Neil Robdale

Neil Robdale qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1988 and has worked in the field of mental
health ever since.
Initially working in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital he became part of the movement towards
community care and the gradual reduction in size of the large psychiatric institutions. Working
within a day hospital, he became immersed in the process of moving care and therapy out into the
communities themselves. Continuing this process he managed ‘Samh’s Kitchen’, which was a training
project in catering skills organised by the Scottish Association for Mental Health.
Moving to Cambridgeshire in 1991 Neil became one of the early community outreach occupational
therapists, which role later developed into a community mental health team. He has worked in a
number of community mental health teams and Assertive outreach teams across the UK. In 2002 he
began a project to support people with mental health problems to stay in employment based in
Shropshire, England.
Neil has been a lecturer/practitioner at Glyndwr University, Wales, since 2007 specialising in mental
health and vocational rehabilitation. He still works directly within the field of mental health as a
Mental Capacity Act assessor.
July 2019.