Care Bridge Specialists have an in-house ‘Intensive Support Team’ because we wholeheartedly believe in the continuity of care that can be offered by taking a multi-disciplinary appoach which allows the best and most appropriate clinical knowledge and skills to be used in conjunction with one another.

The experience, knowledge and proficiency of our Intensive Support Team can be called upon at any time by our Practitioners to meet every aspect of a person’s physical, emotional and social needs. This means that Commissioners, Case Managers, Social Workers and fellow professionals can have complete trust and confidence in our delivery of exceptional care with the best possible outcomes.                                                                                                                                 

Our Intensive Support Team underpins our ‘Specialist Support Model’ by:

• Offering a ‘whole person’ and holistic approach.
• Having oversight of all Practitioner handovers, observations and clinical documents.
• Providing quick responses that enable our Practitioners to be agile and reactive.
• Recommending strategies and interventions, identifying goals, monitoring progress and providing access to the right therapeutic services.  
• Assessing an individual with competence and compassion, with consideration to their past, relationships with their family and friends and experiences in different environments (both hospital and community settings).
• Feeding back to and working alongside Clinical Commissioning Groups/ Local Authorities and MDT’s.
• Designing personalised Care Plans and Positive Behaviour Support Plans (including full Functional Behaviour Assessments where required).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Meet the Team:                                                                                                                             

 Jodie Price | MSc Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA)

Jodie has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in applied behaviour analysis from Bangor University and completed her practicum with the ‘All Behaviour Consultancy’. For the last 12 years Jodie has worked in the field of autism and ABA and gained extensive experience in mainstream schools, nurseries, special education, community and hospital settings.

Jodie is passionate about giving vulnerable people a voice by understanding their behaviour as a form of communication and designing Positive Behaviour Support Plans in partnership with a person and their family that promote pro-active and preventive strategies to avert crisis and keep them safe. With every success story and every milestone reached she has fallen more in love with the wonderful difference that positive behaviour support makes.

Jodie is a strong advocate for evidence-based approaches and interventions that promote inclusion, choice, participation and equality of opportunity and that consider the person as a whole by taking into account all circumstances including their physical health and emotional needs.

Through her work with Care Bridge Specialists, Jodie feels privileged to support people with low functioning autism, learning disabilities and complex needs who present with severe social and emotional delays, inflexible and repetitive behaviours and impaired communication skills. She employs her empathy, professional curiosity and extensive experience to conduct functional behaviour assessments, write and implement PBS plans and teach social and life skills that help supported individuals to adjust to community living, perform daily tasks and enhance their opportunity to live an independent, interesting and meaningful life.

Nadeen Kiwan | MSc Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and Qualified Counsellor

Nadeen is a BCBA with over 7 years of experience in the field of psychology and applied behaviour analysis. Her background and pedigree include a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the United States as well as a master’s degree in counselling and advanced applied behaviour analysis.

For a person with multiple diagnoses – autism, learning disabilities and psychiatric comorbidities (such as trauma, depression, anxiety or low-level motivation) support from someone who is both a BCBA and Counsellor is incredibly beneficial. Hence Nadeen works with the individuals we are commissioned to support that struggle with behavioural and mental health challenges and provides them with person centred holistic care.

Nadeen specialises in parent and care-giver training, assessments, and applying research-based methods to modify, reduce and improve behaviours. She has worked in clinical settings, home based environments and community outreach services, as well as in schools in various parts of the world including the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Nadine is truly passionate about disseminating knowledge on the tenets and ethics of positive behaviour support, applied positive psychology and the observable and measurable practices of ABA. She takes great pride in making each field more accessible for individuals and their families in order to effect positive outcomes.

With kindness and intention and through direct and indirect interventions Nadeen makes a very real difference. Every time that she crafts coping mechanisms and/ or PBS strategies and supports Care Bridge Specialist Practitioners to implement them, she helps vulnerable people to deal with the past and build a better future for themselves and for those most important to them in their lives.

Isabel Kate Bamforth | RNLD/ Lead Autism Nurse and Registered General Nurse

Kate is a dual qualified Learning Disability and General Nurse most recently working as a Lead Autism Nurse for the NHS.

Kate has two grown up children, one of whom is autistic so, over the years she has been devoted to making a difference to others and supporting this vulnerable group of people to live independent and fulfilled lives with access to opportunities that allow them to thrive as active members of society.

Kate has worked across a variety of hospital and community settings. In 2016 she was asked to contribute to the Westminster Commission for Autism Report ‘A Spectrum of Obstacles’ an inquiry into access to healthcare for autistic people. The report identified a number of the impediments that autistic people encounter including but not limited to; inadequate training and accountability for healthcare professionals and a poor understanding of autism and the problems that autistic people face in their daily lives. These findings became useful tools to help those trying to close the health gap and Kate diligently and compassionately built on both the outcome of the report and her previous LDA experience to set up liaison services for autistic people in hospital.  

Through her role with Care Bridge Specialists and as an active and longstanding participant on many local Autism boards Kate remains forever passionate about providing advice, education, support and clinical guidance to facilitate positive outcomes not only for people with specific needs but for everyone involved in their care.

Chris Pepper | Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN)  

Chris is an enthusiastic and grounded Registered Mental Health Nurse with experience across a range of settings including PICU’s, rehabilitation clinics and specialist services such as CAMHS and Eating Disorders.

Chris has held various management and leadership positions that have each contributed to his therapeutic skills and extensive knowledge of personality disorders, challenging behaviours, and complex needs. (His particular area of specialism and interest lies in Dialectical Behavioural Therapies (DBT), with a focus on mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness).

Through his work Chris helps our Practitioners and the individuals that they support to access a toolbox of proven trauma informed approaches. He is passionate about creating physically and emotionally safe environments that centre on of the principles of trust, choice and collaboration- “doing with” rather than “doing to” others.

Care Bridge Specialists know just how lucky we are to have him on the team. His 16 years in the mental health field position him as a coach and mentor to our Specialist Practitioners on the ground as they in turn support individuals with learning disabilities and autism who have also been affected by past adverse life events and significant traumas. His expertise consistently proves to be instrumental in enabling those individuals to re-establish themselves in the community, rebuild a sense of self-worth, and cultivate meaningful relationships that help them to cope better with life as they move forward.

Alexandra Devine | Expert by Experience  

Alexandra is an ‘Expert by Experience’ as the mother of two children with learning disabilities, autism disorder and complex needs.

Living with a child with profound learning disabilities and autism has commonly been described as “living in a different world”. Alexandra has lived there. She has searched for knowledge, tried to access and navigate services and adapt to changing priorities and demands. She has confronted the familiar feelings of doubt, uncertainty and vulnerability that almost inevitably go hand in hand with raising and loving neurodiverse children. She understands parental concerns such as the awareness of one’s finitude, the prospect of a child’s lifelong dependence and the daunting likelihood of stigma and social discrimination.

Both inside and outside of her role at Care Bridge Specialists, Alexandra is passionate about leaning into her own lived experience to support individuals and families to overcome these challenges and to find a sense of hope for the future that guarantees and preserves the very best quality of life.