Vanessa Smith

Vanessa trained as a mental health nurse at the Bethlem and Maudsley in the early 90s. She was an operational manager in a range of adult services in the Trust before moving to Mental Health of Older Adults and Dementia Clinical Academic Group (CAG) in 2008. As Assistant Director for Nursing she is the professional lead and has managerial responsibility at the CAG executive for inpatient and specialist care services. One of Vanessa's current priorities is to enhance the quality of direct nursing care provided to people with dementia and other mental health problems, by the CAG. This is being achieved through developing models of shared governance, professional practice and relationship centred care.