A MENTAL health nurse who specialised in forensic psychiatry has been appointed to a top job at a Wiltshire NHS trust.

Matthew Page is the new chief operating officer at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, after a career in Gloucestershire.

He has spent almost two decades working in mental health, initially training as a nurse at the University of the West of England and qualifying in 1999.

Mr Page said: “I am delighted to have been appointed into this role at such an important time for the mental health agenda. There is a great deal of work being done to raise the profile of mental health and to ensure those affected are treated with equal regard to people with physical health problems.

“We are currently facing huge challenges when it comes to growing demand for our services.”