Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust | Midlands

ZeZe is a young person with lived experience of autism, psychosis and personality disorder. Her main experience was in CAMHS inpatient psychiatric intensive care and children’s secure units after being a Looked After Child. ZeZe’s experience of trauma whilst also being a person of colour is something she advocates for and raises awareness about. Her trauma was of her family not understanding self harm and autism, leading to an exorcism being performed which caused a great deal of distress.

Now ZeZe is a mental health activist, advocating for improved service provision for CAMHS services and is employed by Forward Thinking Birmingham. She works as an Executive at the International Association for Youth mental Health.   

She is a research advisor at the Institute for Mental Health  As well as this, ZeZe is a public speaker, having spoken at a Tedx event. She has helped co design an international campaign on complex trauma, speaking at several high profile events about intersectionality in complex trauma as well as having transformative discussions with faith leaders.ZeZe is looking to set up a charity for young people with autism to support their mental health.

Nominated by: Steve McCabe MP