Events

Jim qualified as a mental health nurse in 1999 and has long been interested in children’s mental health and neurodiversity. Upon completion of his nursing qualification, he had a brief stint in a Psychiatric Intensive-Care Unit (PICU) and then moved back to his passion that is children’s mental health. Jim has worked in many areas of CAMHS, from crisis to management and leadership, to working in his current role as Independent Prescriber/Clinical Nurse Specialist in Sandwell CAMHS Neuro Team. In addition to this, Jim has been studying for his Masters in Advanced Clinical Practice at the University of Worcester and will complete this in 2024. He qualified as an Independent Prescriber in October 2023 and is passionate about expanding this important advanced role to improve the experience of his patients. Jim’s other hobbies include gardening and woodcraft.

Kirk is a Learning Disability Nurse, who qualified in 1995. He works mainly with children and has a particular interest in autism, as he and his two children are diagnosed autistic. More recently Kirk became involved in Swindon Community CAMHS neurodevelopmental pathway and has developed a post-diagnosis psychoeducation session based on his own research, information from autistic advocates and feedback from the children and families he works with. Like the majority of autistic adults, he prefers identity-first language, but doesn’t insist on it.

Louise Bull-Tyagi is a senior learning disability nurse working with children and young people with moderate to profound learning disabilities in Birmingham. Often these children and young people have a concurrent diagnosis of ASD. Louise is a non-medical prescriber and is currently completing her Advanced Clinical Practice MSc.

Mike is a proud parent of neuro-diverse children, now adults. He qualified as a Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN) in 1988, found CAMHS in 1990 and has stayed for the last 33 years, 20 of those years working in Youth Offending and 4 years in Substance Misuse. Mike became a Non Medical Prescriber (NMP) in 2014, he was recognised as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) in 2019 for my diagnostic and prescribing expertise. Mike is now moving to work solely in the adult ADHD field.

Sarah is a mum of one and a Registered Learning Disability Nurse, she also holds additional qualifications as a Nurse Prescriber. Sarah brings a wealth of nursing experience, most recently from her role as an ADHD Nurse in the NHS.
Sarah has clinical interests in sleep onset and maintenance difficulties, ADHD and supporting patients who may not manage to access mainstream services due to their complex needs. She also brings considerable knowledge and experience of the QB Test, which is an innovative method recently endorsed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), for assessing attentional difficulties and objectively understanding medication benefits in patients with ADHD.