Ann Cox - CAMHS Nurse Consultant

I always start with my own lived experience, which all of us will have to some degree. My parents divorced when I was 10 years of age, I felt lost in the process and unheard. I moved out of home when I was 14 for a short time and for good by the age of 16. My adolescence was restless and I struggled with my mental health for most of this time. I didn’t want any child to feel what I had felt, and so I knew I wanted to help others. My career started as a Health Care Support worker on an acute children’s ward. Whilst I enjoyed working with all of the children and families, I felt I could particularly relate to those children that were admitted from self harming or had suicidal ideation. The nurses on the ward noticed my abilities and advised me to undertake my nurse training- which I started in 1997.

Ann Cox

CAMHS Nurse Consultant
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

I completed my training and undertook my preceptorship. I then worked in a prison for a short time, this really enhanced my physical health skills and knowledge. However I did not feel complete job satisfaction. I moved to work in a low secure hospital for children detained under the Mental Health Act. This hospital also had a ward for children with eating disorders which I worked on throughout the years I worked with this employer. Whilst I enjoyed this work, I never saw children getting better, they improved to move to community services, but I never witnessed the progress of the children to be back leading fulfilling childhoods. I therefore applied to work in community CAMHS.

When I started my job here, I felt so out of my depth, I did not know how to treat a disorder, how do you help a child who has distressing or intrusive thoughts, or a child who is self harming, or a child who has high levels of anxiety? I did not know what interventions to use, what was the evidenced based treatment? And how could I meaningfully help a child? This was the start of my academic journey. I started by undertaking a cognitive behavioural qualification, then my independent prescribing qualification, with several other courses I did alongside, some I did in my own time. I did this to enable me to really understand mental health diagnoses and child development and how I could meaningfully offer a child a bespoke treatment offer to reduce their severity of their mental health difficulty. I moved through several positions in CAMHS, using these acquired skills to further inform service delivery and the development of clinical pathways. My passion for continuing to deliver direct clinical work never waned, this is what continued to be important to me.

Understanding the evidence base and actually how poor it was for children and young peoples mental health, gave me the motivation to want to improve it. The evidence base is only as good as the last person that developed it, we all have an opportunity to develop it. I therefore started my Doctorate of Health and Social Care Practice in 2014. I wanted to focus on how we can involve children in their own care better. It was through this that I was able to secure my first post as a nurse consultant. I have since secured my second post and was able to complete my doctorate in 2021. Undertaking my doctorate was one of the most challenging but fascinating experiences of my nursing career and life. I now proudly call myself a clinical academic now, which means I combine direct clinical work and research as part of my role and I am looking at how I can continue to use research to enhance the care we give to our children and families we serve.

I took for granted what the art of nursing really means in the early part of my career. It is through a greater understanding of ‘what care is and how we do it’ through my academic endeavours that I have really started to meaningfully understand it. Nursing has been devalued in recent years and we need to raise the profile. In mental health, the rise of therapies has overshadowed the role of the nurse. However therapies can be linear in their offer. Nurses are scientist practitioners and provide holistic care to all. I hear many times that a child is not suitable for a therapy; we never hear that this child is not suitable for nursing, and that is the uniqueness of our profession and what it means to provide holistic, personalised care. We are unique in the way that we ‘know’ how to care, when to say or do the right thing in the minutia of a conversation. This can not always be learned, it is implicit and one of the reasons we have all trained to be nurses. Being a nurse gives me the ability to connect with all, be flexible in my approach and be inclusive for all children and families in providing them the care that they need.

We are a dedicated profession, which deliver informed care, with compassion, integrity and hope. Being a nurse is a privilege and an honour in sharing the darkest of times with our children and families, and helping them find a better place in their lives. I have great job satisfaction in my nursing role, I learn something new everyday through the variety of my work. I am very humbled by the experiences I have had throughout my career and look forward to what is coming next.