Remembering Tom:
a wonderful legacy to Learning
Disability Nursing
Tribute: Tom Griffiths (RNLD)
1976-2021
Tom was a vibrant, caring, happy individual who had the ability to brighten the mood of those around him.
When I worked with Tom in Haringey, we decided we needed a more cohesive and consistent approach to our nursing interventions. We thought the introduction of a nursing model might help us, so Tom set about some background research and fact finding. With the information he gathered we were able to see that none of the nursing models identified would completely meet our needs.
We talked with the other nurses and decided we would need to create something more bespoke to learning disability nursing practice. We pulled together a range of ideas with our own experience, the creation of the eclectic Moulster and Griffiths nursing model was the result.
Tom moved on to new challenges and although we didn’t see each other we stayed in touch. In 2019 he wrote a foreword for a book on the model. Since the publication of the book, our model has continued to grow in popularity, with many services now embedding it into their patient record systems.
I talk about Tom regularly as I share the model with students and qualified nurses around the UK and will continue to do so. He has left behind much sadness, but also a wonderful legacy to his learning disability nursing peers and the many people he cared for. I will miss his smiling face and ongoing support.
Gwen Moulster
I first met Tom when he ventured ‘south of the river ‘to work in Lambeth community learning disability team. We lost touch when he went to work with Gwen, but we reconnected in 2013 when I Joined Camden Learning Disability Team and to my delight found that Tom was working in the team.
Tom was passionate about improving services to ensure people with learning disabilities were enabled to live their best lives.
As expected, Tom was keen to progress in his career and he moved to Islington Learning Disability Partnership. This promotion offered him the opportunity to manage a nursing team and a chance for him to ensure the team of nurses he worked with and mentored provided evidence based best practice to improve people’s lives.
Throughout his career he tried to explore different ways to affect changes and improvements. After Islington he moved to North Central London to work on their Transforming Care Programme and just before his death, he returned to Wales to take on a Commissioning post.
Wherever he worked and whatever challenges he faced, he always found solutions and always delivered these with an enormous smile.
Lynette Kennedy