Jodie Bowyer - Hospital Manager

Jodie is a registered mental health nurse who joined Cygnet in 2013 as a newly qualified nurse and worked in male mental health rehabilitation services. She progressed to be a senior nurse then on to become a head of care. In 2020 she completed the level 5 leadership and management apprenticeship with Cygnet and obtained a distinction for this.

Jodie also has experience working in Cygnet’s autism, learning disabilities and complex needs services prior to becoming the Hospital Manager at Cygnet Raglan House in July 2022.

Jodie is a compassionate leader and is dedicated in supporting service users and staff at Raglan. She is passionate about service development and co-production with individuals in our care.

Gemma Bromley – Head of Care

Gemma is a Registered Mental Health Nurse. She started her career in mental health rehabilitation services in 2013 as a Staff Nurse before progressing to Senior Nurse at Cygnet Raglan House. She has worked as a Nurse Assessor for Cygnet before working in a Neuropsychiatric service as a Senior Staff Nurse. During this time she gained experience of Acting Head of Care role at male and female services. She joined the team at Cygnet Raglan House as Head of Care in 2019.

Gemma has a passion for patient-centred care and least restrictive practice, she believes in empowering the individuals she works with as well as her colleagues she works alongside.

Dr Sohail Zafar - Consultant Psychiatrist

Dr Sohail Zafar achieved his medical qualification from Dow Medical University Karachi Pakistan in 1997. At postgraduate level, he became a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2011 and he completed a Masters in Mental Health Law in 2014. Dr Zafar joined Cygnet in December 2010 and has worked with Cygnet Raglan House since its establishment as a high dependency female psychiatric rehabilitation unit.

Dr Zafar has been involved in service development in the organisation and has worked jointly with others in various steering groups. One of his most significant achievements to date is to have drafted the Daily Risk Assessment tool (DRA) which is used daily in all Cygnet hospitals for assessing the daily risk level and determining the risk reduction plan in the morning meetings. He also helped draft the modified Global Assessment Progress tool (GAP) which is used to assess the progress of patients in Cygnet hospitals. GAP is a key tool that acts as a measurement of our service users’ achievements and how far they are in their journey to discharge.

Dr Zafar was also heavily involved in creating the High Dependency Rehabilitation Model at Cygnet, in that he drafted the model, finalised its content and presented it as a poster at the annual convocation of the Royal College of Psychiatry in 2019. The High Dependency Poster was also accepted by the American Psychiatric Association for its annual conference in 2020.

Dr Zafar is a Controlled Drug prescriber at Cygnet supporting a number of hospitals. He has been one of the CPD Programme Organisers for the last seven years and has been widely appreciated by his colleagues in conducting one of the best teaching sessions in the UK. At present Dr Zafar is a Clinical Lead/Medical Director of the Cygnet hospitals in the Midlands. His special interests are autism, treatment-resistant schizophrenia and personality disorders. He is a DISCO (Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders) assessor and offers his support to other hospitals in the organisation in order to diagnose autism.

Dr Nicola Tavares-Mott – Specialty Doctor

Dr Tavares-Mott (known as Dr Nicola) has worked at Cygnet Raglan House since 2019. Dr Nicola had previously worked as a middle-grade doctor in the NHS, where she spent four years with the Birmingham Adult ADHD Service. She also spent time gaining experience working in a number of different areas, including the Birmingham Early Intervention Service, Forensic Psychiatry (including Female Medium Secure and LD Forensics) and the National Mental Health Service for Deaf Patients.

Her SHO training before these posts was exceptionally varied including posts in Neuropsychiatry of Epilepsy, Assertive Outreach, Liaison Psychiatry, Learning Disability and Home Treatment. Throughout her career, she has been heavily involved in service development; in collaboration with colleagues she developed a pilot transition service for 16-18-year-olds who were transferring from the care of community paediatricians.

Dr Nicola is passionate about physical health and holistic care, and since joining the team at Cygnet Raglan House has developed a close working relationship with the GP for the service, resulting in improved outcomes for the service users. Dr Nicola has also diagnosed individuals at Cygnet Raglan House with ADHD.

Outside work she is an animal lover and keen baker who runs a cake business, and has a Level 1 UK Athletics track official qualification.

Katie Roberts – Trainee Forensic Psychologist

Katie joined Cygnet as an Assistant Psychologist in 2017 and is currently a Trainee Forensic Psychologist at Cygnet Raglan House, working towards qualification as a Forensic Psychologist. She has experience working with male and female service users, working collaboratively to support individuals during their journey to recovery.

Katie is interested in a number of areas, including Compassion Focused Therapy, trauma-informed approaches, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Fatema Meghjee - Head Occupational Therapist

Fatema qualified as an Occupational Therapist (OT) in 2009 from the University of Derby. She then completed her 3rd year student placement at Cygnet Sedgley Lodge in Wolverhampton and has since continued to work for Cygnet.

Fatema initially started as a junior OT, moving to Cygnet Sedgley House as Senior OT and then to Cygnet Raglan House where she now works as Head OT. Fatema is trained in using AMPS and also a student occupational therapist educator. She has worked within the model of human occupation and has presented a poster presentation (co-produced) and facilitated discussion sessions (co-produced) at OT conferences.

Fatema enjoys working with the team at Cygnet Raglan House using a holistic approach to meet each individual’s needs.

Ryia Farrow – Occupational Therapist

Ryia qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2021 from University of Worcester. She then applied to the first intake of the Cygnet Occupational Therapy rotation preceptorship. Ryia completed completed her Band 5 preceptorship and then spent the first year as a newly qualified occupational therapist working at Sedgley Lodge. Ryia then rotated to work at Raglan House for a year however decided to remain there permanently and continues to work there now.

Ryia is focusing on broadening her knowledge as an Occupational Therapist working within mental health. Therefore she is completing her Sensory Integration Preceptorship and is to begin the Neuropsychiatry Preceptorship in October.

Ryia is passionate about co-production and ensuring service users are empowered to engage in occupations meaningful to them as part of rebuilding a sense of identity.

Gemma Goode – Occupational Therapy Assistant

Gemma has worked within Cygnet for 11 years after starting as a Receptionist. She trained in Mental Health Act administration in 2011 and has since worked this role within 3 different Cygnet sites including male Neuropsychiatric Hospital and male psychiatric units. Gemma joined the Cygnet Raglan House team at the beginning of 2020 providing assistance and advice to the service users with regards to their detention and rights.

Catherine Knibbs – Senior General Nurse

Catherine is a registered general nurse, qualifying in 2005 from Birmingham University. She has a back ground in critical care nursing with the NHS, where she worked for 18 years, initially as a staff nurse but subsequently promoted through the ranks until she became the service Matron in 2020.

Catherine joined the Raglan House team in November 2023 and has a wide range of knowledge and skills in relation to physical health, but she also has a personal passion for fitness and nutrition. With this combination she strives to not only support the residents of Raglan House with the management of known physical health conditions, the monitoring of physical health secondary to mental health treatments, and day to day physical health concerns, but also to promote good physical health and improve the general physical wellbeing of each individual.

Alix-Joy Etheridge - Hospital Administrator

Alix originally joined Cygnet Heathers as a receptionist in 2015 before moving on to work as a hospital administrator and Mental Health Act administrator.

In 2020 Alix moved to Cygnet Raglan House as Mental Health Act Administrator and is now the Hospital Administrator for the service.

Alix is currently working on a Level 2 Business Admin qualification. She is passionate about working in mental health and likes to ensure people receive excellent care.