I am delighted to be developing blended learning within an online platform that is helping me to meet the anytime, anywhere nature of modern learning needs while offering collaborative learning opportunities, mixed with self-directed research, practice opportunities and strong emphasis on reflective practice.   This is not only going to be great for our cohort of new case managers joining us shortly, but also for the existing team to refresh and keep their knowledge up to date as well as to easily share their own knowledge with their colleagues.   

Mix this up with regular virtual learning opportunities where we reflect and relate learning to practice even more, we are well and truly keeping our learning culture alive and kicking - what could be better?