Remembering Ivan Moore
4th November 2022
With great sorrow, it is announced that our friend and colleague, Ivan Moore, passed away in October 2022.
Ivan was a driving force in raising awareness of mental health problems in North and Central West London and worked tirelessly to ensure that local people’s voices were heard in the development of local services.
He was a committed mental health advocate, representing the rights and wellbeing of people who use mental health services, and was quick to remind us that this could be any one of us.
For many years he took the lead in developing projects that brought together people with direct experience of mental health services and those who provide them.
Ivan was a founding member of Healthwatch Central West London in 2012 and before that, Kensington and Chelsea Link. In addition to this, he was a member of the Kensington and Chelsea Local Committee and served for three years as Co-Chair and represented Healthwatch at the Central and North West London Trust. He was later elected as a patient governor for CNWL, as well as being a lay partner for North West London NHS.
Ivan questioned and challenged the decision making of mental health service providers at all levels of the NHS and social services both in hospital and in the community, and other members of the committee came to rely greatly on his expertise.
Recently, Ivan provided expert guidance to help shape an innovative project called the Voice Exchange, launched by Listen to Act and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL). The initiative was co-created to explore how mental health services could look in the future with the people who need them and those who provide them. Project lead, Laura May, remembers Ivan:
“When the Voice Exchange began, Ivan was one of the first people I met. His knowledge of the bi-borough mental health system was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was amazed at how passionate he was, even after years of involvement. I will never forget him insisting he be part of the Voice Exchange project and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m so thankful he didn’t! In the past two years he has been a constant source of support and always freely shared his experiences with honesty and humour. I will miss him challenging me and sending me emails that always forced me to question my approach. We all need an Ivan in our lives and I’m glad I got to know him for the short time I did. ”
Ivan had an enormous store of knowledge, a phenomenal memory and an ability to understand, remember figures, and to navigate bureaucracy. He was unfailingly polite and patient, particularly when chairing a meeting or participating in a forum. Always clear that patients should represent themselves and not be represented by professionals speaking on their behalf, he consistently promoted the principles of coproduction and codesign and the value it brings. As a result, he succeeded in raising awareness of mental health issues locally and bringing the voice of service users into heart of decision making.
At Listen to Act we will seek to honour his memory by maintaining the focus on mental health and by continuing to implement the principles of community collaboration in all that we do .
Ivan, we will miss you greatly but your memory and your achievements live on!
Christine Vigars, Chair
Listen to Act