Tony Russell
Tony is a Co-Director of Breakthrough, a service user led consultancy. Tony’s other achievements include:- He was a member of the External Reference Group which formulated the National Service Framework for Mental Health (chaired by Professor Graham Thornicroft). He was also a member of the Workforce Action Team, and the Mental Health Caregroup Workforce Team, leading on to the development of his innovative idea for the Support, Time Recovery Worker (STR) – now part of government policy. Tony was appointed to the Mental HealthTaskforce (chaired by Professor Louis Appleby) and was part of the core implementation team which developed the National Institute For Mental Health In England (Nimhe). He was also a member of the Mental Health Primary Care Board, (chaired by Professor Andre Tylee), and was the Chair and Founder of the National Positive Practice Awards, which he has managed to bring back this year, after a three year absence. He has been a Senior Advisor on the issue of football and mental health, and is an accomplished public speaker and facilitator.
Tony has a passion for the identification and dissemination of positive practice. He has also established an on-line mental health directory which is a comprehensive guide to all that is positive in mental health services along all possible aspects of the journey a patient may take, and has formed the Positive Practice Mental Health Collaborative.
As a service user who uses photography as a coping strategy, he understands the tremendous value that the creative arts have in enhancing the healing environment and aiding recovery.
He is also a published author.
Angie Russell
Angie Russell has worked in partnership with Tony, her husband, for many years since his ground breaking work with football back in the eighties, where she dealt with many aspects of the project management for his events, and has since served on many Department of Health working groups. Angie was the project manager for the annual Positive Practice Awards, and an integral part of the drive for mental health to work in closer partnership with the football world. She also speaks publicly on the carers’ perspective.
She also has much experience of working across mental health through her previous work with the Inner Cities Mental Health Group and National Mental Health Partnership. Angie works with Tony on implementing the user service assessments, the identification and dissemination of positive practice, and the drive to take art in mental health forward through Reflections.
Angie project manages the Mental Health Awards every year, and is part of the Secretariat for the Positive Practice Mental Health Collaborative.