Kate O'Hara

I work full time for NHS West Midlands Regional Development Centre as a Programme Specialist for Service Development. Previously I worked for the Care Service Improvement Partnership and NIMHE (National Institute for Mental Health in England) Regional Development Centre from January 2004 where I led on Public Mental Health, Mental Health Promotion and Anti-stigma and Discrimination work.

The key parts of my role within NIMHE and CSIP were to support NSF Standard One (Mental Health Promotion) Leads across the West Midlands in delivering effective local mental health promotion strategies and to build and maintain relationships with other regional organisations to drive forward the wider public mental health agenda, through for example the West Midlands Regional Assembly’s multi-sector Health Partnership and the Health and Well-being Strategy.

With the ending of the NSF for Mental Health in autumn 2009, public mental health (PMH) is likely to have stronger recognition and presence in the forthcoming mental health policy, New Horizons. My strengths and experience lie in:

  • Partnership and collaborative working both within and beyond the NHS
  • Strategic planning and influencing to help other non nhs agencies understand the contribution they can make to the health/mental health agenda and tackling inequalities.
  • Facilitator, catalyst, coach and challenger for development and improvement
  • Programme development and delivery, commissioning innovative and developmental approaches to PMH & MHP, to test out and share effective models/ways of working.
  • Providing advice and support to New Horizons around Public Mental Health and Well-being.

Prior to joining NIMHE, I worked in Dudley Health Promotion Service for 10 years leading the development and implementation of their mental health promotion strategy. I originally trained as a Psychiatric Nurse, working as a Community Psychiatric Nurse, specialising in Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry.

I have a post graduate diploma and MSC in Health Promotion from UCE and have contributed to the development of mental health promotion at regional and national levels for several years and I was a member of NIMHE’s National Expert Group for Mental Health Promotion. I was a co-author of a Society of Health Education and Health Promotion paper “Ten Elements of Mental Health, Its Promotion and Demotion: Implications for Practice” (MacDonald G, and O’Hara, K 1998) which provides a sound theoretical basis for and practical advice on mental health promotion work. Practitioners in various areas within and outside the region have used this paper and it has been referenced in a number of key publications.

Email Contact kate.o`hara@wmrdc.org.uk