Posted on: 27 January 2022
A much-respected “champion of addictions service users” has passed away after a long illness.
Chris Wait worked tirelessly to raise the profile of patient and carer involvement and co-production in the Trust, particularly across addictions services where he was regarded as a greatly valued colleague.
Chris was also a member of our Patient Involvement Forum and involved heavily in a range of workstreams across the Trust, including most recently many of the meetings around Digital Inclusion/Innovation.
Here we have tributes from both our addictions service and from the patient and carer involvement team, with whom he worked particularly closely.
From Teresa Wirz, Head of Addictions on behalf of the Addictions Senior Management Team at CNWL
“It is with heartfelt sadness and shock that I write to let you know of the death of a greatly valued colleague who many of you will have known for years. Chris Wait had been an indefatigable champion of addictions service users for decades as well as working tirelessly to raise the profile of patient and carer involvement and co-production in the Trust. “Retirement? What’s that?” he would say. He felt there is far too much to do advocating for vulnerable members of the community.
“Chris was extremely well respected and his wisdom, born of lived experience, informed many decisions adopted by the Addictions Services and indeed the Trust. Most recently he supported the project addressing the need for digital inclusion for service users. Chris attended countless interview panels which led to many excellent appointments of staff for the Trust.
“He was a founding member of the Addictions Strategic Service User Group (SSUG) which is a conduit for service users’ opinions to the Executive. He was also a Trustee of Build on Belief and instrumental in the formation of the company, a mutual aid organisation with whom many of our services are partners. Chris was an active participant in the Ealing Rise Service User Forum and service user groups. One of his proudest achievements in the past couple of years was to get the Ealing Council to let him use a fantastic community space in which young and unknown musicians could perform to an audience. A sort of “Cavern Club” for Ealing; not an easy thing to achieve in lockdown after lockdown.
“Although London was his natural “workplace”, Chris’s influence was in fact global. He frequently attended conferences and forums throughout the United Kingdom. As an ambassador for service user involvement and substance misuse treatment Chris also travelled to other countries.
“Chris made valuable contributions to many papers including most recently “The Lancet Psychiatry - An International, Multidisciplinary Consensus Standard Set of Outcome Measures for Substance Use and Addictive Behaviour Disorders”.
“An enthusiastic member of the SSUG, Chris was instrumental in instituting the successful Addictions Engage Conference which the Directorate regularly holds and was created “for service users by service users”.
Chris most recently used this event entitled “Back to the Future” to showcase his artistic talents and to bring home the serious message of clients taking care of their physical health.
Chris shared his views unapologetically and the senior management team highly valued this honesty. His willingness to share knowledge and help others will be sorely missed. He was an activist in the very best possible sense of the word. There are many people who found guidance and inspiration from this extraordinary man. He will be so greatly missed.”
From Lucy Palmer, Head of Patient and Carer Involvement and Grace Levy, Patient and Carer Involvement Officer and Carers’ Strategy Lead
“Chris was a popular, well respected and longstanding member of our Patient Involvement Forum, and was the Trust’s Service User Lead for Addictions. He was heavily involved in the Addictions Directorate, being a core member of their Strategic Service User Group (SSUG) from its beginning. He was also co-founder and Trustee of local charity Build on Belief, which supports those with drug and alcohol dependency. Chris gave his expertise to many workstreams across the Trust, including recent work on digital inclusion and engagement, as well as being involved in recruiting many staff members to posts across the Trust.
“Chris was an extremely passionate, dedicated man who gave his time and efforts so generously to CNWL. Despite being retired, and having several other roles, he rarely said no to an opportunity and worked tirelessly to raise the profile of patient and carer involvement and coproduction. It was a pleasure working with Chris and his calm nature, sense of humour and thoughtfulness made a real difference to the work that we do. We feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to know and work with him.
“We certainly echo their words when I say that his loss will be felt greatly across our groups and across CNWL as a whole.”
Chris was also a trustee, colleague and friend of the Peer-led charity Build on Belief.
They have issued their own tribute to Chris, which you can read by clicking on the picture below.
