Meet the Team
Stephanie Craig
Forum Chair
Research Fellow, School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen’s University Belfast
Stephanie Craig is a Research Fellow at the School of Nursing and Midwifery and has been a forum committee member since January 2023. Stephanie took up the role of co-chair in 2024 and chair in 2025. Stephanie is a registered nurse with clinical experience working in the Regional Stroke Unit in Northern Ireland and with older adults with learning disabilities. Stephanie is currently finishing her PhD which focused on Dementia Friendly Communities in Northern Ireland. Her current research focuses on supporting healthcare professionals through digital learning and enhancing care for older people.
Stephanie is also an academic recognised for her contributions to nursing education and practice, she has received multiple awards, including the 2024 Nurse Education Provider of the Year Award. She also serves as Network Lead for the 茄子视频 Northern Ireland Independent Sector.
Stephanie is passionate about all aspects of older people's care, from acute settings to the community. As a dedicated advocate, she actively promotes the importance of older people's care to NQNs and student nurses. Committed to advancing nursing education and digital learning, Stephanie strives to shape the future of nursing through research, teaching, and leadership.
Connect with Stephanie on:
Email
Gary Mitchell
Reader (Education), School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen's University Belfast
Gary is a Reader (Education) at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen's University Belfast and has been a forum committee member since January 2019. He took up the role of chair of the forum in January 2022. Gary is a registered nurse with significant clinical and academic experience in the care of older people. Gary holds the title of QN (Queen's Nurse) and is an editorial board member with BMC Geriatrics, BMC Nursing and the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
He is also a member of the NICE Clinical Guideline Committee for CG103: Delirium: Prevention, Diagnosis and Management. Gary has more than 100 research outputs in the field of older people's nursing and is a current principal investigator on grant projects totalling more than 拢400,000. He is passionate about all aspects of the care of older people, particularly those older people who receive care in non-hospital settings (e.g., care homes, hospice and the community). Gary's Twitter handle is @GaryMitchellRN and can also be contacted via email here: Gary.Mitchell@qub.ac.uk.
Dio Giotas
Dementia and Delirium Clinical Nurse Specialist, Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust.
BSc Nursing, PGCert Medical & Healthcare Education, MSc Dementia Studies, PhD in Dementia and Delirium Studies (Current).
Dio has been a qualified adult nurse with international experience for almost twenty years. He experimented with various nursing specialisms ranging from operating theatres, pathology labs, occupational health and research to primary care, community, care homes and acute hospitals. Soon enough in his career he realised that dementia and delirium were where his passion sits. Over the years he self-funded additional qualifications in medical and healthcare education, epidemiology, healthy ageing, dementia studies and he is currently a PhD Researcher with the University of Lancaster investigating Delirium Superimposed on Dementia.
He works at Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust as a Dementia and Delirium Clinical Nurse Specialist responsible for the care of patients with formal or suspected diagnosis of dementia and/or delirium, support for informal carers, relatives and families, memory clinic and of course, training and education for all staff across the Trust. His service sits under our Chief Nurse’s immediate team, within the adult safeguarding and the learning disabilities teams. They are geriatrician- led service and they tend to see more people over the age of 65, but quite often, they also support too patients under 65 years old with delirium, memory or cognitive issues.
Connect with Gio on or via email.
Maritess Murdoch
Quality Assurance Nurse (Care Homes and Care Agencies) with North Central London Integrated Care Board
Previously, Maritess worked with the North Central London Training Hub as a Professional Education and Development Nurse and Workforce Modelling Lead for social care.
She has been awarded the title Queen鈥檚 Nurse from the Queen鈥檚 Nursing Institute, which is a recognition of her commitment to delivering and leading outstanding care in the community.
Maritess completed her Master鈥檚 in Science in Global Issues in Gerontology and Ageing at the University of Stirling.
Maritess is an advocate for improving the care, lives, and representation of older people. She has a passion for ensuring that strategies and interventions are designed and delivered with older people at the centre and that there is involvement from families and friends within their communities.
Maritess is originally from the Philippines where she trained as nurse. She has an extensive experience working in the community, both as a District Nurse and a community matron. She is a qualified Specialist Practitioner in District Nursing and trained as a Non-Medical Prescriber.
Sandra Blades
Befriending Coordinator: Age UK Teesside
Sandra鈥檚 main interest is in promoting person-centred care for older people. After gaining a degree in Chemistry and working as a police officer until the late 1990s, she began a new career in the care sector in 1998. Sandra is a registered nurse with experience of working with older people with complex care needs, end of life and palliative care in care homes and community.
In 2016 she received a Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholarship to visit and undertake a study of end-of-life care in Australian Aged Care Facilities. This was followed by her achieving a Master鈥檚 Degree in End-of-Life Care.
Sandra is currently working as an Older Persons Coordinator in the South Tees area delivering the Aging Well Partnership in collaboration between the Citizens Advice Bureau and the local council and contributing to the area鈥檚 Joint Strategic Needs assessments on end-of-life care, frailty, social isolation and dementia-friendly communities.
Sandra is the Northern Co-Chair of the Northern and Yorkshire & the Humber Independent Sector Network.
Sandra has been a member of the 茄子视频 Older People鈥檚 Forum Steering Committee since 2018, promoting the role of the independent sector nurse in multi-disciplinary teams. She has written blogs for the 茄子视频 forum and also recorded podcasts, which can be found on the 茄子视频 Older People鈥檚 Forum webpages.
Email Sandra
Contact
Professional Lead: Sally Wilson
Sally Wilson is a Registered Nurse for Learning Disabilities who has worked in a variety of clinical settings including community nursing, nursing homes, respite and acute care. Sally qualified as a Registered Nurse for Learning Disabilities in 1998 and started working in an assessment and treatment unit for people with learning disabilities and mental health illness. She then worked with older adults with learning disabilities, supporting long term conditions and end of life care in nursing home settings. Sally went on to manage a respite service for adults and children with learning disabilities and complex needs, before joining a community team where she worked in both primary and secondary care. In 2014 she joined an acute team as a Matron for Vulnerable Patients and Safeguarding Adults Lead in a district and general hospital before taking a Professional Lead role with the 茄子视频. She completed a master’s in advanced nursing studies, graduating in 2021 the content of her masters had a clear focus on vulnerable patients, safeguarding and the Mental Capacity Act.
Sally chose a career in learning disability nursing after working as a care assistant for 2 years, during which time she learned the essentials of care delivery. She would describe herself as being adaptable enough to recognise the need to change within the profession, flexible enough to change her clinical practice when needed, and tenacious enough to promote a strong ethical base to colleagues.
Sally has been passionately committed to the care of older people for many years and seeks to continue to advocate for this patient group and improve quality of care delivery at all levels.
Page last updated - 10/02/2025
