Dr Aparna Badagala
South West England Wellbeing Champion
Dr Aparna Badagala is a Specialty Doctor in Community CAMHS at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (SFT) and serves as Associate Lead for Compassionate and Inclusive Senior Medical Leadership (CIML) across SFT. Her work centres on creating psychologically safe, inclusive spaces within healthcare by integrating lived experience, clinical insight, and systems thinking.
She leads Trust-wide initiatives focused on equity, cultural humility, and workforce wellbeing – particularly for colleagues from marginalised or intersectional backgrounds, including IMG and SAS doctors, new joiners, and those with hidden or visible disabilities.
Aparna’s approach is quiet, grounded, values-led, and relational. She brings to her work a steady commitment to dignity, fairness, and collective healing, while holding space for complexity and emotional truth. Through education, Quality Improvement and governance, and reflective leadership development, she strives to support sustainable cultures of compassion across the NHS. Her work is rooted in the belief that true wellbeing must be both systemic and inclusive.