Today we are spotlighting Ghazala Osmani, Team Manager for our Intensive Community Rehabilitation team (ICRT) who was nominated by Nelson Masiyiwa. Nelson said:

“I feel Ghazala transformed ICRT. Prior to Ghazala, the team did not seem to have direction, there was no doctors and the team was fragmented. Other teams did not seem to understand what ICRT actually did.

In my view, Ghazala has worked tirelessly with other stakeholders to ensure other teams know who we are. She also helped ICRT work together as a team. I feel she is a good leader, she also enabled us as a team to believe in ourselves by giving us acting leadership roles during her absence – I felt empowered. In addition to that, I have noticed she has treated the whole team with respect and fairness. This is because when she asked people to take the act position during her absence, she gave all Band 6 staff equal opportunities. I therefore believe she is an inspirational leader who follows our Trust Values.”

We asked Ghazala about her current role, what she is proud of, who inspires her and what equality, diversity and inclusion means to her. Ghazala said:

“I am currently managing a newly developed team ICRT. I manage a group of highly skilled nurses and Occupational Therapist’s along with working jointly with Birmingham Mind which means I have the pleasure of having Community Recovery Navigators and Peer Mentors, Birmingham Mind Service Manager and Deputy Manager, alongside Psychology, Admin and Medics.

There are many things I feel proud of but especially proud I have had the opportunity to achieve my current position having started off in this Trust as a Medical Secretary. I took up the many opportunities this Trust offered to develop myself from my nurse training to achieving my degree. I am also incredibly proud of the team I currently manage. This was a new service, and it is amazing to see how the staff have come together to develop this team. I feel proud to have had the opportunity to work with such motivated and compassionate staff.

What’s important to me is that ICRT successfully grows, develops, gets bigger and becomes more known to the wider Trust and achieves the outcomes it needs. I hope I can be an example to others that if you grasp every opportunity that comes your way you are able to progress and develop yourself further. One of the most important things to me is the wellbeing of others whether that’s my staff or colleagues, so that individuals feel supported and achieve their potential.

I cannot single out just one thing that inspires me, each day everyone inspires me in different ways. I am inspired by my colleagues, the service users, and their families, I am inspired at how resilient people are, especially throughout Covid. How staff continued to provide a service for our service users, often battling with their own personal difficulties but yet still committed to providing exceptional care.

As a British Asian female equality, diversity and inclusion is something I hold very close to my heart and is very important to me. To me equality is about fairness and justice and the importance of recognising that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and adjust imbalances.”