Ashleigh is a qualified RNLD with almost 20 years of experience in healthcare. She is the Director of Transforming Care at LD Network and is very passionate about the Neurodiversity movement, with a firm belief that different ways of thinking is the key to progression for humankind.
Ashleigh started off as a support worker with a Bristol-based care provider and it was through this role that she discovered her knack for communicating with others and understanding their needs. She immediately fell in love with the idea of becoming an advocate and helping others to live more fulfilling lives.
Driven by a desire to learn as much as she could in order to help others within her care, she later on pursued a qualification as a Learning Disability Nurse at UWE. Soon after qualifying at the end of 2010, she was offered her first job within a secure hospital, and as a newly qualified RNLD, she was bright-eyed and excited - ready to make a big impact. However, her time there was very short lived; she faced resistance and values that strongly opposed her own, and she reported the serious breach of human rights that was taking place there.
This experience ignited within her an even greater intensity towards changing attitudes and making a real difference to others. She went on to work in various other settings as a nurse, and in the last few years, has identified a service model that could run in parallel with the movement towards Transforming Care and which prompted the beginning of LD Network.
As the Director of Transforming Care at LD Network, she works with care providers, service users and families to help make tangible steps towards getting people back home from hospital placements. LD Network enables transition teams to work with an individual, helping them to move from hospital out into the community with consistency and continuity – avoiding the downfalls of a disjointed approach of going from one environment to another with completely different people. This model works to combat the reverse too, aiming to avoid hospital admissions for people in crisis by providing very short notice, specialist support to stabilise and secure escalating situations which put home or community placements at risk of failure.
Ashleigh’s dream is to work with like-minded people to win the war on attitude change within our communities. She believes that the inequalities in society must be tackled through open and honest communication and she is determined to play her part in breaking down the complex barriers that prevent people from living the rich and fulfilling lives that they deserve.
