Judges.
Judges at the award ceremony.
Richard Daniel Curtis.
CEO, The Mental Health Tick & The Root Of It
Richard comes from a background in mental health nursing and teaching. He set up The Root Of It in 2013 to provide consultancy and training in the sector. The team run the Mental Health Awareness Programme, a suite of training programmes designed to ensure that staff in any organisation have access to mental health awareness.
The team also run The Mentoring School, delivering qualifications and courses for mentors in different sectors. Richard is chair of the National Special Educational Needs and Disability Awards. His specialist interest is in the development of social and emotional skills and the impact on mental health.
He is a parent to two young children and completing his Psychology PhD in his spare time.
Alison Bennetts.
Senior Teaching Fellow, School of Psychology, University of Southampton
Dr Alison Bennetts is a qualified Clinical Psychologist employed in both academia and clinical practice. Working in healthcare settings for over 10 years, she has a specialist interest in transdiagnostic and holistic, mind-body approaches to mental health and wellbeing.
Jessica Thom.
Emotional Wellbeing & Mental Health Programme Director, NHS Surrey and the Borders
Jessica, is an experienced public sector commissioner who has specialised in children & young people’s mental health and the wider children’s services. Starting her career in the voluntary and community sector, she has focused undertaking roles and projects that focus on improving outcomes for children and young people through transformation and user involvement. She has continued to champion local services and mental health awareness through her work and volunteering. Academically Jessica has a BSc and MSc honours in Psychology and is currently working for NHS Surrey and Borders Trust as the Emotional Wellbeing & Mental Health Programme Director.
Nicky Forsythe.
T4H operated from December 2013 to June 2024, when it had to pause trading because of a funding crisis. T4H is a 4-day programme in group peer counselling, NHS-commissioned for 10 years, which was demonstrated to be as effective as Psychotherapy and more long lasting in impact. Nicky is honoured, on the basis of this work, to be an Alumna of the Women of the Year (2017), a Fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (2014), to have won the Long Term Impact Award, and jointly won Nominate a Professional, in the 2022 UK Mental Health Awards, and finally to have won the Welldoing.org Wellbeing inspiration award 2024. Prior to her career in mental health Nicky worked in the field of qualitative research and co-creation and her work included extensive research on mental health and Psychotherapy, including for the Bacp on how to make Psychotherapy more customer-friendly. She has spoken at numerous national and international conferences about her work – most recently at the ENMESH conference is Versailles July 2024.