Byron Mtandabari – Hospital Manager

Byron is a highly experienced Mental Health Nurse with over 20 years’ experience in both the NHS and independent health sector. Byron has worked in a variety of roles within this time.

Byron leads in ensuring that new initiatives and policies are implemented effectively. Byron strives to make the service user and staff experience a positive one within the unit and organisation. Byron ensures that all regulatory compliance requirements are met i.e. HIW, NHS Wales and Safeguarding.

Anna Cherrett - Head of Care

Anna joined Cygnet St Teilo House in September 2020. She is a Mental Health Nurse with over 9 years experience working within a variety of secure and community settings. Anna has had the opportunity to be closely involved in the assessment and treatment of patients who are experiencing mental health illnesses including psychosis, personality disorders, and substance misuse.

Anna enjoys working within a rehabilitation setting to support and encourage patients to learn and develop skills in order for them to continue with their recovery. As part of her role as Head of Care she is also Clinical Lead for Cygnet St Teilo House, ensuring that high standards of care are maintained at all time through audits, adhering to Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) guidelines, regulations and policies and implementing quality initiatives. Anna works closely with the multidisciplinary team, nursing and support teams to ensure consistency throughout all disciplines, with training and supervisions. She is involved with the recruiting and interviewing of new staff and encouraging current staff to become involved with additional training and/or projects.

Ambreen Aslam - Responsible Clinician

Ambreen joined Cygnet St Teilo House in August 2020. She is a qualified Forensic Psychiatrist with 19 years’ experience in Psychiatry both in NHS and Independent sector and her special interests include Women’s mental health and Rehabilitation. Ambreen has had the opportunity to work closely with women experiencing mental health illnesses in both secure and non-secure settings. She also has extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders including psychotic illnesses, mood disorders, personality disorders, and drug and alcohol misuse. She is a compassionate and dedicated person who thrives to provide exceptional care to her patients.

Ambreen works closely with the multidisciplinary team at St Teilo House and they work together to help the patients on their care pathways. Ambreen believes the most important aspect of her role is to be able to make a difference in the lives of individuals, some of whom may have had very difficult pasts. Ambreen looks forward to continuing her role and working with with the team at St Teilo.

Esther Ebigbagha - Speciality Doctor

Esther joined the team in 2022 working as a Speciality Doctor. She is a medical doctor who qualified in 2016 and has since worked in different hospital settings, including mental health institution in general psychiatry.

She is a dedicated and compassionate person who thrives to provide exceptional care to patients in her care. Esther works closely with the multidisciplinary team at Cygnet St Teilo House, working together to help the patients on their care pathways.

Esther believes the most important aspect of her role is to be able to make a difference in the lives of individuals, some of whom may have had very difficult pasts. Esther looks forward to continuing her role and working with the team at St Teilo.

Melissa Jones - Consultant Forensic Psychologist

Melissa has over 20 years of experience, which has included working within the Prison Service for a number of years and working within hospital settings of various security (medium, low, rehab etc), with both male and female client groups across the range of environments. Melissa started working for the organisation in 2010 to 2015, and returned in 2018 to work in a specialist female Personality Disorder unit before moving to Cygnet St Teilo House in February 2020. She is the Lead Psychologist for Female Services (Midlands) since 2019. Melissa has extensive experience in assessment and treatment of personality disorder, mental illness, offending histories and managing risk.

Melissa has been Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) trained since 2005, and has a number of interest areas including trauma informed approaches, cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behavioural therapy, and compassion focused therapy. Melissa works collaboratively with individuals to address areas of risk and need to achieve progressive milestones and collective outcomes in recovery.

Sally Drought - Trainee Psychologist

Sally has been an Assistant Psychologist at Cygnet St Teilo House since 2019 and is currently training to become a Psychologist. She joined the team as a Mental Health Act Administrator in January 2018 before starting in her psychology position. Sally has previously worked and volunteered in community settings and the prison service, which led to Sally developing an interest and goal of wanting to work within the field of mental health. Sally aims to work collaboratively with service users during their journey to recovery.

Sally graduated with a BA in Counselling Studies and Psychology from The University of Wales Trinity Saint David Swansea in 2016 and an MSc in Forensic Psychology from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2017. Sally continues to work towards her goal of becoming a qualified Forensic Psychologist.

Louise Thomas - Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist

Louise has 13 years’ experience working as an Occupational Therapist in mental health hospital settings (secure services and locked rehabilitation). Louise has a passion for working in female mental health services and has dedicated most of her career to this area.

Louise is the Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist for High Dependency Rehabilitation Services across Cygnet. Within this role she is responsible for the development and implementation of the Occupational Therapy Clinical Model.

Louise has completed Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) training along with a number of more Occupational Therapy specific training courses including Model of Human Occupation Screen Tool (MOHOST) Case Formulation and Sensory Attachment Intervention. Louise works collaboratively with individuals to engage in meaningful occupation, achieve their goals and work through the OT pathway.

Louise Moses – Administration Manager

Louise joined Cygnet St Teilo House in May 2008 and has had 39 years of experience in Administration and Accounts.

As Administration Manager, Louise works closely with the Hospital Manager, Head of Care and the HR Department to ensure the smooth running of all administrative aspects of the hospital, ensuring all staff records are in place and updated, this is from recruitment, training, payroll, supervisions, and updating all necessary data bases.

Louise is responsible for the in-patient Bank Service which helps with the safe keeping of all patients’ money, together with hospital finances. In her spare time, Louise enjoys music, keeping fit and reading.

Sarah Marsh - Occupational Therapist

Sarah is a newly qualified Occupational Therapist with just over a year of experience in mental health settings.

Sarah works closely with service users, supporting and facilitating independence skills such as personal hygiene, cooking and finances, and helps set specific and holistic goals in these areas. Sarah is currently engaging in a sensory integration preceptorship and is excited to use the skills learnt with the service users on the unit.

Sarah`s passion is creative and therapeutic art and enjoys using this with service users during sessions to explore feelings and emotions.

Outside of work Sarah enjoys engaging in holistic therapies and crafts such as knitting and cross-stitch.