Elysium Healthcare are pleased to announce the appointment of two Experts by Experience to its team.
The two, Susan Denison and Michael Humes, bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience which will benefit the people supported in Elysium’s services across the country.
As an organisation, Elysium is committed to co-production and service user involvement. The appointment of Susan and Michael will help ensure the people Elysium supports are heard and help shape its services and support.
Susan is a former primary school music teacher and has for the past eight years has worked as a Patient Reviewer for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and an Expert by Experience for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). During this time, she has visited over 200 services talking to service users, carers and staff about their experiences of mental health services. Since 2018 she has been instrumental in helping to change the shape of women’s secure services.
Because of her own experiences in the mental health system, she is passionate about providing support for service users, in the hope of helping them feel heard and to improve their experience of services.
Michael is a currently a part-time Qualified Driving Instructor and has worked in various job roles within mental health services since 2013, including as a Patient Reviewer for the Quality Network for Forensic Mental Health Services at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and College Centre for Quality Improvements.
He was also the Service User Consultant for The South London Partnership, providing the patient perspective on service development and quality improvement initiatives.
Michael has also co-delivered Mental Health First Aid courses and served as a steering group member for NHS England secure care programme, as an Expert by Experience.
