ELIZABETH JARRATT

Elizabeth Jarratt is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health and Learning Disability Nursing. Elizabeth is a Registered Learning Disability Nurse who qualified from Kingston and St. Georges University of London in 2017. Since then, she has completed a master’s degree in Psychology at Kingston University of London completing research into how people with learning disabilities understand and construct complex language and information in relation to their choices, level of autonomy and intellectual barriers. 

Elizabeth has also completed a Fellowship in Leadership in Learning Disability Nursing from the Foundation of Nursing Studies and NHS England. The Fellowship focused on a model of creating caring cultures in the workplace through reflection and learning about facilitiative leadership skills with support from a mentor within a national NHS leadership role.

Elizabeth's clinical experience includes a wide range of health services across the life span. Initially she worked with children in a specialist acquired brain injury rehabilitation hospital and a paediatric hospice, she worked in this field of nursing for two years before moving into specialist learning disability community services.

Whilst in the community learning disability services Elizabeth worked with adults from the age of 18 with a range of health concerns including, physical health, mental health, positive behavioural support, forensic needs and end of life care support. Within this role Elizabeth worked as the lead nurse in a specialist workstream of trauma informed care research which is now available as a support resource for paid and unpaid carers supporting people with learning disabilities who have experienced trauma.

Elizabeth then moved onto a specialist senior role leading an NHS team in finding new ways of working to improve the mental health of clients with learning disabilities who had experiences of trauma and/or long term and enduring mental health conditions. The purpose of the pilot project was to assess whether different ways of proactively working improved people’s mental health and quality of life, rather than the current NHS model of being reactive to mental health conditions.

As part of this role Elizabeth trained in specialist areas within learning disability practice, including Autism diagnosis qualifications, assessment of the impact of trauma and emotional needs assessments.

Elizabeth is passionate about advocating for trauma informed care at a strategic and service development level and at a clinical level whilst, being able to understand a client’s emotional needs in relation to their previous life experiences and intellectual disabilities.

Elizabeth’s research interests include trauma informed care, the concept of psychological safety, Autism in women and psychological services for people with learning disabilities.