I’ve been working as a Consultant Nurse in Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services – or S-CAHMS, for short – at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board since late 2016. How I got here has involved a real variety of roles and experiences – I’ve worked in academic, clinical and managerial roles, and I’d like to share some of that history with you in this blog.
Euan Hails
I trained in Cardiff in the mid-1980s, where I worked as a Staff Nurse for a couple of years at Whitchurch Hospital. I then moved to Australia, working as a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) in a specialist community mental health centre in Sydney. It was here that I trained in counselling and psychotherapy, which proved to be the start of my journey into psychological therapy provision and training.
After leaving Australia and returning to the UK, I decided to work in London where I undertook further specialist training. In that time I learned about working with individuals with Schizophrenia, as well as the effect it can have on an individual’s family and/or carers. Developing that specialist knowledge gave me the opportunity to then run my own course, working with leading academics in the field, a valuable experience!
I’ve been very lucky to have had opportunities to continue my learning through working in Mental Health Nursing. Whilst in London, I studied a Masters Degree, trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and did a PGCE, a teaching qualification. Then I moved back to Wales to work as a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, where I was able to develop therapies training with local universities.
By 2006 I was living in Australia once again, this time working as a Clinical Nurse Consultant, before taking up the role of Nursing Officer for Mental Health and Learning Disabilities at the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer in New South Wales.
After coming back to the UK I started working in the specialist field of first episode psychosis, and help to develop and direct an early intervention process that was then rolled out across all of Wales. Alongside that, I was able to complete my doctoral studies at Cardiff University, looking at specific therapies and how they can be applied.
In 2019/2020 I was a Bevan Exemplar, successfully developing and co-producing patient formulations in CAMHS. It was within this time that I also became the visiting Professor at the University of South Wales and the associate Professor at the Medical School in Swansea University.
In 2020, I was shortlisted by the Nursing Times for the Mental Health Nurse of the Year award and was awarded an MBE for services to children and young people in Wales in 2021. In 2022, I was voted onto the Royal College of Nursing Wales Board to represent mental health nursing.
I became the Director of Therapeutic and Clinical Governance at the mental health charity Adferiad in 2021 which is still a current role for me today, as well as working as a Consultant Nurse in S-CAMHS, which is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling jobs I have ever been lucky enough to have. My role means I provide professional leadership to fellow Nurses in the service, whilst still maintaining a small case load of children and young people where I make use of my therapies and psychotherapy training on a regular basis. I also get to deliver training in psychological therapies across the S-CAMHS service, so I get to share the knowledge that I’ve built up over my career. Alongside this, I am also the designated Educational Clinical Lead Officer, which coordinates and ensures that the Health Board are working within the parameters of the Additional Learning Needs Act in Wales and inputting young peoples learning plans as needed and requested.
Most recently, in 2023, I was grateful to receive the Queens Nursing Status for leadership and implementation within community nursing.
Euan Hails MBE