12th November 2020
The Southern Trust has appointed a new Liaison Officer to support families and staff involved in Serious Adverse Incidents or complaints relating to patient safety.
The role aims to offer a dedicated central contact point for service users, their relatives or carers and staff throughout any Trust review process.
With 19 years’ Social Work experience supporting both adults and children, Beverley Lappin is the new Corporate Service User Liaison Officer. Her role is to work closely with those affected, offering support and ensuring they are involved with the investigation process.
Welcoming Beverley to her new role, Medical Director for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust Dr Maria O’Kane says: “In the Southern Trust we are determined to learn for improvement from patient safety complaints and Serious Adverse Incident Reviews. Service users, families and staff are fundamental to this process. We know that this can often be a very emotional, complicated and lengthy experience for families and staff. The new role of Liaison Officer aims to improve communication between all of those involved and the review panel by supporting them to contribute to the process.”
Speaking about her new role Beverley says: “Being involved in a health and social care investigation or review can be a very sensitive and challenging experience for both families and staff who have already been through a stressful time. It is so important that they have someone to talk to and help them to navigate through this often complex process.
“Our aim is to be as responsive as possible to families and to be guided by them in terms of how much and in what way they wish to contribute to the investigation.
“We also want to support staff throughout the process so that they can openly share their experiences to help us all find answers and where possible learn lessons.”
Beverley is currently supporting families involved with the Serious Adverse Incident Review relating to the Covid-19 outbreaks at both Craigavon and Daisy Hill hospitals.