Joanna Yarker - Hospital Manager

Joanna commenced her career within health care as a housekeeper within a nursing home and then as a health care assistant within a respite facility for children and adults. Joanna decided that she wanted to pursue a carer within nursing and trained at Cambridge University, qualifying as a Registered Learning Disability Nurse in 1999.

Joanna has 24 years’ experience as a registered nurse within the NHS, which includes roles such as staff nurse, clinical lead, modern matron and service manager.

Joanna has worked in a variety of services within the NHS Trust, which include low and medium secure facilitates for patients with mental health, learning disability and/or autism, learning disability inpatient services and learning disability respite and day service provisions. She also spent some time as a Senior Lecturer within Teesside University supporting students.

Joanna has a BSc Hons in Promoting Practice Effectiveness and a MSc in Transformational Leadership. Joanna has qualifications in Quality Improvement and Coaching and utilises these to ensure safe and effective care.

Joanna started with Cygnet in February 2023 as Hospital Manager for Cygnet Newham House. Her experience within both mental health and learning disabilities supports the ladies holistically. She has a passion for person centred care and engagement of service users, and ensures that the team support this passion to enable the effective rehabilitation and recovery of the service users.

Dr Matt Rowett - Consultant Neuropsychiatrist & Deputy Regional Medical Director (Neuropsychiatry – North)

Dr Matthew Rowett is a dedicated Consultant Neuropsychiatrist and currently serves as the deputy Regional Medical Director for Neuropsychiatry in the North. He graduated from The University of Liverpool in 2002 and has since cultivated a rich career in psychiatry, with a particular focus on organic psychiatry.

After completing his training in 2012, Dr Rowett specialised in Liaison Psychiatry and has gained extensive experience in neuropsychiatry, including functional neurological disorders and acquired brain injuries. His previous role as a Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist at The James Cook University Hospital spanned seven years, during which he worked collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to enhance patient care.

In addition to his clinical work, Dr Rowett has taken on significant leadership responsibilities. He has played a key role in developing Liaison psychiatry services across Teesside as an Associate Clinical Director and was instrumental in the successful implementation of the Crisis Assessment Suite in Middlesbrough. His commitment to improving mental health services is further supported by his postgraduate qualifications in healthcare leadership and clinical education.

Dr Rowett's contributions to the field have been recognised through various accolades, including being shortlisted for the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Psychiatrist of the Year award in 2014. He has also published research in respected journals, including the Cochrane Library and the Schizophrenia Bulletin.

With a passion for advancing mental health care and a collaborative approach to treatment, Dr Rowett continues to strive for excellence in his practice, aiming to make a positive impact on the lives of those he serves.

Conor Jones – Clinical Manager

Conor started with Cygnet as a bank support worker in 2014, working with the company throughout his university studies to become an RMN. Once qualifying as an Registered Mental Health Nurse in 2019 Conor continued to work with the team at Cygnet Victoria House as a staff nurse. Conor has progressed in his role to become a senior staff nurse and a ward manager helping open the PICU unit before moving over to Female PICU/Acute services helping open the acute unit as the ward manager before finally coming to join the team at Cygnet Newham House as the clinical manager.

Conor enjoys the complexity of his role and strives to empower his team along with the service users to ensure they are receiving the most holistic care at Cygnet Newham House.

Elizabeth Hemblade - Ward Manager

Elizabeth qualified as a registered learning disabilities nurse at Cumbria University in 2016 starting her career in dementia care. She then joined Cygnet in 2017.

Elizabeth has worked in a challenging behaviour residential service supporting individuals with learning disabilities and autism for four years before moving into neuro rehabilitation.

Elizabeth is passionate about providing person centred care and improving quality of life.

Dr Tania Engel – Specialty Doctor

Dr Tania Engel obtained her medical degree at the University of Cape Town in 1998 as well as a Masters in Family Medicine from Stellenbosch University in 2009. She has worked in a variety of settings and services including general practice, hospital and clinical research managing patients holistically and using a patient-centred approach.

She has always had a special interest in the management of psychiatric conditions and in November 2020, and after moving with her family to the United Kingdom, she commenced work as a specialty doctor in Psychiatry at Cygnet Victoria House, a general adult Psychiatry service (PICU and acute). In October 2023 she joined the team at Cygnet Newham House and hopes to make a positive difference in the lives of patients and their families.

Steph Hawes - Highly Specialist and Regional Lead Occupational Therapist

Steph commenced her career as an Occupational Therapist over 20 years ago.

Steph gained a variety of experience in the NHS working across a diverse setting including physical health (orthopaedics, hand therapy and palliative care), mental health services for older people (functional and organic illness) and some experience in learning disabilities.

Steph joined Cygnet in September 2021 and has been at Newham House since it's opening. She is also the Regional Occupational Therapist Lead for Neuropsychiatry for the North supporting the occupational therapy service and occupational therapy staff at St. Williams and Pindar.

Steph has a particular interest in functional neurological disorder and is part of the Cygnet Group. Outside of work Steph likes to go walking and do craft activities such as cross stitch, she also enjoys a busy life with her Husband, 3 Children and her Pets.

Dr Alex Farrington - Clinical Psychologist

Dr Alex Farrington is a Clinical Psychologist in Neurorehabilitation who graduated from the Teesside University Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2024. Throughout his training, Alex worked in NHS services across the life span. He completed his elective placements in neurorehabilitation, spinal injury and major trauma psychology, alongside completing his thesis research exploring staff wellbeing and the psychological processes involved in how specialist medical teams can cope and remain well at work.

Alex has a background post graduate diploma in cognitive behavioural therapy assessment and intervention alongside pre doctorate experience working in Neuropsychology at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge. He has enjoyed publishing research focused on adjustment to chronic conditions such as adult onset-epilepsy and strives to support people and families in their rehabilitation journey. He values a person centred approach and his therapeutic work is informed through a range of models such as compassion focused therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and systemic practice.

Catherine Ferguson - Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Catherine has been a speech and language therapist for 27 years, graduating from Queen Margaret’s College in 1996. She has spent her career working with a range of people, including children and adults with learning disabilities, autism, mental health within community and secure hospitals settings.

Catherine has worked at Cygnet Newham house since April 2022 in the position of Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist. Catherine enjoys spending time with her family and has 4 grandchildren that take up most of her free time.

Jim Murphy - Physiotherapist BSc

James qualified as a physiotherapist in 2006 from Teesside University. He developed his physiotherapy experience within the NHS and the private sectors, developing specialist skills in varied roles including; community physiotherapy, falls service, neurological outpatients and neuromusculoskeletal physiotherapy alongside many other services.

James’ role at Cygnet involves working as part of Cygnets neuropsychiatric rehabilitation services providing physiotherapy across both Cygnet Newham House and St Williams Hospitals. James prides himself in being part specialist team delivering high quality rehabilitation.

Before James became a physiotherapist, he trained in the armed forces. During his service, he developed an interest in fitness and recovery and since then has always advocated health and mental wellbeing through exercise, body awareness and recovery.