Darren Bleek

Clinical Team Manager, Intensive Assessment & Treatment Team, Devon Partnership Trust

Although I have been a registered nurse for more than two decades and have worked in the various incarnations of the current team, I only became the team manager in July 2017 (acting) and officially in 2018.

I hope to gain skills around leadership and learn new ways of working and creating environments in which not only myself but the team can develop and subsequently influence positive experiences for people with learning disabilities who access our service.

We are relatively small multi-disciplinary team made up of assistant practitioners, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech & language, psychiatry, psychology and business support covering a large rural patch. We support people with a learning disability who are experiencing distress and are at risk of placement breakdown and in-patient admission. We work closely with our Commissioning Nurses and Primary Care Liaison Team to ensure that people’s health needs are met by offering holistic assessments and accessing mainstream services wherever possible.

I believe as a team we are already innovative however, learning from other people on the FoNS programme will be invaluable in understanding other people’s roles and areas of expertise in developing our own knowledge.