Chronic Pain HIT says farewell to leadership team and welcomes new director

Professor Candy McCabe, Dr Ali Llewellyn and Charlotte Spence stepped down from the Chronic Pain Health Integration Team (HIT) leadership team in April 2023. Bristol Health Partners would like to thank them for the sustained contribution they have made to the HIT and the wider partnership over several years.

The HIT welcomes Dr Jenny Lewis as its new director.

Jenny is Associate Professor of Clinical Research at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and a Senior Clinical Occupational Therapist at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust.

She has over 20 years of clinical experience in complex pain rehabilitation and is internationally recognised as an expert in pain-related body perception outcomes. Her clinical research portfolio also includes clinical and treatment outcomes, complex regional pain syndrome, mechanisms in chronic pain, brain imaging, augmented reality and innovative rehabilitation approaches.

Jenny says:

“I’m excited to get started, working across organisational boundaries to connect stakeholders with an interest in chronic pain within our region. Leading the Chronic Pain HIT provides so many opportunities to extend vitally important work, including exploring the prevalence of, and health inequalities associated with chronic pain in people from ethnically diverse backgrounds.”

Jenny will be supported by Carla Southworth, Senior Project Manager at Bristol Health Partners. Carla provides project management for a number of HITs across the partnership, including Dementia, Bladder and Bowel Confidence and Improving Perinatal Mental Health.