MEET MENTAL HEALTH NURSING EXPERT WITNESS, KAREN EAST
Karen is an experienced NMC Registered Mental Health Nurse with a breadth of clinical expertise, working within the NHS and private healthcare. Her specialist areas include mental health conditions, dementia care, alcohol-related brain injury, addiction, learning disabilities and complex trauma.
In addition, Karen has extensive experience in the care of people who have ASD and ADHD and a specialist interest in suicide prevention, self-harm, personality disorders, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy approaches.
Karen works for Jane James & Associates providing Mental Health Nursing Breach of Duty reports and is instructed on behalf of both Claimant and Defendant firms.
EARLY LIFE
Karen was born in Islington, North London to a Dutch Mother and English father who was in the RAF. Soon after Karen was born, the family upped sticks and moved to Lincolnshire where Karen still lives today.
Karen comes from a long line of nurses and learned from an early age to be pragmatic and resilient. She had a keen interest in science and whilst studying for her ‘O’ levels decided she would like to enter the world of nursing.
After leaving school, Karen worked in a doctor's surgery, and at eighteen (and just to be different from the other nurses in her family) she studied and trained to be a psychiatric nurse. Her training lasted three years.
THE START OF HER CAREER
In 1999 Karen joined the NHS, working as a junior staff nurse in the rehabilitation ward at St George's Hospital in Lincoln - a former Victorian asylum.
In 2000 she moved to an acute unit in the psychiatric hospital on the Lincoln County Hospital site. Karen loved her interesting and varied role as a senior staff nurse, gaining valuable experience while honing her craft. She worked there for 12 years.
Keen to extend her knowledge and experience, Karen joined a major care home provider at their 40-bed dementia care home in Lincolnshire, where she excelled at her role. A few years later she was promoted as a Care Services Manager which included responsibility for the quality monitoring of several of their other care homes in the East of the UK from Lincolnshire to Margate in Kent.
This highly involved role included investigation work, negligence, neglect, complaints, and discipline. The care homes mainly looked after adults with learning difficulties, elderly and dementia care, brain injury services rehabilitation and secure services. Karen loved this role despite being the only woman in the team!
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Karen left to work for a smaller healthcare company with four care homes between Leeds and Birmingham. This gave her a better work-life balance so she could spend more time with her young daughter.
In her new role, Karen set up the alcohol-related brain injury services and was Head of Clinical Governance - setting up new structures, policies, procedures and services. She also regularly delivered talks on Korsakoff syndrome - a memory disorder that results from vitamin B1 deficiency and is associated with alcoholism.
WHY BECOME AN EXPERT WITNESS?
Expert witness work has always interested Karen so when she saw the Jane James and Associates advertisement on the Indeed site, she knew that it was something she wanted to pursue. As Karen says,
“I was already familiar with roles that involved gathering hundreds of pieces of information and writing negligence reports for coroner's courts and tribunals so I knew I could make a valuable contribution as a JJ&A expert witness. I also knew it would fit perfectly with the experience, expertise and knowledge gained in my former and current roles.”
Karen has always been interested in the law and the legal side of the medical profession. She relishes getting her teeth into client stories and looking at things from different perspectives. She loves report writing and goes as far as to say that her love borders on obsession! She is a stickler for detail, loves investigating and strongly believes that history informs the future.
IN HER ‘SPARE’ TIME
It’s safe to say that Karen likes to keep busy so, since 2017, she has been a Distance Learning Assessor with the Skills Network. Her subjects include learning disabilities, mental health first aid, mental health awareness, autism awareness and suicide awareness. Karen thoroughly enjoys this work and loves supporting her learners.
Somehow, Karen also finds time to support and mentor university students with their mental health and neurodivergence and is qualified to assess people on the autism spectrum, having completed an autism testing course (ADOS-2).
One of Karen's greatest passions is knitting so when she has a moment to herself, she can be found knitting blankets for charity. Karen still lives in Lincolnshire with her three cats - the oldest of which is 19 and nearly as old as Karen's daughter who is now in her twenties and lives in York.
Karen’s specialist areas include mental health conditions including acute and community, dementia care, alcohol-related brain injury, addiction, learning disabilities and complex trauma. In addition, Karen has extensive experience in the care of people who have ASD and ADHD and a specialist interest in suicide prevention, self-harm, personality disorders, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy approaches. Karen works for Jane James & Associates providing Mental Health Nursing Breach of Duty reports and is instructed on behalf of both Claimant and Defendant firms.
