South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust; UK

Nirusha is a Quality Improvement Advisor at South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (UK), where she supports teams to build codesigned approaches to improvement. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she began her career nearly 20 years ago and has worked across Canada, Australia, and the UK.
She holds a B.A.Sc. in Gerontology from the University of Guelph (Canada) and an MSc in Ageing, Health and Disease from Cardiff University (UK). She spent the first half of her career supporting older adults, particularly people living with dementia, which shaped her deep appreciation for the lived experience of patients and carers.
Since joining the NHS in 2014, she has supported a range of projects within Patient and Public Involvement and the Quality Improvement team, deepening her understanding of how change affects patients, carers and frontline staff. Her practice is strengthened by training through the IHI Improvement Coach Programme and as a Quality, Service Improvement and Redesign (QSIR) Practitioner. She champions codesign as a way for people with lived and professional experience to learn, create and lead together, shaping improvement that is both meaningful and sustainable.