David is a mental health service user with thirty years of experience working in healthcare organisations and the voluntary sector at local, national and international level. He is a specialist in user, carer and community engagement and Patient Director for Sussex MSK Partnership (Central), the first such role of its kind in the NHS.
He co-founded the Centre for Patient Leadership and NHS Centre for Involvement. He is Director of his own consultancy, InHealth Associates that supports patients/users as partners for improvement and change. He has worked for The Consumers Association, Kings Fund, OPM, Commission for Health Improvement and Croydon PCT. He writes poetry and is Writer in Residence at The Bethlem Gallery and Visiting Lecturer at The University of Hertfordshire on its ‘social inclusion and recovery’ MSc programme.
David’s key areas of interest and expertise include:
- Patients/users as partners for improvement and change
- Co-production and co-design for impact
- Creativity and health
- Staff wellbeing and user-friendly work environments
- Policy into practice
