She describes ‘working in partnership to bring about positive change’ as the best summary of her working philosophy and is able to draw from and use her own experiences of accessing mental health services in this work.
In 2004 Anne was appointed by Together: Working for Wellbeing in a new directorship role in order to set up, develop, and lead a brand new Service User Involvement Directorate (SUID) at the charity.
The SUID, which is now in its fifth year, has a two-fold remit. It develops involvement opportunities and leadership within Together and it also supports service user leadership outside of the organisation by facilitating links between individuals and groups to influence at a strategic level, such as national policy.
Anne also sits on the management committee of the National Survivor User Network (NSUN), which brings together service user run groups to support each other. NSUN was set up in 2007 and is being ‘hosted’ by Together as it moves towards full independence, one example of how the SUID supports service user developments outside of the charity.
In 2008 she was appointed as one of just two service user consultants to the NHS Confederation Mental Health Network (MHN), the network which provides a distinct voice for mental health and learning disability service providers.
Anne is currently serving as part of the government Social Work Task Force, set up to examine the quality, recruitment and retention of the profession and is due to report in the summer of 2009.
In addition to these roles she also sits on the National Committee for Gender Equality and Women’s Mental Health.
Prior to joining Together Anne spent six years setting up and co-ordinating the work of the Capital Project Trust, a service user led group in West Sussex, which offers training and support in order that people with ‘lived experience’ can have their say and positively influence developments locally. She received an MBE for services to healthcare for her role at Capital in 2007. She accepted the MBE, which is awarded to individuals, but is keen to stress that it reflects the work and efforts of all the members of the project.
Before her role at Capital, she provided assertiveness training for people who have learning difficulties and worked as a qualified social worker.