Boost for mental health training
THE mental health NHS group that manages the Brooker Centre in Runcorn and provides services across the borough has teamed up with The University Of Salford to run liaison training across the region.
North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said the joint-project was the first of its kind in the UK and aims to boost the skills and knowledge of frontline staff with responsibility for assessing and treating those experiencing distress while in hospital.
Over the next 18 months, 150 staff in accident and emergency departments in Cheshire and across the region will complete a three-month training course run by the university.
Before the courses start in January, listening events will take place find out about what is needed in such roles, and this information will help to shape the content and structure.
Clinical oversight will be provided by North West Boroughs Healthcare’s mental health liaison lead and consultant clinical psychologist Dr Claire Bullen-Foster.
Tuition will happen at Salford university’s counselling and psychotherapy training facilities and clinical simulation suite, which has rooms that looks like hospital wards with real equipment and human patient simulators, which are high-tech electronic mannequins.
Dr Bullen-Foster said: “This exciting partnership will combine our clinical knowledge and skills with The University Of Salford’s expertise in training, enabling us to develop a bespoke, practical programme for all staff across the North West who work in a front-facing A&E mental health liaison role.
“Liaison mental health is a distinct specialism which sits at the interface between physical and mental health.
“The specialised workforce provides assessments and interventions to service users, whilst also supporting non-mental health colleagues within hospitals to understand mental health symptoms and distress within this environment.
“There has been huge national growth and investment in liaison mental health in the past 12 months and more to follow.
“This training will help support the existing and emerging workforce to deliver standardised and improved care to patients.”
Margaret Rowe, the university’s dean of health and society, said: “People with serious mental health problems often make their first point of contact with the NHS – and with those professionals who are able to help them – at hospital A&E departments.
“This vital programme will help ensure they receive the very best care possible.
“We are delighted that experts from the University of Salford will deliver the first training programme of its kind in our purpose-built clinical simulation and counselling and psychotherapy suites, improving the skills of our NHS colleagues performing this crucial role and making a huge difference to the experiences of hundreds of people with mental health problems.”
The 18-month contract was commissioned by Health Education England to run from September 1, 2017, until March 31, 2019.
North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was known as 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust until April 1.