Dean began his career at Priory as a Bank Healthcare Assistant and now plays a vital role as a Senior Divisional RRIT Instructor, shaping how restrictive interventions are reduced and used safely across the healthcare division. In this blog, he shares his career journey, his passion for teaching and safeguarding, and how his work helps ensure dignified, person-centred care for those we support.

1. What is your role at Priory, and what do you enjoy most about it?

My role involves designing and implementing our current reducing restrictive intervention training syllabus to all colleagues across the healthcare division. The role was created to work towards and achieve BILD Act accreditation for our training model. This took a lot of hard work and it was very rewarding when we got the news that we had managed to achieve it. 

Another part of my role and probably the most important is to try and influence the practice of our colleagues working at our hospitals to ensure the people we support receive the best possible care whilst they are with us. I monitor all incidents across the division where restrictive interventions have taken place to provide assurances that they have not been misused.

I am also a safeguarding lead and a peer review lead within the healthcare division. Within my roles I get to spend time travelling to our different sites across the division and speak to our service users and colleagues to gain valuable feedback on ways in which we can improve the service we provide. We all know that using restrictive interventions or restraint can be a very distressing experience for all involved or witnessing it, so we must ensure that where there has been a need to use, it is done in the most dignified and safest way possible. Using data to inform practice, learning lessons from incidents and providing support following these times of distress are also a vital part of the work we do within our team. 

I started as a Bank HCA at the Priory Hospital Middleton St George in 2012. I had never worked within healthcare previously and had come from a background in engineering. After being as bank worker for about a year, I found the job so rewarding that I wanted to pursue the career full-time. I quickly progressed to a Senior HCA and loved mentoring new colleagues. 

My plan was always to go down the nursing route to progress my career further but circumstances at home (babies) meant it wasn’t a viable option for me. I had always had a passion for teaching and had been given good feedback for the mentorship I had provided on the wards. A vacancy then came up at site to become a PMVA (as it was back then) instructor. I applied, was interviewed, was successful and was given the opportunity to attend a 5 day train the trainer course to become a PMVA instructor. After successfully passing the course, I have never looked back. 

My passion for teaching grew and I knew that this was what I wanted to do for a career. I worked up the ladder in my teaching role to become site PMVA Lead, I then became a Regional PMVA Lead and in 2021 I joined the newly formed Senior Divisional RRIT central team. I am particularly proud of my journey and how far I’ve came (so far) and hope I can inspire people to try and progress themselves if they find something they are really passionate about. 

3. What opportunities have helped your development at Priory?

I have done so much within my time at Priory including….

4. What advice would you give to someone considering a career at Priory?

Give it a go! I was in your situation at one point. The company will support you and help you progress to achieve your full potential. Working in the environment we do at Priory is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have. You can literally make a difference to someone’s life by being a good person and supporting them in times of need.  

Ready to take the next step in your career and explore a rewarding role in mental health? Explore our latest opportunities at jobs.priorygroup.com today.