Meet the Team at St Neots

Louise Smith qualified as a Mental Health Nurse in October 1998. She chose to move into a career within the neuropsychiatry setting in St Andrew’s Healthcare, having been a Student Nurse within the Kemsley Unit, lighting her passion for working with this patient group. During the next 17 years, Louise worked in a number of roles, moving from Staff Nurse through to Service Manager, within a variety of ABI settings, each providing a unique service with varying acuity and dependency needs. During that time Louise developed the first female only brain injury unit, invigorated and improved the ABI community provision moving out of the Hospital setting, before moving into a more strategic role as Lead Nurse within the overarching neuropsychiatry service, overseeing the Huntington’s disease service and Older Adults service. During this time Louise introduced a rapid response service to support urgent admissions for older adults, developed the environments to be more dementia friendly, and helped develop the current care pathway for Huntington’s disease. In 2015 Louise began work as a Hospital Director within Partnerships in Care, developing a Neuropsychiatry Service in the market town of Melton Mowbray by establishing a highly skilled clinical team able to deliver effective treatment and favourable outcomes for the patient group, using renowned outcome measures and interventions. In March 2018, Louise joined Elysium Neurological, initially looking at service development before moving to St Neots Neurological Centre in April 2018.

Dr Aladdin Shirazi is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is on the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register as a General Psychiatrist. Dr Shirazi qualified as a medical doctor in 1993 (Baghdad University, Iraq) and started working in the UK as a psychiatrist in 2000. His other qualifications are Diploma in Mental Health (Queens University Belfast) Masters in Arts in Psychoanalytic Studies (University of Sheffield) and he has just completed his diploma in Neuro-imaging for research (University of Edinburgh).  Dr Shirazi has worked within Neuropsychiatry settings for nearly six years.  This has been with a variety of different patient groups with varied acuity and dependency, which has provided him with a good knowledge of the patient groups he is working with.

Dr Aladdin Shirazi is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is on the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register as a General Psychiatrist. Dr Shirazi qualified as a medical doctor in 1993 (Baghdad University, Iraq) and started working in the UK as a psychiatrist in 2000. His other qualifications are Diploma in Mental Health (Queens University Belfast) Masters in Arts in Psychoanalytic Studies (University of Sheffield) and he has just completed his diploma in Neuro-imaging for research (University of Edinburgh).  Dr Shirazi has worked within Neuropsychiatry settings for nearly six years.  This has been with a variety of different patient groups with varied acuity and dependency, which has provided him with a good knowledge of the patient groups he is working with.

Kerrie Ward qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 2001.  Once qualified, Kerrie joined Luton and Dunstable A&E Department, where she worked until 2008.  Starting as a Staff Nurse, she quickly became a Junior then Senior Sister before moving in to management, including undertaking the Manager of the day for the whole hospital as well as being the Trauma Lead for the department. In 2008, Kerrie joined the training and development department where she was responsible for delivering the clinical skills trainer for the Trust. Kerrie was an Advanced Life Support and Immediate Life Support train the trainer for the Trust. Kerrie then become the first Adult Safeguarding Lead in 2010 for the Trust. Kerrie won an award from the Strategic Health Authority and NHS England.  Kerrie then moved from the Luton and Dunstable hospital in 2013, to work for Luton Clinical Commissioning Group as the Head of Adult Safeguarding and Designated Nurse for Luton Bedfordshire, where she remained until commencing her new and exciting opportunity at St Neots Neurological Centre in March 2018.

Dr Kris Owden is an Associate Specialist who started his training in 2009 to become a medical Doctor. Previously working within the Cambridgeshire Constabulary and a Radiographer, Dr Owden started his medical career in Norwich, before moving to Stevenage Hospital. In August 2016 Dr Owden moved to commence his core psychiatric training within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, with rotations in Old Age Psychiatry, Acute Psychiatry, CAMHS and General Adult outpatients, providing him with an excellent overview and wide experience.  Dr Owden shares a great interest in audit and research, with two papers currently published and others currently under review.