Contact Gateshead LINk

By post

Gateshead LINk,
FREEPOST NEA3819,
John Haswell House,
8/9 Gladstone Tce,
Gateshead,
NE8 1BR

Call us on
Phone : 0191 4784103
Txt : 07913004737
Fax : 08707058702
E-mail us at
gatesheadlink@gvoc.org.uk

LINk Host Staff

Richard Jenks
Gateshead LINk Co-ordinator
richardjenks@gvoc.org.uk

Kim Newton
Gateshead LINk Engagement and Involvement Officer
kimnewton@gvoc.org.uk

 Ruth Dodds

 Information Officer p/t

 ruthdodds@gvoc.org.uk

 Linda Thompson

 Administrator

 lindathompson@gvoc.org.uk

LINk Steering Group 2010/2011

Bill Llewellyn

Bill has been involved in Gateshead  LINk from the very beginning and was part of the Interim Steering Group who set up and developed the LINk.  Bill’s background is Carers issues and he is a Trustee and Treasurer of The Gateshead Carers Association.  He has over 35 yrs experience in Management.  He wishes to continue the work with the Gateshead LINk so he can help advocate and bring forward issues on behalf of Carers.

Ethel Donnelly

Ethel is a retired college lecturer with many years experience of working with students who have learning difficulties, including helping them with their social, legal and health problems. Ethel is particularly interested in people who are socially isolated and has completed research on this subject.  “I would like to gain an insight into services provided for Gateshead residents and cascade this information to individuals to enable them to gain access to the provisions of the Health Services according to their needs."

Dave Wallace

David has twenty years experience working in the N.H.S. and has for the past five years volunteered for various organisations including Age Concern, Active Age and Turning Point. David’s particular interest is mental health and he has a vast knowledge on the subject. “I have a great interest in health and social care and with my experiences I would like to make a difference.”

Dave is a trained Enter and View Representative for Gateshead LINk

Kay Parker

Kay is a retired social worker of 25 years specialising in Mental Health and Cares issues. She has been involved with the LINk  from the beginning as a Steering Group member and takes an active part in all the LINk Working Groups. She has recently undergone training which enables her to be a LINk Enter and View representative and is also a health volunteer with the Primary Care Trust. She would like to continue using her time, plus personal and professional experience  to help improve good practice within Gateshead Health and Social Care and ensure the needs of local people are addressed.  Kay is a trained Enter and View Representative for Gateshead LINk

Christine Squires

Christine is an ex Patient and Public Involvement PCT Forum member and Chair and attends various meetings in the voluntary sector to improve social care services for the people of Gateshead.  Christine is a qualified teacher who has a vast amount of knowledge and personal experience spanning over thirty years in both health and social care. Christine has also been involved at a national level with theDepartment of Health on developing a toolkit for the RAS (Resouce Allocation System) and Assessment Questionnaire. She is also a Part Time Peer Mentor Co-ordinator which has involved getting people who are on a Personal Budget to share their personal experience with potential new people who may be thinking about taking control of their social care by a Direct Payment known as a Personal Budget. “The LINk has the capability to explore a variety of health and social care services and I am very keen to ensure the voice of Gateshead’s residents are heard and acted upon.”

Gretel Keadell

Gretel is an educational ambassador for Gateshead Council and is a volunteer Holistic Therapist for Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Dunston Hill Day Unit.  “I have been involved in the LINk from the very beginning and I have a great interest in health provision nationally and in particular Gateshead’s.”

Anthony Atkinson

Anthony became a member of the Gateshead LINk Steering Group because he is a Gateshead resident and has a keen interest in “health” related issues. He has been involved in the care of several members of my family. He is passionate about community work and as health is pivotal to the quality of life of members of the community, he wishes to be involved with local people seeking to improve the local health provision in Gateshead.  He is currently an Independent Member of NHS SOTW Provider Board, having previously been Audit Committee Chair of Gateshead PCT.He is also a Social Policy Campaigner with Gateshead CAB. He was previously a Member of Northumbria Police Authority and a Gateshead Magistrate for 9 and 12 years respectively and also served as a Trustee with Gateshead Crossroads.

Glenys Goodwill

Glenys is mainly concerned about the government’s new proposals and wants to contribute to finding out what these proposals will mean, and hopefully improving the plans. She is an ex carer for her mother and father, who suffered from Parkinson’s/ profound deafness and cancer respectively. Now her sister suffers from Parkinson’s and she is a frequent visitor to her aunt and friend of her mothers who lives in sheltered accommodation. She is also a member of the local patient’s forum and Safe Care at the Queen Elizabeth hospital.

Maria Hall

Maria has a wide and varied involvement in Health and Local Care issues from a service point of view, ranging from children through to older people. She has previous experience of the Mental Health Service, Learning Disability and Older People’s service which she has gained from working as a carer for the past twenty years. She is also a volunteer for various groups in Gateshead and served as a governor for 10 years plus. She would like to put to use all the experience she has gained to help improve service for all the residents in Gateshead.  She is also a Peer Mentor with special interest in the health and social care needs of those with SEN and Learning Disabilities across all ages, and their carer's, and currently Chair of Governors at a Special School in Gateshead.

Maria is a trained Enter and View Representative for Gateshead LINk

Valerie Hodge

Valerie wants to get more involved in the delivery of Health Care in the borough and wants to make sure that the people of Gateshead get the best possible level of service and help influence those services. She has lived in Gateshead all of her life and has been involved in the Gateshead Foundation Trust since its inception. She is a presiding chairman sitting on the Gateshead Bench of Magistrates. She has been a Civil Servant for the past 36 years and is currently working as a senior governance and assurance manager within the DWP. She is also a member of the cross Government Department Review Team and a full member of both the Association of Project Management and Institute of Leadership and Management.

Anya Simpson

Anya has spent most of her working life in health and social care.

She has worked within front line assessment services as a qualified social worker in, for example child protection and mental health care in both NHS and Social Services.  She has been an Advocate and is also a fully qualified Advice Worker having trained and worked with the National Association of Citizen Advice Bureaus for a number of year’s in Gateshead before going on to work as a Mental Health Co-ordinator and led on the setting up of a new Mental Health Advice Service for South Tyneside Citizens Advice Bureau.  This service was so successful it went on to receive core-funding streams.  Her skills and passion have focussed on service user involvement/engagement and user led development with people who have wanted to take control of their own lives by setting up user led peer support groups which have proved to be self empowering at a grass-root support level.

For example, Hearing Voices Support Group.  Anya has carried out service user consultation and research work within, for example, acute in-patient services and provided feedback at a strategic level to commissioners, as well as being able to break literature down and provide information at a grass root level with service users so that they too can be instrumental in decision-making processes.

She possesses excellent knowledge, skills and experience of statutory and voluntary sector structures as well as voluntary community based services with an eclectic knowledge base of policy change, for example DOH drivers (White Paper).  Anya has been involved in The LINk from its inception and is a member of the LINk Mental Health Working Group, which she highly regards and values being a member of.  She has worked well and in close partnership with the LINk Involvement Worker and is currently involved in service user involvement work in relation to the devising of a service user leaflet to help people who are in a crisis with the Crisis Team at the The Tranwell Unit alongside the LINk.  This piece of work has been positive and pioneering.

Anya has enjoyed being a part of the LINk and has become a loyal member of The LINk in Gateshead.

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