Meet the Team

Laura Daukintis

Mental Health Forum Chair

Senior Mental Health Nurse/ Independent Prescriber (RMN) Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Qualifying as a Mental Health Nurse in January 2011, I began my career in Residential Rehabilitation for adults with enduring mental ill health. Here, I developed my core nursing skills and discovered an interest in substance misuse and forensic nursing. I then moved to HMP Nottingham to pursue my interests, where I worked as a Substance Misuse Nurse in the Prison setting, nursing offenders who were dependent on opiates and alcohol. I further developed my interest by undertaking BSc in Working with Addictive Behaviours and eventually moved into community Substance Misuse Services within the Criminal Justice Service where I worked for several years.

I went back to university and gained my Non-Medical/Independent Prescribing qualification in 2016 which allowed me to be better serve my patient population by giving them quicker and more efficient access to medications. I then transferred my skills to psychiatric outpatients in Derby where I worked as an Advanced Practitioner working alongside the medical outpatient team, before moving back to Nottingham to do the same.

I currently work in the local Primary Care Network as a Senior Mental Health Nurse and Independent Prescriber, offering first contact to people with mental health problems. I pride myself in offering a holistic package of care for my patients, delivering person-centred nursing approach combined with all interventions tailored to the individual.

All throughout my career, I have maintained an interest in union representation, ensuring a fair working environment for all my nursing colleagues, as I hold the firm belief that well supported staff deliver better and safer patient care. I am also an accredited Steward Representative for the RCN. I have a special interest in supervision and I am active in promoting this in the workplace. I have been a member of the Mental Health Committee since 2019 and look forward to leading and contributing to the task force alongside my colleagues.

Outside of work I run an online support and social group for local parents who were effected during the pandemic to ensure they have access to services and a knowledge of activities available for them to engage in. I am pleased to be able to support the local community’s collective mental health. I am also a school governor for a pupil referral unit / alternative provision, for children who have been permanently excluded from mainstream school.

Twitter: @lauraecob88 

Zeba Arif

Vice Chair

I have always been fascinated by the human psyche, and the circumstances that influence its strength or its fragility.  

I trained as a registered mental health nurse (RMN) in the 80s, and initially worked in the UK's largest Victorian asylum. When that was closed by the government, I moved to a PICU, which was essentially a ward on an opulent suburban street. 

I changed my career to forensic psychiatry, just as the focus was changing from custodial to therapeutic. As a clinician, and later as an RCN Forum steering committee member and chair, I was involved in several innovations that resulted in enhanced care for service users.  

My practice has always been culturally competent and diversity sensitive. As a Muslim nurse of Pakistani origin my nursing journey has been, unsurprisingly, pretty eventful. A rich tapestry of knowledge and involvement resulting in skills and expertise.  

I believe I can contribute to the work of a trailblazing Forum in several aspects of mental health, with the focus on diversity, culture, and religion. Principally by sharing my insights as to how the human psyche may be affected by society, convention, and community dynamics.  

I was an RCN student steward in the 80s, and I have served as a UK Steward for London for 8 years. I was Chair of the RCN Forensic Nursing Forum and involved closely with developing a DoH policy document: Positive and Proactive Care. 

Currently I remain active by teaching mental health internationally.  

Georgina Callard

Georgina qualified as an RMN in 2004, beginning her career on an acute inpatient ward for adults before moving into the community with the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment team. In 2015, she joined her local Perinatal team, which was a developing service at the time. This period was one of significant growth for her, and she found it to be a fascinating part of my career. Georgina also qualified as an NMP with this team.

While with the Perinatal team, where they triaged all their own referrals, Georgina became curious about mental health provisions within primary care. Many referrals didn't fit their criteria, but the women were still struggling. Georgina started exploring the role of mental health in primary care and discovered an article by a GP about the benefits of an RMN they had employed. She shared this article with a friend who worked in a GP surgery. The surgery then invited Georgina for a chat, and together they designed what the role could look like. She began working one day a week with them while still with the Perinatal team. By the end of 2019, she was solely working in Primary Care.

Georgina has since set up a network on Facebook for others in similar roles, creating a fantastic community of practice. Since working in Primary Care, she has developed a passion for staff wellbeing and, in 2022, became a Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA). Currently, she works as an RMN in a GP practice and for Northamptonshire Training Hub, where she leads on PNA and Personalised Care.

Additionally, she is diligently working to complete her master's degree. Georgina feels it is a privilege to be part of the RCN Mental Health Forum, where she can contribute and advocate for primary care and staff wellbeing.

BlueSky: @gcld.bsky.social 
Instagram: @mhn_georgina

Dr Annie Cox

Dr Annie Cox is a proud mental health nurse and a CAMHS consultant nurse working at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS foundation Trusts. Annie is currently a co-chair for the National Mental Health Consultant Nurse Network and chair of the CAMHS Consultant Nurse Network. 

Annie has been working in CAMHS for the past 20 years, and has collected a number of additional skills along the way including being an independent prescriber, a cognitive behavioural and EMDR therapist and qualifications in supervision.

Annie has developed expertise in working with young children who are or present at a younger developmental stage and has a keen interest in research and was awarded her Doctoral award in Mental Health Nursing practice. Annie researched 'how to involve children aged 8-12 years in decision making and consent processes in outpatient CAMHS'. Annie a member of the ISUPPORT (isupportchildrensrights.com) team which has develop standards to ensure children’s rights are upheld across all healthcare settings.

Annie is a Florence Nightingale Scholar and an RCN Foundation bursary awardee. Annie is a peer reviewer for a number of journals and publishers and is associate editor for the Journal of Child Health Care.

Annie is co-chair of the Children and families SIG for the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP). Annie has a number of publications regarding CAMHS clinical practice and recently published a book titled 'Helping Your Child with Worry and Anxiety'. Annie is a co-founding member of @CAMHSNetwork. Annie is passionate about children’s mental health nursing development and understanding the application of theory to practice.

Annie is really looking forward to providing a children and families focus for the MH forum. Annie will be ensuring children’s and families’ voices are front and centre in supporting the development of nursing practice in children’s mental health services. 

Ellie Gordon

Senior Nurse for Learning Disability and Mental Health (Health Education England)

My name is Ellie Gordon and I am the recently appointed Chair of the RCN Mental Health Forum steering committee.

I have been a Mental Health Nurse for a number of years and over that time have worked across a number of areas clinical speciality ranging from Forensic In patient in the private sector, through to working in an NHS International Centre of excellent for Addictions, as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. I have also worked a Commissioner in both a PCT and a CCG and worked at National level for NHS England as part of the transforming care team. My current role is that of Senior Nurse for Learning Disability and Mental Health in the National nursing and midwifery team in Health Education England.

I have been very fortunate throughout my career, and thanks due to supportive employers and managers, that I have been able to continue to practice as a nurse. I do this as it not only reminds me why I became a nurse, but also because I want to share the knowledge skills and experience that I have developed over the years as Nurse prescriber.
My vision for the forum is that we will ensure we continue to represent forum members at a national UK-wide level - increasing our engagement and collaboration with forum members, so that when as a steering committee we engage with national policy and development, we speak with your voice. In this way, we ensure that when we speak at national level across the UK, we do so using your words, your vision and your passion, so that we are truly representing you our forum members to shape Mental Health and Mental Health Nursing and Nurses development.

I also believe that as a forum we have to ensure that we hear from our members who have lived experience of Mental illness, be that as a person who has experienced such illness or someone who is a family member or carer of someone who has been ill. We need to hear your voices so we can benefit from and share our insight, knowledge and understanding. Twitter: @ElliePhonstan

Helen Rees

Senior Mental Health Nursing Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University

A new member of the forum committee, Helen qualified as a mental health nurse in 2009 and in 2011 as a specialist community public health nurse (health visitor). Since qualifying Helen has worked with young people (aged 0-25) and their families in both inpatient and community settings around Birmingham. Having always held a strong interest in nursing education Helen currently works as a senior mental health nursing lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, whilst still practicing clinically in acute mental health community services.

Helen is currently undertaking a doctorate looking at nursing education and the impact of core content on the mental health nursing field and is a member of Mental Health Nurse Academics UK. As someone with a strong belief in the power of nurses to reduce social injustice and improve care for people experiencing mental distress Helen sees the forum as a key part of achieving this. Twitter: @lavelleree

Dr Dan Warrender

Lecturer in mental health nursing at Abertay University, Dundee

Dan qualified as a mental health nurse in September 2011, and currently work as a lecturer in mental health nursing at Abertay University, Dundee, Scotland, as well as privately offering therapy, training and consultancy. He has clinical experience in acute mental health and psychotherapy settings, and still provides clinical supervision to NHS staff. He is a mentalization based treatment practitioner, and still actively use this modality working with people with mental health problems.

He has conducted research in the field of ‘borderline personality disorder’, and has a wide range of interests across mental health. He hass written, published and disseminated work and ideas internationally. Areas of interest, amongst many others, include ‘personality disorder’, mentalization-based treatment, relational practice, clinical supervision, mental health nursing identity, mental health nurse education, human rights, applied ethics, risk, psychological trauma, spirituality, philosophy, and mental health in film.

Dan has a masters degrees in both philosophy and nursing, postgraduate certificates in learning, teaching and assessment and research methods, and in 2024 completed his PhD, exploring the experiences of crisis and crisis intervention for people diagnosed with 'borderline personality disorder'. Though he has been in education for much of his career, he has always kept in touch with practice, seeing patients through honorary contracts with the NHS, or now through private practice.

Dan has actively engaged with the mental health nursing profession, delivering the annual keynote for Mental Health Nurse Academics UK in 2022, and in the same year publicly raising concerns around the Nursing and Midwifery Council's neglect of mental health nurse education through Royal College of Nursing Congress. He also started a national movement called 'Mental Health Deserves Better' which uses the hashtag #MHDeservesBetter, and advocates for improvements to mental health nurse education at a national level. In the field of personality disorders, he has been involved with local and national groups, most notably serving on the executive groups of the Scottish Personality Disorder Network since 2019, and the British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorders since 2023.

He joined the mental health forum steering committee in 2025.