As a skilled, HCPC Registered Art Psychotherapist I am currently based within an NHS In-patient Child and Adolescent Mental Health unit (Tier 4 CAMHS) where I provide group and individual psychotherapy.

I have been employed within the field of CAMHS (voluntary and statutory sectors) for many years. I am in possession of an advanced skill-set and key trainings that I have completed include Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Training and Mentalization Based Therapy- Adolescent (MBT-A) and MBT-Child (MBT-C) training. My roles have included a range of generic team duties, specialist therapeutic assessment and treatment, staff training & consultation, developmental work, and more recently, management, representation and leadership at service level. I am used to working in partnership both within the health board and with a range of external organisations, keeping to tight deadlines to achieve results.

A key professional interest and area of expertise for me has been the promotion and development of staff and service user participation in service design and improvement. I recently enjoyed participating in Applied Human Factors training, which was useful in thinking about some of the projects I am involved with, such as the Clinical Formulation Process review that I have been co-ordinating within my service. This involves a small multidisciplinary group working in partnership to make the formulation pathway more efficient and service-user led.

Also, have been fortunate in having had the opportunity to lead an innovative, evidence based co-production methodology called Experience Based Co-design, (EBCD) within my service (see https://www.pointofcarefoundation.org.uk/resource/experience-based-co-design-ebcd-toolkit/), which resulted in improvements to performance.

Initial tasks in developing the project included submitting a successful application for charitable funds, and then establishing a ResearchNet staff and service user co-production group. The group included staff, parents, carers, and young people with previous experience of using the service. As project lead, I ensured that the methodology was implemented and reviewed in partnership with ResearchNet and with the staff team at each stage.

The experience of leading the EBCD project enabled me to gain a real understanding of the kind of issues that are important to staff and service users, and of the challenges and dynamics involved in introducing new ways of working to existing systems. The methodology involved close consideration of the emotional ‘touch points’ of accessing the service through creation of a safe framework where staff and service users were able to tell the stories of their experience.

Through making a film, the emotional experience of service users became more fully comprehended by the staff group. But it was evident that there were many initial processes that both staff and service users experienced as problematic, and great sensitivity was required in working with the separate groups to enable them to begin relating to one another and discovering commonalities. It was necessary to apply my clinical skills at team level as it became clear that the requirement to develop new ways of working creates challenges for staff. If these are not effectively managed parallel to difficult patient experiences then there is a great potential for staff and service user relationships to become unbalanced, and for existing tensions to be exacerbated.

With the support of colleagues and ResearchNet, I planned, co-ordinated and facilitated a programme of whole team events in order to bring the methodology to a successful conclusion. There was very positive feedback from staff and service users, and a series of straightforward service improvements were identified. As a team we are currently in the process of evaluating these, and I hope to be able to share more about the project and the outcomes through writing it up for publication.