Turning Point

Meet the Team

Lynne Weston

I am a Registered General Nurse with 20 years’ experience. My current role is Clinical Services Manager at Turning Point Inspiring Recovery.

After qualifying as a nurse, I embarked on a career in the field of gastroenterology. Then later specialised within the field of hepatology by completing my liver care qualification. During my time within the field, I supported my trust to develop a symptoms led alcohol detox pathway using the CIWAR score. This led me to completing my Non-Medical Prescribing course in 2012.

Caring for people with advanced liver disease is very challenging. These patients are often critically unwell, with many complex symptoms which are high-risk. You often see revolving door patients, due to their advanced liver disease. From early on in my career I became very passionate about supporting this group of people due to the stigmas they face with to their addiction. They experience lots of discrimination, stereotyping, both conscious and unconscious bias as a result of taking substances.

Due to family commitments, I left the NHS and worked with the Department of Work and Pensions, assessing people for Personal Independent Payments and Employment Support Allowance. During this time COVID hit and I felt like a fraud. I was a nurse who was not working clinically supporting unwell patients or supporting colleagues who were working tirelessly helping people. I made my decision that returning to clinical practice was my way forward.

In 2021, I gained my position as a Non-Medical Prescriber (NMP) at Turning Point Inspiring Recovery. I became the alcohol specialist NMP, using my hepatology background. As part of my role, I developed a hepatology pathway, with a direct referral to the hepatology team at Mid Yorkshire Trust, enabling a two-way referral process.

In 2023, I moved to the Senior Leadership Team becoming the Senior NMP. In this role I became the Blood Borne Virus and alcohol lead for the service. This gave me a chance to build partnerships with the ODN and Hepatitis C Trust to work collaboratively to achieve micro-elimination. This partnership has moved from strength to strength. As part of our collaboration, we have completed many events together, such as the ‘Love Your Liver’ campaign.

The ODN team loaned us a cepheid machine, which has enabled us to test, diagnose and refer for treatment in a 24-hour period. This provides gold standard care for our service users and supports our efforts to achieve micro-elimination. In June 2025 I became the Clinical Service Manager. My role is responsible for the clinical element of the service.

Wes Rawson

I have worked in substance misuse services for over 20 years both in the prison service and the community setting. My current role is Associate Practitioner at Turning Point Inspiring Recovery (TP).

A lot has changed in this time, from BBV testing becoming a much quicker process with DBST and POC testing, to treatment now being tablet only with minimal side effects. It is far easier to access with the West Yorkshire Liver Care Operational Delivery Network (WYLCODN) and Hepatitis C Trust working together with local services to improve outcomes for clients. I am passionate about reaching out to our hard-to-reach clients, enabling them to access treatment and I have seen the positive effect this has on their lives.

The WYLCODN’s liver care mobile clinic, O-Liver has been a fantastic way of reaching out to and engaging clients, who do not always want to attend their GP surgery due to the stigma around hepatitis C. It has made it possible to provide care to people who otherwise may not have engaged with treatment and I have seen the amount of positive results in the Wakefield area reducing due to the ongoing care and education provided around blood borne viruses helping to reduce re-infection rates.

Working at Turning Point Inspiring Recovery in Wakefield my focus has always been around blood borne viruses, especially training staff with DBST and lateral flow testing, and providing harm reduction information around hepatitis C.

I work alongside our recovery workers to identify clients who are struggling to access either testing or treatment and also working closely alongside both the WYLCODN and the Hepatitis C Trust to ensure these clients have increased access, help with receiving and completing treatment.

I have represented TP at the Love Your Liver event held in Wakefield alongside WYLCODN, the Hepatitis C Trust and BHA engaging the public in open discussions around BBVs and their treatment, offering Fibroscan and POC testing for members of the public, to raise awareness and reduce stigma around blood borne viruses.

We have monthly MDT meetings with the ODN and the Hepatitis C Trust to discuss client’s treatment progress and to identify any additional support required to ensure client’s treatment is successful.

By breaking down stigma, increasing understanding, awareness and educating we can reduce barriers to treatment and the stigma around hepatitis C, enabling more people to access treatment and testing. It is such a quick and simple test and early screening, diagnosis and treatment gives such a life changing and positive outcome for our clients.