Dr Caroline Johnson will join SHSC as interim director of nursing, professions and quality on 7 October.
A registered nurse, she has extensive experience of working in the NHS across mental health, acute care and education.
Caroline will be spending time with us before she officially starts as part of a structured handover with Salli Midgley.
Read her biography below.
Caroline Johnson is a Registered Nurse (Mental Health) with over 30 years' experience across a range of NHS, Independent sector, and educational roles. Clinically she worked for many years as a CBT and family interventions therapist for people and their families living with psychosis.
She established the therapy service within the Early Intervention Service across Lancashire and set up three early psychosis detection clinics. She also worked as a CBT therapist in a Crisis Home Treatment Service. In 2013 she was awarded her PhD from the University of Manchester for her research in Early Psychosis detection.
Caroline was a Deputy Clinical Director in Lancashire for Adult Mental Health in-patient care, Crisis & home Treatment and A&E Liaison. During her time in this role, she was the project lead for an ambitious bed transformation project which aimed to reduce out of area treatments, through reductions in length of stay and admissions. The project successfully reduced admissions, length of stay and out of area treatments, enabling the safe closure of 22 beds in preparation for the move to a new build hospital.
More recently, she has worked in Assistant and Deputy Director roles, in both a mental health and an acute trust with portfolio responsibility for Quality Governance and Quality Improvement. She is a Health Foundation Fellow, having successfully completed the Generation Q, leadership, and QI programme at Ashridge HULT Business School. During her time as Assistant Director of Quality at Humber NHS Foundation Trust, Caroline was shortlisted for a HSJ Patient Safety Award for her work on safety huddles.
During her time as Deputy Director of Quality Governance and Patient safety, at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Acute Trust), Caroline also led the development of a joint Mental Health Strategy between the Trust and the local Mental Health Provider, Tees Esk and Wear Valley. She is passionate about improving the experience of care for people receiving care in acute hospitals who also have co-morbid mental health conditions.
Currently, Caroline is a Deputy Director of Nursing for York Place within Humber and North Yorkshire ICB. In addition to her role at Place she holds portfolio accountability for Patient Safety, and Experience of Care across the ICB. She is also leading a programme of work to reduce length of stay of people living with dementia within the acute Trust. In addition she is using her extensive experience of CQC compliance to develop a CQC ready programme for GP practices across York and North Yorkshire.
On a personal note, Caroline is married with two grown up children (aged 26, and 16) and has a mischievous whippet called Roscoe. She is a keen gardener and attends gym classes several times a week.