Core CAMS Team
Supporting safe, structured care through experience, training and collaboration
Our team brings together clinicians, trainers, and implementation leads with a shared commitment to improving care for people experiencing suicidal distress.
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Professor Zaffer Iqbal
A Senior CAMS-care Consultant, Research and Suicidology Lead and Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Director (Psychological Services) at Navigo, where he has led the development of nationally recognised and award-winning mental health, SMI psychology and suicide prevention NHS-based services to the North East Lincolnshire area.
He completed a clinical doctorate at the Institute of Psychiatry and a PhD at Birmingham University. He has worked in mental health for over 30 years and in this time been a pioneer of early intervention in psychosis and a member of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline group for psychosis and schizophrenia in adults.
His previous roles have included Director of Research Training for the Clinical Psychology Doctorate, authorship of professional guidance for the British Psychological Society, membership of international conference scientific advisory committees and supervisor responsibilities for the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Further activities include refereeing and peer reviewer duties for national and international research councils and journals.
Zaffer currently holds a Professorship at the University of Hull and works primarily with complex and serious mental illness, personality disorder and suicidality. For the latter, he has established national and international collaborative clinical protocols to address the challenges facing the NHS and further afield.
Dr. Eoin Galavan
A Senior Clinical and Counselling Psychologist in the HSE, North Dublin Adult Mental Health Services and a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow with the Psychological Society of Ireland.
He is currently the Clinical Lead for the North Dublin Suicide Assessment and Treatment Service, and former team leader for the Evolve Dialectical Behaviour Therapy programme, both of which are dedicated to responding to suicidality and self-harm within the public mental health services. Eoin is a clinical tutor and senior supervising psychologist with the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Trinity College Dublin and works with suicidal individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds on a daily basis and has done so for the last decade.
Eoin is a highly experienced clinician in utilising the CAMS model. He is a Senior CAMS-care Consultant and has trained hundreds of mental health professionals, counsellors, psychotherapists and volunteers in working with suicidal individuals. He has overseen the roll out of the CAMS model in various mental health services and supervised research examining the outcomes of these services.
Eoin also works closely with the parents of suicidal young people in private practice. Eoin frequently delivers public talks, conference presentations, contributes to the media and has published several papers on the topic of suicide.
Dr. Sarah Thompson
BA, MSc, Dclin Psych is a Senior Clinical Psychologist, Accredited Schema Therapist and private practitioner.
Sarah has worked for over ten years in public adult mental health settings, utilising the CAMS with adults with significant mental health difficulties, older adults and a refugee and asylum seeker population, working with both inpatients and outpatients.
Sarah worked within the Suicide Assessment and Treatment Service (SATS) in a community adult mental health setting since its inception in North Dublin from 2013 to 2015. Sarah is a trained DBT therapist and specialises in third wave therapies for complex difficulties, including DBT, ACT and predominantly Schema Therapy. She is a guest lecturer on the Doctorate of Clinical Psychology in Trinity College Dublin and Turning Point psychotherapy course.
Her specialist areas of interest include the CAMS, suicidality, personality difficulties, trauma, psychosis and critical approaches.
Mike Reeve
Deputy Chief Executive and Medical Executive at Navigo
Mike is both a General and Mental Health Registered Nurse (RGN/RMN) who has been heavily involved for many years in the field of suicide and self-harm.
During the 1990s, his area of research in both his diplomas and degree was to look closely at the financial costs associated with both as well as the impact on families and health communities.
He was also heavily involved in the early years of the national suicide prevention strategy and the development of crisis teams via the implementation strategies in the late 1990s and the later development of liaison psychiatry working with the Royal College of Psychiatry in its accreditation schemes.
Since then, he has developed within his management career but continues with his interest in self-harm and suicide risk and has been an advocate of safe and effective frontline services, ensuring that organisations are able to put into practice clinician confidence when working with suicidal and complex service users. To Mike, CAMS is the much-needed caveat that brings theory into practice and since its arrival he has been a major advocate of its use across the NHS and frontline services.
Mike’s management career has seen him leading a ‘good to outstanding’ mental health service and has been the lead within Navigo in the development of provider collaboratives, suicide prevention and the Integrated Care System across North East Lincolnshire.
Dr Nicola Airey
Clinical Psychologist and Research Fellow at Navigo. She has been involved in suicide prevention research and CAMS implementation in the UK since 2018.
Nicola completed her degree in Psychology at the University of York (First class honours) in 2017, before completing a Master of Science in Clinical Applications of Psychology at the University of Hull (Distinction) in 2018.
Nicola joined Navigo in 2018 during her MSc and began engaging in research around suicidality and Serious Mental Illness (SMI). She gained a place on Clinical Psychology Doctoral training (ClinPsyD) in 2020 at the University of Manchester, which she completed in 2023.
Nicola maintained an ongoing relationship with Navigo and the CAMS team during this time, returning to Navigo to undertake posts as a Clinical Psychologist in Complex Mental Health Rehabilitation and as a Research Fellow with CAMS.
Nicola’s special interests lie in utilising attachment-informed approaches to work with complex mental health presentations, aligning well with the CAMS philosophy.
Alasdair Everest-Ford
Commercial Manager CAMS-care UK and Navigo
As Commercial Manager at CAMS-care UK, Alasdair leads the growth strategy and work to expand the reach of CAMS training and clinical framework across the UK. His background spans over a decade in health, social care, and commercial enterprise, with a particular focus on growing purpose-led businesses that deliver both financial value and meaningful impact.
Alasdair is passionate about building partnerships that align with national mental health priorities and supporting organisations to embed sustainable, evidence-based suicide prevention practices.
Before joining CAMS-care UK, he held senior roles across NHS service providers, leading commercial projects that improved access to care and strengthened community health and wellbeing. Alasdair is driven by the belief that clinicians deserve the tools and confidence to support people in crisis, and that suicide is preventable with the right interventions.
Simon Beeton
CAMS-care UK Managing Director and Navigo Chief Executive
Simon is the Chief Executive of Navigo Health and Social Care CIC. Before being elected as the CEO in September 2021, Simon was Navigo’s Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Finance, having worked with the organisation since it spun out of the NHS in 2011. Simon has over 25 years’ experience working across health and local government and this has driven a passion around making a difference to people’s lives and delivering public services using a whole person approach.
A passionate advocate for local services and breaking the stigma surrounding mental health, Simon was instrumental in the formation of Navigo in 2011 and the development of bespoke employment, skills and education services using a commercial model to create opportunities for people.
A keen advocate for delivering services you would be happy for your own family to use, Simon has worked with colleagues to develop services that support people in their wider social circumstances recognising the need for people to have somewhere to live, somewhere to work and some to love.
His passions are to create an organisation where people want to work and where people want to receive services.
