North Wales mental health workers recognised for their achievements at Buckingham Palace celebrations

A mental health worker from Wrexham has been recognised for her contribution to the sector at an exclusive World Mental Health Day reception with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace

Denise Charles, manager of the BCUHB commissioned CANIAD service user involvement organisation was recognised for her work alongside Mold Community Hospital based June Lovell, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s Primary Care Mental Health and Prescribed Medication Team Manager at the celebratory event earlier this month.

The royal trio have campaigned to end the stigma surrounding mental health, and recently spearheaded the high profile Heads Together campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues.

Denise Charles, who is based at the Heddfan Psychiatric Unit in Wrexham, has been a passionate advocate of the need for people with lived experience of mental health problems to play a leading role in developing services.

She has led the development of CANIAD – a service commissioned by BCUHB to involve service users and their carers in the evaluation, design and delivery of mental health and substance misuse services in North Wales. Service user engagement has also been instrumental in co-producing the Health Board’s Mental Health Strategy.

Denise said she was “delighted and honoured” to have received the invitation.

She added: “I’m honoured to work with people with a lived experience of mental health problems, and I’m passionate about ensuring they are treated as equal partners in the development of the services they use.

“Stigma is still huge issue in mental health, and the work done by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry has gone a long way to highlighting the need to have conversations about mental health.”

June Lovell was also recognised for her achievements in significantly expanding the scale and scope of counselling services in North Wales, enabling an ever increasing number of people to access the vital support they need.

This has been achieved by introducing a unique model which has more than tripled the number of volunteer counsellors. She has also been recognised for her pioneering work to help people reduce their dependence on prescribed drugs.

June said she felt “privileged and humbled” to be chosen to represent mental health across North Wales on behalf of BCUHB staff and clients. She added: “It was an inspiring event and I had the opportunity to speak to the Duchess of Cambridgeshire, who was interested in the work being carried out in North Wales, especially as she has spent some time living on Anglesey.