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Past seminars and workshops

"So What?": Attitudes towards measuring outcomes in child and adolescent mental health services

Presentation

By Professor Miranda Wolpert, Vinita Goveas and Evelyn Sharples

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Abstract: The "So What?" seminar series is a collaboration of EBPU and CORC. It aims to build the bridge between evidence and practice in child mental health by asking "So what does this mean for policy and practice?" in response to research findings, project outcomes, and the work of our collaborators.

There has been a recent drive towards measuring children and young people's mental health outcomes. However, what does the evidence tell us about practitioner views of it and do we need more?

During the first in the "So What?" seminar series, we will explore the findings from a recent qualitative study, focusing on practitioners' attitudes to the use of outcome measures in the service and with their patients. We will discuss why this study is relevant and what it means for both research and clinical practice. Two of the authors, Evelyn and Vinita, will provide unique perspectives from both a clinician's and a researcher's point of view, discussing their involvement in the research, the impact it has had on their work, and why they chose a qualitative study for this particular project.

Helping children who experience trauma in low-income countries

By Professor Panos Vostanis

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Abstract: Although there are many kinds of psychological help and services for children who experience trauma, these are usually not available for children in low-income countries such as those exposed to war conflict, ethnic violence, displacement, natural disasters and extreme deprivation.

The objective of the World Awareness for Children in Trauma is to develop a comprehensive model of psychosocial support that can be used by charities and other centres in low-income countries.

Panos Vostanis will share experiences, testimonies and lessons from the first phase of the programme that involved visits in seven countries in Africa, Asia and South America, to deliver training workshops, research and network-building. It will be highlighted how innovative practice can emerge from extremely difficult circumstances, through working with agencies for children victims of ethnic violence and displacement in Kenya, orphanages in Pakistan and Indonesia, slums in India, and favelas in Brazil. The next phase and vision of the programme will be discussed. The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families is a key partner of WACIT.

Creating connected communities

Presentation (PDF)

By Nicole Gibson

Monday 27 June 2016

Abstract: Mental health is a rising epidemic; however, it is not a stand alone social issue. It’s complex and multifaceted. Mental health is strongly connected to our environments, and community - with culture playing a significant role in the precursors to the development of a mental health challenge, these being disconnection and isolation. We need to begin to change our conversations around mental health to topics that seem a little less conventional; love, presence, and connection. 

Speaker bio: Nicole Gibson is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of young people. After overcoming mental health challenges as a young person, in particular anorexia nervosa, Nicole is channelling her energy into motivating other young people to be the best they can be. In 2011, Nicole established The Rogue & Rouge Foundation to reverse the stigmatisation of mental health, body image and self-esteem issues in Australia’s young people. 

Nicole is tackling her social cause through the creation of community outreach programs; working directly with schools, service providers and education departments in both central and remote parts of Australia. Nicole has facilitated workshops at 300 schools and communities with over 250,000 people across Australia.

Lessons from applying the emotional resilience evidence base into practice

Presentation (PDF)

Watch the presentation video

By Simon Munk

Tuesday 9th February 2016

The evidence base for interventions which build emotional resilience in vulnerable adolescents is limited and there are few examples of areas in the UK which have implemented resilience building interventions in an integrated fashion across a local population.

This talk covered a pilot programme (Newham HeadStart) in Newham, London which has sought to develop such an approach through implementing a number of evidence based resilience interventions into practice across the population. It focused on challenges which have been encountered in doing so and some of the lessons for implementation of such preventative interventions.

Dr Simon Munk, MA, MB BChir, Emotional Resilience lead, UCLPartners

Child DNAs: children and young people who miss healthcare appointments. Findings from a scoping review and mapping study with a qualitative component

Presentation (PDF)

By Helen Roberts

Wednesday 8th July 2015

Developing a casemix classification for CAMHS: Results from the CAMHS Payment Systems Project

Presentation (PDF)

Wednesday 13th May 2015

Abstract: Funding and payment systems are contentious issues within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), as they are in the NHS in general. There is evidence of severe underfunding of some CAMH services, as well as of wide regional variations in funding. The CAMHS Payment Systems project was commissioned to develop a casemix classification for CAMHS, with the aim of informing efforts to achieve a fairer distribution of resources. The classification may help services to better understand their patient population and to monitor the appropriateness of treatment provided for different types of children and young people.

Speaker bio: Dr Peter Martin is Lead Statistician in the Evidence-Based Practice Unit at the Anna Freud Centre & University College London, and since July 2013 has led the data analysis in the CAMHS Payment Systems Project. He also teaches research methods and statistics within the AFC & UCL Postgraduate Studies programme.

Participatory research - a luxury or necessity?

Wednesday 22nd April 2015

Abstract: Key reports have highlighted the importance of strong partnerships between individuals, health, local authority and the voluntary sector to develop an integrated approach to tackle health inequalities. When developing interventions it is suggested that taking a collaborative, participatory approach, is most effective. This talk will discuss the differences and similarities in these approaches to research and show how to use these approaches.

Speaker bio: Professor Monica Lakhanpaul is a Professor of Integrated Child Health at the Institute of Child Health and Program Director for the Children and Young People’s theme for UCL partners Academic Health Science Network and Deputy Theme lead for the children and young people’s North Thames Clahrc.

Learning from CORE Measurement: Reflections on Two Decades of Data

Presentation (PDF)

By John Mellor-Clark

Wednesday 25th February

Abstract: Since its launch in 1998 the original CORE Outcome Measure has been adopted and adapted widely, culminating in a suite of measurement tools that are now used extensively across the UK and Europe. Naturally, such extensive use of a single measurement suite has resulted in a huge wealth of data both empirical and experiential. In this pragmatic retrospective, John will reflect on key findings in relation to implementing routine outcome measurement (ROM) and the use and potential abuse of resultant data for informing practice development. Specific topics that the seminar will cover include: CORE values; practitioner resistance to ROM; CORE outcome profiles; and the limitations of a CORE approach. Conceptually, the seminar is designed to have appeal to a wide range of practitioners working across a breath of client populations and carrying attitudes to routine measurement that represents a continuum of common feeling.

Speaker bio: John has been engaged in the evaluation of UK psychological therapies and counselling for the past 25 years. Originally trained as an organisational psychologist, his special interest in quality assurance in healthcare has led him to regularly publish and present on a range of topics such as best practice development, service quality benchmarking and the introduction of management and practitioner mentoring. Through the mid 1990's John helped develop the CORE System as the first UK standardised quality evaluation system for psychological therapy.

EBPU Seminar: Interpreting the Dodo Bird: Speculations about a mechanism of disease and the mechanism of cure

Presentation (PDF)

By Peter Fonagy

Wednesday 28th January 2015

Abstract: Whilst it is reassuring to know that many manualised treatments for mental disorders appear to be effective, it is also challenging, in that each of these therapies have specific theoretical frames, unique sets of techniques, and systematically exclude or even proscribe treatment components that are proposed as essential in other treatment modalities.

There can be little doubt that intellectually and conceptually this is an intolerable state of affairs, and policymakers have every right to demand that the field gets serious about what the necessary and sufficient components of evidence-based treatments should be. This presentation will try to create a framework for understanding the nature of severe and enduring non-psychotic mental disorder, particularly borderline personality disorder, which may be responsive to various modalities of evidence-based therapies.

More importantly, it is suggested that components of a treatment considered ‘critical’ or ‘essential’ by therapists may actually be epiphenomenal, with the real mechanism of change accounted for by processes where we are not looking, outside the consulting room.

Speaker bio: Professor Peter Fonagy OBE is Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre and Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and head of the department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London.

EBPU Seminar: IPT-A: What does it do and how does it do it?

Presentation (PDF)

By Roslyn Law

Wednesday 10th December 2014

Abstract: Interpersonal Psychotherapy was developed as a treatment for depression in the late 1960s (Klerman, Weissman et al, 1984) and was modified for use with adolescents with depression in the late 1990s (Mufson, Weissman et al 1999). It was included in the NICE guidelines for depression in 2005 and this year has been added to the programme of post-graduate training in Children and Young People’s IAPT. So good was the fit that the question was posed, “Would CYP IAPT have been forced to invent IPT-A if someone hadn’t already done it?” This points not only to the evidence base that supports the use of IPT-A but also the process factors that promote collaboration and participation, key features of the drive towards service transformation in CAMHS.

This seminar will provide an overview of how IPT-A works and the evidence base supporting its use. It will also look towards current discussions about the mechanisms of change that operate within this approach and will invite the audience to join in thinking around current plans to explore questions of 'what and how' with the increasing number of young people who now have access to this approach in the UK.

Speaker bio: Dr Roslyn Law is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Chair of IPTUK, Honorary Senior Lecture at UCL, and National Lead for IPT in IAPT.

EBPU Seminar: What is the future for CAMHS?

By Miranda Wolpert

Wednesday 19th November 2014

Abstract: There is unprecedented government and media attention on the “crisis” in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). This seminar considers the current state of CAMHS and examines if there is a need for a radical shift in both professional and public understanding of the role and remit of child mental health services if we are to move from crisis to solution.

Speaker bio: Miranda Wolpert is Head of Programme for Service Development and Evaluation at the Anna Freud Centre, Director of the Evidence Based practice Unit (EBPU) and Chair of the CAMHS Outcome Research Consortium (CORC).

EBPU Seminar: MOMO: Using digital tech to improve communication and decision making 

Presentation (PDF)

By Joe Roberson

Wednesday 22nd October 2014, 17.15

Abstract: This seminar will explore how Mind of My Own (MOMO), the UK's first self-advocacy app is being used by young people to express their views.

We’ll look at:

Origins – how the children’s rights, advocacy and participation movement is an ally in improving decision making

Design – how to involve young people in a way that leads to a better end product

Implementation – the challenges of delivering a new innovation to enthusiastic workers within a restrictive system

Speaker bio: Joe is co-founder of Mind Of My Own, the UK’s first self-advocacy app. He also helps charities and social enterprises to fund, build and deliver trusted, user-centred and digitally savvy services.

EBPU Seminar: The Next Step Cards: A Goal Based Outcomes resource

Presentation (PDF)

By Fiona Pender

Wednesday 24th September 2014

Abstract: The Next Step cards are a resource jointly developed by CAMHS clinicians, young service users and carers designed to support engagement, the use of goal based outcomes and patient-centred care in CAMHS. The cards were “Highly Commended” at the 2012 Health Service Journal Awards in the Patient-Centredness Category.

CAMHS clinicians are expected to use routine outcome measures with young people, including goal based outcomes. However many clinicians find it difficult to identify appropriate CAMHS goals with young people. The Next Step Cards are a CAMHS resource to support communication and goal setting in a patient-centred way. 

The seminar will outline how the cards were developed in partnership with service users through graphic facilitation and will demonstrate examples of how they can be used to engage young people with CAMHS and set and review goals in a patient-centred way. A recent evaluation of the cards will be presented as well as future plans for an online resource.

For more information please see Next Step Cards website

Speaker bio: Dr Fiona Pender is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Director of Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Wirral Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.

EBPU Seminar: Shared (?) Decision-Making in young people's mental health care

Presentation (PDF)

By Kate Martin

Wednesday 24th September 2014

Abstract: This seminar will explore shared decision-making with young people using mental health services.

In many areas of health, such as chronic healthcare and adult mental health care, shared decision-making is increasingly advocated as a key way of enabling people to be more involved in decisions about their care, treatment and support. However, this is relatively new and unexplored in children and young people’s mental health care. 

This seminar will explore questions such as:

  • What is SDM in young people’s mental health care and what are the key benefits?
  • What are key principles that underpin SDM? What is ‘shared’ in shared decision making?
  • What are the challenges and contradictions of SDM for children and young people? How is SDM affected by the ways we think about childhood, youth and mental health?
  • How can we make the real change required to engage young people as partners in decisions about their mental health care?

Speaker bio: Kate is the director of Common Room consulting Ltd., which works to connect the experience and expertise of children, young people, practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

EBPU Seminar: Spheres of Wellbeing. Technology to Promote DBT Skills Practice and Mental Wellbeing

Presentation

By Anja Thieme

Wednesday 16th April 2014

Abstract: This seminar introduces the Spheres of Wellbeing, which are a set of three artefacts developed to assist young adults in the learning and practice of important therapeutic skills informed by Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT).

The artefacts encompass the:

  • Mindfulness Sphere - designed to have the appearance of a crystal ball that incorporates technology to assess and reflect the heartbeat of a person touching it through colourful lights that fade-in and -out with every beat
  • Calming Sphere - a non-digital bead bracelet that reflects the concept of worry beads
  • Identity Sphere - takes the form of a leather purse that safely encases technology for the playback of personalized videos on a screen that allow the person to connect to positive and meaningful things in their lives.

EBPU Seminar: Blunt Instruments: Using Death Rates to Measure Quality of Care

Presentation

By Paul Taylor

Wednesday 12th February 2014

Abstract: The Francis Report has focussed media attention on the failings of hospitals and on the use of statistics to detect them. This talk considers challenges involved in this endeavour. The focus of the talk is not on the detail of the statistical analysis but the use that is made of statistics by policy makers and the media.

EBPU Seminar: Public mental health: Opportunities for action

Presentation

By Jonathan Campion

Wednesday 29th January 2014

Abstract: Jonathan will outline the different elements of public mental health which include intelligence on population level of mental disorder and wellbeing, levels of risk factors for mental disorder and protective factors for mental health, as well as coverage of effective interventions to treat mental disorder, prevent mental disorder and promote mental health. Such information enables estimation of the level, impact and costs of unmet need for treatment, prevention and promotion. Since only a minority of people with mental disorder receive any intervention while implementation of evidence based interventions to prevent mental disorder and promote mental health is largely absent, such information can both inform local strategic development and commissioning of public mental health interventions. Jonathan will include examples of how application of such intelligence has impacted upon commissioning.

Speaker bio: Jonathan is Director of Population Mental Health at UCLPartners and Visiting Professor of Population Mental Health at University College London. He is also Director for Public Mental Health and Consultant Psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is Special Advisor on Mental Health Strategy and Policy at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and part of the Joint Commission Panel for Mental Health where he has written commissioning guidance on public mental health and contributed to other commissioning guidance. Between 2008 and 2011, Jonathan was policy advisor and public mental health evidence lead at the Department of Health. During this time, he contributed to two cross government mental health strategies, a public mental health strategy and the public health white paper as well as work with the LSE to estimate savings from a range of public mental health interventions. He currently represents the Department of Health on a European Union Joint Action on Mental Health and Wellbeing.

EBPU Seminar: Pesky Gnats! Delivering child friendly in-session computer game interventions for young people

Presentation

By Gary O'Reilly

Wednesday 4th December 2013

Abstract: We face many challenges in delivering effective CBT interventions for children. These include:

(a) how do we translate the complex adult oriented ideas of CBT into a child friendly format? and;

(b) how do we ensure the integrity of the CBT interventions we deliver to children as we increase their availability through a more diverse range of mental health professionals? 

This talk will describe the potential that technology assisted approaches to delivering CBT have for resolving both of these issues. It will describe Pesky Gnats! a uniquely designed computer game that children play in session with a mental health professional. As the child and therapist progress together through the different levels of the game the young person learns about the relationship between thinking, feeling, and behaviour; the effects of negative automatic thinking; thought monitoring; cognitive restructuring; and how to identify and challenge core beliefs.

During the game the child controls a character who represents them on a visit to an island where they help a world famous explorer called David gNATenborough and his team of investigators. In the game Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs) are described as being like gNATs or little flies that sting you into certain thoughts usually without you noticing. Thought Monitoring becomes gNAT trapping. Cognitive Restructuring becomes gNAT swatting. And understanding Core Beliefs becomes hunting gNATs back to their hives. 

As the narrative of the game unfolds children learn about themselves, gNAT trapping, gNAT swatting, and hunting gNATs back to their hive by helping with experiments devised by David gNATenbourough and his team in the world’s first gNAT lab. Through-out the 6 sessions of the game the young person, their therapist, and game characters continuously interact with each other and have to work together as characters ask questions and set tasks for the young person.

Combining computer game technology with CBT ideas in this user-friendly format ensures the integrity of the delivery of core CBT constructs to the child while the conversations between characters, children and therapists ensures the appropriate individualised application of those constructs to the experience of the young person receiving the intervention.  Further details can be found at www.PeskyGnats.com

Speaker bio: Dr Gary O’ Reilly is a Senior Lecturer/Director of the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology at University College Dublin and Principal Clinical Psychologist at the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin, Ireland.

EBPU Seminar: Reflections on using Framework to analyse qualitative data

Presentation

By Katherine Tyler 

Wednesday 20th November 2013

Abstract: Using data from a process evaluation of a community based intervention for overweight children, Katherine will outline the use of Framework to analyse qualitative data and reflect on its strengths and weaknesses compared with other approaches she has used to analyse qualitative data.

Speaker bio: Katherine is a social scientist with a particular interest in user expertise in the development of effective health and social care interventions, including when the user is a child. She has spent over 10 years working on a range of primary and secondary projects exploring the implementation of health and public health interventions, and now combines this with teaching at City University London.

EBPU Seminar: Transforming Mental Healthcare through Digital

Presentation

Information film showing Support Network and Live Therapy (external link)

Armed Forces information film (external link)

By Jen Hyatt

Monday 14th October 2013

Abstract: This talk will cover the benefits - and the challenges - of delivering mental health care online. Digital services can be transformative for patients and providers, making services available 24/7 and opening opportunities for anonymous peer support, self-management, personal outcomes tracking, and online therapy. Digital services can also lead to significant cost savings.

However, the clinical and logistical challenges can be significant. Jen Hyatt, CEO and founder of multi-award winning digital provider Big White Wall, will discuss the solutions that have worked for the organisation, and reflect on the place of digital services in the next few years.

Speaker bio: Following the completion of her MSc (Distinction) in Social Research Methods Jen became a founding member of the Qualitative Research Unit of the UK National Centre for Social Research. Subsequently she worked in over 20 countries and founded more than 30 social impact organisations internationally. She has held various honorary and Board positions including sitting on the Board of International Samaritans and being the Founder and Honorary President of the Balkan Community Initiatives Fund.

She founded Big White Wall (BWW) in 2007 and now functions as its Chief Executive. bigwhitewall.com is a digital mental health and wellbeing service that works across health, military, education and employer markets in the UK and Australasia, with an increasing global presence. BWW has won numerous awards and was designated a High Impact Innovation by the UK National Health Service in 2013. Jen is a thought and practice leader for utilizing technology for person-centred health and social care.

EBPU Seminar: The importance of social connections for educational attainment: shedding light on ethnic inequalities using social network analysis

Presentation

By Katherine Woolf

Wednesday 18th September 2013

Abstract: In this talk Katherine will explain some of the recent psychological and educational approaches being taken to understand and challenge the widespread problem of academic under-performance in black and minority ethnic groups, especially doctors. In particular, the talk will focus on the use of a novel research method, social network analysis, to understand how “who you know” impacts on “what you know” and maybe even “what you think”, and what psychologists and educators might be able to do with the results.

Speaker bio: Katherine has been a Lecturer in Medical Education and an Honorary Lecturer in Psychology at UCL since 2009. She obtained her PhD in medical education in 2009 after having come to UCL in 2004 as a Research Associate, following a BSc in Psychology at Goldsmith’s College in 2003.

Her main interest is in understanding and improving medical students’ and doctors’ performance. In particular, she wants to know what helps doctors do well, what hinders them, and what can be done to improve their learning and performance, and thus improve patient care.  Katherine believes equality and fairness are vital for effective learning and valid assessment. This belief underlies her core interest, which is understanding how and why medical students and doctors from different ethnic groups have different achievement profiles. Katherine uses a social psychological and a multivariate statistical approach to this problem, investigating the effects of stereotyping on performance, and the influence of social networks on learning and attainment.

Katherine is co-Chair of the UCL Race Equality Group and has a keen interest ininvolving the public in research and teaching. She was UCL's Public Engager of the Year (academic) 2009/10. She is a  Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2011 was elected onto the Association for the Study of Medical Education's Education Research Group. She is an Associate Editor for the journal BMC Medical Education.

EBPU Seminar: Cinema and Psychosis

By Sally Anderson, Vaughan Bell, Gregory Hilton and Dolly Sen

Wednesday 14th August 2013 

Abstract: ‘Cinema and Psychosis’ - a pan-European group of film theorists, filmmakers, psychiatrists, psychologists and neuropsychologists - pioneers research at the interface of cinematic ‘first person’ studies and phenomenological psychiatry.

The underlying concept of Cinema and Psychosis will be presented along with its recent initiative, the Institute of Inner Vision. The Institute places cinema at the centre of an exploration of the subjective experience of psychosis, using film as the language of articulation in the convergence of scientific knowledge and artistic perception. The objective of the Institute is to generate medical insights and celebrate the cinematic work of those with experience of psychiatric conditions.

Founded within the auspices of the London College of Communication at the University of the Arts London, the Institute aims to learn from people with experience of psychosis and disseminate knowledge and the diversity of creativity beyond conventions of the so-called norm.

Filmmakers Gregory Hilton and Dolly Sen, recipients of the Institute’s first film commissions, will screen and introduce their films.

Speaker bios: A science-trained filmmaker Sal Anderson worked as an arachnologist at the Natural History Museum in Paris and as a publisher at the British Library before studying writing and directing at the National Film and Television School.

Sal is currently Reader in Interdisciplinary Science-Art Film at the University of the Arts London, and is a co-founder of Cinema and Psychosis, launching the Institute of Inner Vision earlier this year. Sal has been in receipt of several Wellcome Trust awards and her films have been screened on the BBC, French television and at international film festivals including the Cannes, Rotterdam, Chicago, Toronto and Melbourne film festivals.

Vaughan Bell is a clinical psychologist who works with people who have complex difficulties and psychosis in the NHS. He is also a researcher who investigates the psychology and neuroscience of brain injury, mental distress and psychological impairment and is based at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. In his spare time he is a writer contributing to the national and international press, most commonly as a columnist for The Observer.

Gregory Hilton is a writer and director, deeply passionate about raising awareness of mental illness, and the possible advantages such illnesses may confer. A recent first class honours film graduate, he has variously existed as a small-studio head, touring musician, published poet, and charity worker.

Soon off to take up a placement writing for television, Gregory's work has been screened at the Barbican and his music video work had garnered acclaim within the music press. 

Dolly Sen was born in London in 1970, where she still lives. Her arts work involves being the writer of nine books and several chapters and articles, directing films and plays, performing all over the UK and Europe, and being an exhibiting artist. Dolly also has a very successful arts blog at http://disabilityartsonline.org.uk/dolly_sen_blog

Dolly shares her life with psychosis and PTSD: "I was told I would never amount to anything but would end up in jail or Broadmoor and I believed this and was on my way there when I changed my belief into one of believing I can do anything I want to do. This proves that the mind is an amazing thing; it can drive you mad and inspire you in the same breath. And that you can do anything if you believe you can do it."

Dolly has a website at www.dollysen.com

EBPU Seminar: From 'avoidable' deaths to applying visual models for priority setting

Presentation

By Gwyn Bevan and Mara Airoldi

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 

Abstract: A central problem of healthcare systems funded through taxation or social insurance is to define the package of services within a limited budget. The economic evaluation techniques of Cost-Effectiveness or Cost-Utility Analysis (CEA or CUA) have been proposed as the tools of choice to solve this problem, and metrics such as the Quality Adjusted Life (QALY) have been developed to assess the effectiveness of, or utility generated by, healthcare interventions. These tools are not, however, systematically used by those responsible to allocate healthcare budgets, especially at the local level. We present a socio-technical tool (“Star”) which is pragmatic, yet rigorous. Star is an approach which developed decision conferencing by drawing on five big ideas in applying economics and epidemiology to health care: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA), the Burden of Disease (BoD), ‘avoidable’ mortality, ‘needs assessment’ and Evidence-based medicine (EBM).

Speaker bios: Prof Gwyn Bevan is Professor of Policy Analysis and joint Head of the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His current research includes comparisons of performance of health care and schools across the countries of the UK and developing methods for reducing expenditure on health care for least harm. He is a member of the Department of Health's two advisory groups on resource allocation. He has worked for the National Coal Board, HM Treasury, an economic consultancy and the Commission for Health Improvement; and, as an academic, at Warwick Business School, and the Medical Schools of St Thomas's Hospital and Bristol University.

Ms Mara Airoldi is Research Officer and LSE Fellow in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is interested in developing methods for improving decisions around healthcare priority setting. She studied Economics in Bocconi University (Milan, Italy) and Decision Analysis at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, where she is currently a PhD candidate. She has worked both in the private sector as a journalist and at KPMG; and in the public sector as director for Income the local health authority of Osio Sopra in Italy.

EBPU Seminar: Translating research into practice for socially disadvantaged families: Lessons from a five-year evaluation of a peer-led parenting programme

Presentation

By Crispin Day and Daniel Michelson

Thursday 20th June 2013

Abstract: Over 500 parents from five London Boroughs have participated in parenting groups delivered through Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC). EPEC's innovative peer-led service model involves recruiting and training local parents as "peer facilitators" to deliver a manualised, evidence-based parenting intervention in socially disadvantaged communities. This presentation will focus on a series of studies undertaken by the CAMHS Research Unit to support the development, implementation and dissemination of EPEC as it has become established over the last five years.

We will discuss findings from six studies in particular: (1) a systematic review of parenting interventions and their effects under "real-world" conditions; (2) an evaluation of peer facilitator training outcomes; (3) a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of child and parent outcomes; (4) a qualitative study of peer facilitators' experiences of training, supervision and intervention delivery; (5) a benchmarking study of routinely delivered EPEC parenting groups; and (6) a formative evaluation of a recently adapted version of EPEC that is delivered by and for the parents of teenagers. We will also discuss future directions for EPEC, including potential applications in international, low-resource settings.

The aim is to illustrate how researchers, programme developers, service users and providers can work together to achieve the sustained implementation of accessible, high-quality services for hard-to-reach families.

Speaker bios

Daniel is a clinical psychologist and senior researcher in the CAMHS Research Unit, where he runs a programme of studies focused on the outcomes and processes of mental healthcare for children, young people and their families. He is particularly interested in the development and evaluation of psychological interventions targeting hard-to-reach youth populations. Alongside his research work, Daniel is a member of clinical staff in the Maudsley Hospital’s Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Service for Children and Young People, specialising in cognitive-behavioural therapy. He is also part of the postgraduate teaching faculty at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and leads on user involvement for child psychology services in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Crispin is a clinical psychologist who has worked as a clinician, manager and researcher in adult and child mental health. Within the Centre for Parent and Child Support, he leads the research, development and dissemination of the Family Partnership Model, the Helping Families Programme and Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities. He leads a broad programme at the CAMHS Research Unit to improve the outcomes, quality and efficiency of mental health services for children and families. Crispin has published and lectured widely as well as provided advice to central and local governments across the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

EBPU Seminar: A chance for change: building an outcome monitoring feedback system for outpatient psychotherapy

Presentation / Webinar (external website)

By Kim de Jong

Monday 3rd June 2013

Abstract:  In this lecture Kim de Jong will present her research on routine outcome monitoring feedback in the Netherlands. She will discuss therapist characteristics and how they influence feedback outcomes and will present data from two randomized controlled studies on feedback, in which therapist variables are taken into account. Therapist characteristics that are measured are based on the Conceptualized Feedback Intervention Theory (Riemer & Bickman, 2003).  The results demonstrate that feedback is not effective under all circumstances and therapist factors are important when implementing feedback into clinical practice. Speaker:

Speaker: Kim de Jong (PhD) studied Psychology at the University of Amsterdam and received a master degree in Clinical Psychology and in Psychological Methods. She has worked as a researcher in mental health care for over 12 years and performed studies in a wide variety of patient settings on a great variety of topics, including patient requests, patient needs, satisfaction, dialectical behavioural therapy and brief solution-focused psychotherapy. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on the effectiveness of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) and the role of the therapist in outcome monitoring. She currently works as an Assistant Professor at Leiden University and as a therapist in a group practice in Amsterdam and is a member of the ROM committee of the Dutch Society for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (VGCt) and the Dutch Society for Private Practice Psychotherapists (NVVP) and Associate Editor of the Dutch Journal for Psychotherapy.

EBPU Seminar: Reflections on NICE Guideline development and the challenges for the evaluation of Child Mental Health interventions

PresentationFilm

By Stephen Pilling

Wednesday 1st May 2013

More than half of adult mental health disorders first develop in childhood or adolescence.  Effective treatments for children and young people could have profound implications for the development of adult disorders. Over ten years of development of NICE mental health guidelines revealed a much more limited database of effectiveness than for the treatment of adult disorders.  This seminar discusses the implications that arise from the development of NICE guidelines for child mental health.

EBPU Seminar: CAPA and CYP-IAPT- An Odd Couple or a Marriage Made in Heaven- complimentary, competing or completing?

PresentationFilm

By Ann York and Steven Kingsbury

Wednesday 10th April

The Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) is a service transformation system that has been implemented in many CAMHS teams in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Canada and New Zealand, including adult mental health and learning disability. Over 5,000 staff have been trained. It was developed in Richmond (Ann) and East Herts (Steve) CAMHS - both teams have now run CAPA for many years.  It is informed by demand and capacity theory (The 7 HELPFUL Habits of Effective CAMHS) and has links with Lean Thinking.

CAPA is supported in English policy, the Mental Health and the Productivity Challenge (King’s Fund 2010) and Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP-IAPT) programme.

CAPA is founded on methods that are known to improve outcomes for users. It gives increased clinician job satisfaction, accessibility and service user engagement, clear systems and improved clarity of information for commissioners.

This talk will focus on describing what CAPA is and the links between the 11 Key Components and CYP-IAPT.

EBPU Seminar: Personality and intelligence predictors of educational outcomes

Presentation (PDF)

By Adrian Furnham

Wednesday 13th March 

Personality factors predict a whole range of issues like health and happiness, marital and occupational success as well as personality adjustment and anti-social behaviour. The seminar will cover what individual differences factors predict successes and choices in educational settings. The seminar will be concerned with the relationship between personality and intelligence. It will then consider which and how various of the big five factors predict educational choices (teachers, courses) as well as academic outcomes. The role of trait Neuroticism and Conscientiousness will be highly as particularly salient to understanding many aspects of social behaviour.

EBPU Seminar: Capacity, Competence & Consent: The legal framework for the care and treatment of children and young people

Presentation (PDF)

By Camilla Parker

30th January 2013

EBPU Seminar: Routinely collected CGAS ratings – are they of any use to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services?

Presentation / Film

By Anna Lundh

18th January 2013 

Rating scales and diagnostic instruments have become increasingly important tools in psychiatric care over the past several decades. Using these standardized tools to collect information and evaluate patients enables streamlined evidence-based diagnosis and assessments of functioning. The Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) is a widely used rating scale designed to measure how a child functions psychosocially in daily life. Registration of CGAS ratings in the clinical database Pastill was initiated after a widespread training activity at Child and Mental Health Services in Stockholm. This enabled a study on the effectiveness of child psychiatric treatment by examining the change in psychosocial functioning as measured by CGAS.

The change in CGAS ratings between intake and case closure was investigated for 12,613 patients. CGAS improved during the course of treatment across all diagnostic groups. In the mood disorder group, several psychotherapies were associated with improved outcome whereas medication was not. Treatment-as-usual was found to be less effective than clinical trials have indicated, particularly for the ADHD group, suggesting that results from clinical trials cannot be extrapolated to routine child psychiatric care. Hence, more studies of ADHD and mood disorders are needed to investigate the effectiveness of medication/psychotherapy in regular treatment.

The Pastill data were also linked to Swedish national registers to see whether CGAS ratings at end-of-treatment predict long-term negative outcomes in young adults. To do this, 4,876 patients were followed up prospectively. Patients with CGAS of 60 or lower at end-of-treatment had a moderately increased risk of a criminal conviction and a substantially increased risk for bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder during follow-up compared to patients with CGAS over 60. Low CGAS ratings were not associated with depression, suicide attempt, or substance misuse. Hence, CGAS ratings provide specific long-term prognostic information, and adolescents with CGAS scores below 60 at end-of-treatment should be considered for intensified follow-up.

EBPU Seminar: School-based humanistic counselling: Does it help reduce distress, and if so, how?

By Mick Cooper

6th December 2012

School-based counselling is one of the most prevalent interventions for young people in the UK, with around 70,000-90,000 young people seeing a counsellor each year. But does it lead to any significant reductions in psychological distress and, if so, what are the processes by which it works.  This presentation will review the evidence on the effectiveness of school-based counselling, and then go on to report on new findings on the outcomes of a programme of small-scale RCTs for testing the effectiveness of school-based humanistic counselling: a manualised distillation of school-based counselling practices. Drawing on qualitative and case study data, the talk will also present a model of hypothesised change processes in school-based counselling. The data will be presented in the context of findings from CORC on the prevalence and effectiveness of CAMHS interventions.

EBPU Seminar: Respecting diversity in facilitating and evaluating healthy mental development 

By John Raven

Wednesday 17th October