Therapies team impress international congress
Local NHS teams improving care for adults with mental health issues showcased their groundbreaking work at the World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (WCBCT) conference in Berlin this summer.
The Cambridge Adult Locality Teams at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) sent a group of assistant psychologists and Support Time and Recovery (STR) workers, led by Principal Clinical Psychologist Dr Youngsuk Kim (pictured above), to present a grand total of nine research posters to experts at the international event. The Congress was a spectacular farewell for Youngsuk (centre right), who is moving on to a new post with VA Boston/Harvard Medical School.
Youngsuk said: “I wish my colleagues all the best in their endeavours to spread the excellent and innovative work at CPFT to improve care and recovery pathways. It was fantastic to share our research on a new CBT model for treatment resistant depression, a Compassion Focused Therapy Group, a CBT group for anxiety and depression and Brief Psychological Interventions with the global network of therapy innovators. In my next role I hope to be able to create new links for CPFT to continue sharing best practice.”
CALTs are CPFT’s powerhouse for developing and delivering Brief Psychological Interventions (BPIs) based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for common mental health problems like anxiety and depression. They are building the evidence base for effective interventions, involving people with lived experiences in developing ways to evaluate interventions, training staff and reviewing their experiences of delivering care with these approaches.
Psychological therapy experts at the Congress commended the team on their model for innovative secondary mental health care, which could help ensure people don’t fall through the gaps between primary and secondary care, when working with complex cases to improve recovery.
People receiving care from the team have said they found Brief Psychological Interventions “very good, albeit hard at the beginning, but got progressively better”, “an eye-opening experience” and “I learned really helpful strategies to manage my stress in a healthier fashion”.
CPFT’s Director of Psychological Services Dr Nick Oliver said: “Congratulations to the team for a great reception at this major international conference. It’s great to see our innovative therapies showcased and we are planning to take Brief Psychological Therapies further with training and development abroad."
The team are already planning a symposium on CBT interventions, with the next World Congress in Korea in their sights. They will continue to explore opportunities to work with leading universities and therapy innovators to share best practice, presenting data on how to best use the interventions they have developed.
