How not to design a perfect facility

The presenter of the second of two fascinating Day One conference keynotes, Lisa Rodrigues, is a writer and mental health campaigner, who formerly spent much of her career in nursing and health service management, including during a 13-year spell as chief executive of the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust provides mental healthcare and associated services to a sizeable population in South East England. In 2012 she was awarded a CBE for her services to the NHS.

She explained at the beginning of her address that she had recently surprised friends and colleagues by ‘coming out’ publicly – as she approached retirement from the NHS – about her own experience of depression, and now uses her own understanding of stigma, ‘including self-stigma’, to ‘raise awareness and reduce the negativity that can still be associated with mental illness’. An ambassador of the national Time to Change campaign, she coaches others in executive roles, is an Independent Member of Council at the University of Sussex, and a Trustee of Grassroots Suicide Prevention. Alongside qualifications in adult and child nursing, and health visiting, she has a BA in Psychology, and a Masters in Public Sector Management, She is currently writing a book entitled, Becoming a Chief Executive: What they Never Told Me (Or if they did, I wasn’t listening).

In addressing How not to design a perfect mental hospital or clinic, Lisa Rodrigues said she would ‘tell a number of stories’, recounting her own experiences across a number of years. She firstly explained that she had spent ‘the first third’ of her career as a nurse – ‘a role you always learn from’, the second third as a manager, including 13 years as a chief executive, and now, in the final third, was working as a freelance writer, mental health campaigner, coach, and public speaker. She said: “As explained in the pre-amble, I ‘came out’ about my own experience of having had depression since the age of 15, ‘off and on’, in 2013. I planned this like a military operation, even writing an article for Health Service Journal. Pride comes before a fall, however, as just a month later I found myself going from apparently being well to my worst ever experience – what I still call a nervous breakdown, but is referred to clinically as moderate to severe depression. I’ve been reflecting on that, and am writing what you could call a memoir.